SAMBAL-BAJAK - Fried chili-pepper sambal relish Indonesia is not known to have nuclear weapon capability, but visitors to Djakarta often suspect that if enough Sambal Bajak is put into an artillery shell it will have the same general effect. Indonesian hosts normally warn Westerners that this is ``an acquired taste.''
200 g fresh red hot chilies, chopped coarsely 1 large onion 6 cloves garlic 8 kemiri nuts, chopped fine 50 ml peanut oil 3 ml laos powder 15 ml trasi (dried shrimp paste) 5 ml salt 75 ml tamarind liquid 20 g sugar
(1) Chop the chilies, onion, and garlic in a food pro- cessor. (2) In a small frypan, saute this mixture in oil until well cooked. Do not brown. (3) Add the kemiri nuts, laos, trasi, and salt. Stir and mash until it is well blended. (4) Add the tamarind liquid and sugar; simmer until the oil separates out. (5) Cool, and serve cold.
Laos is a form of ginger. Other names for it are galangal, Java root, galingale, or lengkuas. If you can't find it, use 5 ml of powdered ginger mixed with 1 ml of powdered cin- namon. Trasi is shrimp paste; it can be left out. Tamarind liquid is made by soaking dried tamarind pulp in hot water for 1 hour and then straining. To make 75 ml of tamarind liquid, use 60 ml of pulp and 100 ml of hot water.
Difficulty: easy if you have the ingredients. Time: 30 minutes. Precision: approximate measurement OK.
Brian Reid DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA reid@decwrl.DEC.COM -or- decwrl!reid
Last modified: 9 May 2006 | 2 hits in May 2009 |