Sambal
Created | Updated Oct 20, 2010
There is one word which describes it perfectly: <B><font color= "red">HOT</B><font color="white">.<BR/><BR/>
Well actually this is not entirly true. Sambals can have various forms. The most common known sambals are those in the little jars in chinese/indonesian restaurant. These are the chilipepper sauces.
They come in two variants: the plain sambal and the sambal goreng.
Goreng can be translated with fried, so the difference need no explanation.<BR/><BR/>
However not all sambals are chilipeppersauces but they all contain some chilipeppers or lomboks. In indonesia there are a lot of different chilipeppers varying from those who you can eat pure, however this is not recommended to the average 'blanda' or whitey ;-) to the 'rawit' kind (don't make the mistake eating this one pure!).<BR/><BR/>
In fact there are more than 100 different sambals each tasting different. Some are a sauce to spice up a dish, others are a dish themselves.<BR/><BR/>
The most simple sambal is sambal oelek. <BR/>
The recipe: cut 10 lomboks very fine and mix with 1 teaspoon salt.<BR/>
This is the typical red sauce in those little jars.<BR/>
A sambal dishes I love is sambal goreng dadar. It's not really hot.<BR/>The recipe: Scramble 4 eggs with salt and pepper and mix parsley and let this stand for 15 minutes until the airbubbles from the scrambling are gone. Bake it in a large frying pan and make both sides nice golden brown. Make a roll out of it and let it cool down. When cold cut into 1 cm broad slices. Now mix 1 onion cut into small pieces with some garlic, a chilipepper, a teaspoon laos, some salt and pepper. Fry this mix. After a minute add a teaspoon 'javan sugar' or brown sugar if you can get none, some sereh (lemongrass), a small piece santen (condensed coconutmilk) and 1 deciliter water. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Now mix the slices eggroll through this mix and serve with rice and a vegtabledish. Be sure you have at least one sambal sauce on the table so people can spice up the meal as much as they like. I usually have about 3 types of sambal on the table at dinner: the sambal oelek to spice things up, sambal goreng manis (a bit-sweet fried sambal. not so hot) and a bottle thai sauce (this is not hot at all but sweet and not fried). It depends on the dish and my mood which I will add.<BR/><BR/>
If you really like indonesian food try a dutch invention called 'rice table'. It is a combination of about 10 to 20 dishes. Often 4 or more of these dishes are sambal gorengs. It's a real treat. In Holland all indonesian restaurants have 3 or 4 different rice tables on the menu. It's a great way to explore indonesian food.<BR/><BR/><BR/>
Salat makan .... <BR/><BR/>
B.T.W. Aliens ate my fish! <img src="http://mgnirrep.webhostme.com/aliensatemyfish.gif">
Well actually this is not entirly true. Sambals can have various forms. The most common known sambals are those in the little jars in chinese/indonesian restaurant. These are the chilipepper sauces.
They come in two variants: the plain sambal and the sambal goreng.
Goreng can be translated with fried, so the difference need no explanation.<BR/><BR/>
However not all sambals are chilipeppersauces but they all contain some chilipeppers or lomboks. In indonesia there are a lot of different chilipeppers varying from those who you can eat pure, however this is not recommended to the average 'blanda' or whitey ;-) to the 'rawit' kind (don't make the mistake eating this one pure!).<BR/><BR/>
In fact there are more than 100 different sambals each tasting different. Some are a sauce to spice up a dish, others are a dish themselves.<BR/><BR/>
The most simple sambal is sambal oelek. <BR/>
The recipe: cut 10 lomboks very fine and mix with 1 teaspoon salt.<BR/>
This is the typical red sauce in those little jars.<BR/>
A sambal dishes I love is sambal goreng dadar. It's not really hot.<BR/>The recipe: Scramble 4 eggs with salt and pepper and mix parsley and let this stand for 15 minutes until the airbubbles from the scrambling are gone. Bake it in a large frying pan and make both sides nice golden brown. Make a roll out of it and let it cool down. When cold cut into 1 cm broad slices. Now mix 1 onion cut into small pieces with some garlic, a chilipepper, a teaspoon laos, some salt and pepper. Fry this mix. After a minute add a teaspoon 'javan sugar' or brown sugar if you can get none, some sereh (lemongrass), a small piece santen (condensed coconutmilk) and 1 deciliter water. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Now mix the slices eggroll through this mix and serve with rice and a vegtabledish. Be sure you have at least one sambal sauce on the table so people can spice up the meal as much as they like. I usually have about 3 types of sambal on the table at dinner: the sambal oelek to spice things up, sambal goreng manis (a bit-sweet fried sambal. not so hot) and a bottle thai sauce (this is not hot at all but sweet and not fried). It depends on the dish and my mood which I will add.<BR/><BR/>
If you really like indonesian food try a dutch invention called 'rice table'. It is a combination of about 10 to 20 dishes. Often 4 or more of these dishes are sambal gorengs. It's a real treat. In Holland all indonesian restaurants have 3 or 4 different rice tables on the menu. It's a great way to explore indonesian food.<BR/><BR/><BR/>
Salat makan .... <BR/><BR/>
B.T.W. Aliens ate my fish! <img src="http://mgnirrep.webhostme.com/aliensatemyfish.gif">
