Sambal

Name: Sambal
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Makes about 350g
Ingredients: 10 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes; 40g bird’s eye chillies, roughly chopped; Thumb-size piece galangal or ginger, peeled and roughly chopped; 8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 8 small shallots, roughly chopped; 1 lemongrass stalk, outer layer discarded and roughly chopped; 2 tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar; 1 tbsp tamarind paste; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 1 tsp belacan shrimp paste (available from https://www.souschef.co.uk/products/indonesian-belachan?variant=16899810197562&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiZqhBhCJARIsACHHEH_Y0T3gpSaGDCT9rP6dm8GRgP8PuRqgd6nXF2voQEej_cYsPs2vVhEaAszlEALw_wcB noopenerSous Chef); 50ml vegetable oil

By: Tom Shingler
Head of food, delicious.

Published: 3 Apr 23
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Test kitchen approved

Sambal is a fragrant chilli paste used as a condiment primarily in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore – and has countless variations. This one is a great all-rounder with plenty of heat, aromatic flavour, sweetness and savoury depth.

Try this sambal recipe in Jeremy Pang’s nasi goreng recipe, or his Mamak fried noodles.

Makes about 350g
Hands-on time 30 min

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Ingredients

10 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
40g bird’s eye chillies, roughly chopped
Thumb-size piece galangal or ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
8 small shallots, roughly chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, outer layer discarded and roughly chopped
2 tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp belacan shrimp paste (available from Sous Chef)
50ml vegetable oil

Method

Drain the dried chillies and put in a food processor with the fresh chillies, galangal, garlic, shallots, lemongrass and sugar. Pulse into a paste, scraping down the sides as needed – you want it as smooth as it’ll go but it will still have a coarse texture.
Add the tamarind, fish sauce, shrimp paste and soy sauce and whizz again to combine.
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the paste and gently fry for 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until it thickens and turns jammy. Keep cooking until the paste begins catching on the bottom of the pan. Taste and make sure you’re happy with the balance of flavours, adding more tamarind to make it sourer, palm sugar to make it sweeter or soy sauce to make it saltier.
Leave to cool, then transfer to an airtight container and keep in the fridge.

Recipe from March 2023 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 71kcals
Fat: 4.3g fat (0.3g saturated)
Protein: 1.2g
Carbohydrates: 6.5g (4.6g sugars)
Fibre: 0.9g
Salt: 1g

Sambal

Ingredients

Method

Nutrition

delicious. tips

Jeremy Pang’s nasi goreng

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Sambal

Ingredients

Method

Nutrition

delicious. tips

Or, how about...?

Jeremy Pang’s nasi goreng

Mamak fried noodles

Indonesian pork satay

More to discover