Sambal

This is one of my hubby's favourite thang to have in the fridge, he eats it in all kinds of fashion that he could think off, weather its with his instant noodles, plain rice, cracker, toast you name it he would devour it! I only make this occasionally cause the amount of oil needed for it to be nice is insane! You could do it a little more healthily by minimising the oil, but my mantra here is 'its all or nothing'.



Shrimp paste or belacan is the essential ingredient here, I've never ever cooked any dishes with belacan when i was in Malaysia, there's just simply no need too, but when i came over to NZ, i realised a lot of our favourite Malaysian fares uses it and i stumbled upon this particular brand (Trachang Brand) here that is just ooohhhhhhh so goood...mum says its not available in Malaysia though. I guess other brands will just be as nice though, just got to play around with the amount to use.


Ingredients:-
-3 giant onions (that's what i get here in the land of the giants)
-1 small handful of dried anchovies aka ikan bilis
-3 tbsp of dried shrimps
-3 tbsp of shrimp paste
-4 tbsp of sugar - lessen if you don't desire your sambal to be sweet
-2 tbsp of chilli powder-phhphhh 2 tbsp are for babies, go for 4? It'll open up your sweat glands
-salt to taste (no salt needed with my belancan here)
-OIL-should cover all ingredients in the wok by at least a centimetre


Place everything into the blender and chop it finely, then heat oil in the wok and saute everything till soft and well mixed. Add seasonings to taste.


p/s: the way everyone likes their sambal is very different, so adjust the amount of belacan,sugar, chilli powder and salt to your liking.


Tip: Do not overfry the belacan as the color will become very dark and unattractive. Also do not be tempted to add too much anchovies too as this will cause the belacan to be very chewy.