SAMBAL TERASI
INDONESIA
Sambal is to Indonesians and Malaysians what harissa is to North Africans, an essential chili paste that is used as a sauce or dip as well as in cooking—except that there are endless variations on sambal. There is, however, a problem with making sambal in the West, and that is that the main type of mildly hot chilies used in Indonesia, known as lombok, are not easily available abroad. You can approximate the flavor by sourcing mild red chilies or making a mix of both mild and hot, remembering that the sauce should not be fiery and is used more like a condiment, to be eaten with boiled rice and/or curries and to flavor soups. I have even used red bell pepper and one or two bird’s eye chilies to add some heat. In Indonesia, you can watch women in the markets pulling the stems off the chilies so that cooks can grind them straightaway without having to trim them. And even today, and almost universally in Indonesia, Indonesian cooks grind the ingredients for sambal in a large wide stone or earthenware mortar using a horizontal stone or wooden pestle. In the three weeks I was there, I saw only one cook using a food processor. All the others whom I met and watched ground the sambal ingredients in a mortar with a pestle. Serve this sambal with plain or fried rice, or a curry of your choice. You can also serve it with grilled meat or fish.
MAKES ABOUT ⅔ CUP (160 G)
5 mild red chilies, trimmed
1 bird’s eye chili, trimmed
1 small shallot, peeled
1 medium tomato (3½ ounces/100 g), quartered
1 tablespoon shrimp paste (terasi)
2 teaspoons chopped palm sugar or brown sugar
Sea salt
Juice of 3 limes
Put the chilies, shallot, tomato, shrimp paste, and palm sugar in a food processor and process until you have a slightly textured paste. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Add salt to taste and the lime juice. Mix well. Store in an airtight glass jar in the refrigerator where it will keep for a couple of days.