Sambal — Recipes

There are literally hundreds of different sambal in Indonesia, some are raw, some are fried. Below a modest collection of sambal I want to have in my repertoire.

Sambal bajak pedes seger banget

Badjak means ‘ pirate’ but in a sambal it means the sambal is fried. Pedes is ‘spicy’ and seger banget means ‘very fresh’.

50 gr green small chili’s
10 pieces of red small chili’s
3 pieces of garlic
1 jeruk limau (a type of small lime)
tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Chicken stock powder
A little micin =MSG (optional)

Clean the chili’s and make a small cut to expose the inside. Fry the chilies and garlic in hot oil for a short while. Just before they start to brown. Take out the chilis and garlic. Mash the chilis and garlic together with salt, sugar, chicken stock powder and MSG in a cobek. Add a little of the hot oil and mix. Finish with squeezing some jeruk limau over the sambal. Serve in de cobek.

Sambal Matah

A raw sambal from Bali. Simply mix the below ingredients.

3 shallots, peeled and sliced in half length-way, then finely crosswise sliced.
7 rawit (bird’s eye chilies), sliced.
3 stalks lemon grass, only take the white and tender part, bruised and finely sliced.
1 tsp salt.
black pepper.
5 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil.

Add for a more luxurious version:

Kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced.
1 tsp roasted trassi, finely grated.
Freshly squeezed kaffir lime juice.
Grated kaffir lime skin.
Kecicang. If you add the flower buds it is called "Sambal Matah Kecicang"