Sambal matah — Recipes

An Indonesian table typically consists of lauk (fish, meat, egg, or other source of protein), sayur (vegetable), sambal, krupuk, and rice. Below is a mix of recipes from Java and Bali. Prep time was well over four hours, mainly because every dish needed a fairly complicated bumbu spice mixture, which had to be ground to a fine paste in a cobek. For rice we made lontong, which needs to boil for a pretty long time, at least one hour! To cool hang the plastic bag somewhere so any remaining moist can drip out. This was a collaboration with somebody who knows the Indonesian kitchen better than I.

No meal is complete without krupuk. Freshly fried krupuk is fragrant.

Sambal Matah Kecicang Khas Bali

This raw sambal is simply made by slicing the ingredients very finely and then pouring hot oil on top of it. I used pure coconut oil, about 5 tablespoons.

The ingredients:
Shallot or Indonesian onion (they are tiny)
Red chili pepper, for color green chilli pepper should be used as well.
Red lombok
Lemon grass
Daun jeruk purut (kaffir lime leaf)
Kecicang
Half a teaspoon of trassi
Lime juice
Salt
Black pepper

Pindang Base Lalah Khas Bali

This recipe is quite simple. Make a bumbu spice paste of the following ingredients:

Shallot
Garlic
Red chili pepper (rawit)
Kemeri nut
Piece of kencur
Piece of turmeric
1 tomato
1 lombok

For this recipe two small pindang mackerel were used. Remove the head and fish bones. This is fish preserved in pindang style. Fry the pieces in oil until golden brown.

Next fry the spice mixture in oil, using the oil you just fried the fish in enhances the flavour. Add the fried fish and some water. The recipe said: add a salam leaf, I accidentally added a kaffir lime leaf. Fry until the sauce is reduced and the fish is ‘dry’.

Asinan Sayur Betawi Bumbu Kacang

Asinan are pickled vegetables, as the word ‘asin’ implies, in salty brine. We made a version popular in Jakarta. The brine was made by boiling water (about 500 ml) and adding palm sugar and tamarind (sweet and sour) and a spice mixture made of:

3 lombok
6 small spicy chilli peppers
60 gram fried peanuts
3 cloves of garlic
5 gram dried shrimp soaked in hot water

For vegetables we used cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot and cucumber. Tofu is also a great option. Shred the vegetables finely and pour the liquid over the vegetables. Add some whole peanuts before serving.

Satay ayam

I have made satay ayam and the dark sweet peanut sauce quite often. You can read the recipe here: Homemade sateh sauce from Java