This amazing sauce powerhouse is quite tedious to make. However, you can use it for many other dishes that simply require it as the base sauce. Perfect combination to fry with chicken, fish, prawns, and even fried rice! Follow these steps and you will have an amazing stock of ready made sauce to spice up your life!
Homemade Sambal
Ingredients:
1. 500g of onions.
2. 6 whole lemongrass.
3. 10 candlenuts.
4. 200g of Yellow ginger.
5. 200g of Blue Ginger.
6. 20 fresh chillies or you can get 100g of chilli powder.
7. 30g Belacan Prawn Paste. (Usually come in packed blocks)
Instructions:
1.
Soak the onions in water before you are ready to peel the skin off.
2.
Cut the lemongrass close to the end. Peel off a few of the top layers, we only want the tender ones inside.
3.
After which, cut everything into smaller pieces for easier blending.
4. Add the pieces into the blender and blend till it becomes a fine paste. Do not forget to add some water for the paste to blend well!
Tip: I usually use the no.1 marking on my blender to gauge my water levels. Refer to the image on the portion.
It should look like this!
5. Heat up a pot (preferably non-stick) that is deep enough for the blended paste. Add 10 tbsp oil. Sambal is meant to be oily, and this means no oil needed during its usage when cooking other dishes!
6. When the oil is hot in the pot, add in the sambal. Stir and mix well.
Tip: There might be certain times where the oil will splatter, so do try to cover the pot at all times just in case!
7. Cook with medium fire for 1/2hr, making sure to stir in between to ensure the sambal is thoroughly cooked.
Tip: The colour of the sambal will change from a bright yellow to a more brownish colour.
8. When the time is up, you should be able to see that the sambal is well cooked, with a little oil on top. Add 1 tbs salt into it and stir. And your Sambal base sauce is done!
Tip: It is therefore already very tasty, and you hardly need to season when using the sauce to cook dishes. If need be, add some sugar and a dash of soy sauce to taste.
9. When storing, simply cool it off in a proper container and freeze it in the freezer. It will be able to last for months. Anytime you require sambal sauce, take out to defrost for 1/2- 1 hr and spoon out your required amount before placing the rest back in the freezer.