Homemade Special Sambal

It had been a while since the last time I prepared spicy dish. We started to miss those hot tingling sensation on the tongue that get all your sweat glands working hard. Yes, more sweat, more 'shiok', more addictive! I always ended up with sausages lips (lips so swollen until look like the shape of sausages) after finishing any worthy mentioned sambal.

This pungent, sweet, sour and hot sambal is best served with a bowl of piping hot rice. If you happen to be preparing nasi lemak, this is the prefect accompaniment that you could ever get. With this sambal alone, it is enough to get you finish up a whole bowl of rice and still asking for more.

In Singapore, chilli/ sambal are usually served free from almost every restaurant that you are dining at. Sometimes, the taste of the sambal can become the main attraction of the restaurant.

Are you aware that spiciness levels can be measured? A Scoville scale is used to show the pungency (spicy heat) level of chilli peppers, reflected in Scoville heat units, a function of capsaicin concentration. Are you ready to challenge (or rather, get tortured by??) the chilli pepper at the top of the list yet? That is assuming if you could get a hand on it!

Homemade Special Sambal

Ingredients

• 25g dried chillies, deseeded and soaked for an hour
• 40g dried shrimp, washed
• 4g belacan (shrimp paste)
• 6 shallots, sliced and fried until crispy
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 70g assam (the weight shown is seed inclusive), discard the seed and dissolve in 3/4 cup water
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 cup ikan bilis (dried anchovy), washed, dried, and fried until crispy
• 5 tbsp cooking oil

Cooking Directions

1. Drain the dried chillies, and blend the chillies in a food processor. Set aside.
2. Blend the dried shrimp in the food processor.
3. In a pan, heat 3 tablespoons of cooking oil. Add chillies and stir fry until fragrant.
4. In a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Add dried shrimp and stir fry until crispy and fragrant.
5. Add the dried shrimp, belacan, shallot, sugar and assam juice into (3). Simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Add slice onion and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. Serve hot. Add crispy fried ikan bilis just before serving.

秘制山芭

主料

• 25克干辣椒去籽，浸泡一小时
• 40克虾米，洗净
• 4克马来栈
• 6葱，切片油炸酥脆为止
• 1汤匙糖
• 阿萨姆70克（显示的重量为含种子重量），丢弃种子，并溶于3/4杯水
• 1个洋葱，切片
• 1杯江鱼仔，洗净，油炸酥脆为止
• 5汤匙食用油

做法

1. 把浸泡辣椒干的水倒掉，辣椒干用搅拌器搅成泥。搁置。
2. 虾米用搅拌器打碎。
3. 取一个锅，热3汤匙油。加入辣椒翻炒爆香。
4. 再取一个锅，烧热2汤匙食用油。加入虾米煸炒至酥脆香。
5. 把虾米，马来栈，葱，糖和阿萨姆汁倒入（3）。文火煮2分钟。
6. 添加洋葱片，煮5分钟。
7. 趁热享用。在食用前加入香酥江鱼仔。