Sambal Badjak
At times, when you’re doing an exotic salad that needs some spice, you just don’t have the time to chop and de-seed little chili peppers. Also - have you ever chopped some and then rubbed your eye. Agony! What you really need is a ready-made dressing to spice up your dishes, including your exotic salads.
These dressings are widely available, but of course it’s nice to make your own. As a base, I’m going to use a jar of regular Sambal Oelek, which is in fact just chopped red chilies, some salt and some oil. It’s used often in Indonesian cooking. The following recipe will match a small 175g jar of sambal. You’ll need a bigger jar to put it back into, by the way.
Peel half a pound of onions and chop them very finely. Use a food processor if you want. Cover the base of a wide frying pan in vegetable oil and lightly brown the onions.
Add the contents of the jar of sambal oelek, or - if you’re a purist - 175 grams of finely chopped red chili peppers (with the pips removed) and a good pinch of salt. Don’t add salt if you use jarred sambal! Also add a small, peeled, raw potato.
Let that simmer for a minute, then add about 3 tbsp of sugar (mix of white and brown), 1/2 a tbsp of vinegar, 1 1/2 tbsp of sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis), a small chunk of laos or a small teaspoon of ground laos and 2 small salam leaves.
Leave all of this to simmer on a very low heat. Add a little bit of water every time it starts to become too dry. When the onion has ‘disappeared’, the paste is done. Remove the potato and salam leaves and put the stuff into a jar. Cool before use and keep refrigerated.
To use this as a dressing, dilute a dollop of sambal with some (neutral) oil or even just water. Use sparingly so you don’t burn your guests - it’s still quite spicy.
