Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Spicy Eggplant (Terung Balado)

The first time I tasted sambal Balado was from an Indonesian restaurant called Restaurant Malindo at Sungai Wang Plaza. It was so good especially when they top it on crispy fried fish. Balado is basically an Indonesian sambal paste. I learned making balado many years ago from our family helper. Basic ingredients for balado are shallots, red chilies, tomato, lime juice, sugar and salt. This chili paste is really good and goes well with fried fish or any type of meat dish. For today I used it on roasted eggplants. Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetable. If you love eggplant and like spicy food this is the dish for you.

Ingredients:

2 Asian eggplant
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 shallots, finely chopped
2 fresh red tomato - chopped
2 tablespoon chili paste (sambal Oelek)
1 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp salt
juice of a lime
1/2 cup water

½ cup fried anchovies - optional

1. Cut the eggplant into 1” length. Put the eggplant into a baking sheet and drizzle some olive oil and salt to it. Bake them in a pre-heated 375 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes, or until they are soft but not mushy.
2. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat up about 2 tbsp oil. Stir fry garlic and shallots until fragrant and lightly brown. Add in chili paste and chopped tomatoes. Stir fry for a minute and add in the water. Simmer until the sauce reduces to half.
3. Add in salt and sugar, lime juice and lastly add in the fried anchovies. Stir until well mix. Pour the sauce over the eggplant and serve immediately.

Note: Besides baking the eggplant you can always fried the eggplant in hot oil for a few minutes .

17 comments:

food-4tots said...

This dish looks so appetizing! It goes well with a bowl of rice. Yummy! It is a great and healthy idea to roast the eggplants. I will try it out next time.

CY said...

Hi Kitchen Snippets

I love Balado sauce, especially over fried fish! But as a lover of eggplant this will go down a treat! Thanks for the tip of baking the eggplant instead, I find eggplants soak up alot of oil if you fry them.

Zue Murphy said...

Gert, the sambal look good. Very nice red color too.

Anonymous said...

I'm new to your blog and new to cooking. I love your simple & tasty asian dishes. Just what I need having 3 picky eaters. For a start, I've tried your honey sesame chicken & butter chicken. Delicious! Thank you so so much for sharing. From : mommy of 3 - Selangor, Malaysia.

Finla said...

That indeed looks spicy and so yummy.

mycookinghut said...

Looks hot and spicy!!! :)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Normally I know to stir fry eggplant only, this dish look really yummy, I will sure try to cook one day since I love spicy food.

Cindy Khor said...

it seems that nowadays people tend to bake their eggplants before frying them to prevent it from getting soggy. kudos to the person who thought up this idea.

Little Corner of Mine said...

Balado sauce? Is it one that we can buy from a bottle? My reader, Sharon told me to keep the color of the eggplant, briefly cooked it in a pot of water with a little sugar. I need to try her method. :) Sharing it with you since I know you asked it before.

ICook4Fun said...

Food 4 tots, yea baking it is much healthier.

CY, if you eat this sauce with fried fish just omit the fried anchovies. I too like it over fried fish :)

Zue, the vibrant red comes from the tomatoes I used.

Mom of 3, thanks for your kind words. Glad that you tried some of my recipes.

Happy cook, if you like eggplant you should try out this dish :)

Leemei, actually this dish is not spicy when you add tomatoes to it.

Emile, yes do try out this dish :)

Cindy, yes baking it is much healthier than frying it.

LCOM, I think you can get this sauce from bottle but why buy when its so easy to make,right :) Thanks for the tips. I will try it out the next time I cook eggplant again :)

Anonymous said...

My boyfriend cooked this for dinner tonight and I was totally stunned that he came up with such a delicious meal! Of course then I looked at foodgawker and saw the exact same thing ;) Thanks for inspiring him, it was great!

MamaFaMi said...

Because I am a one 'rajin' lady, I'll just cook the sambal and then put the egg plant in and cook until the egg plants are tender. Tak kuasa buat kerja banyak! Hahaha...

Elin Chia said...

My favourite too! Will try this out mmmm very appetizing, thanks for sharing this balado sambal paste. Jo would love this. Going to make it this weekend when she comes home :)))

Jo said...

This makes me want to eat some nasi padang. I love terung belado - in fact any terung. I've only ever cooked this a couple of times only. Simple but absolutely delicious.

ICook4Fun said...

Ivory, glad that you bf cooked this dish for you :)

Mamafami, Soemtime I am like you. Just put everything and cook it at the same time :)

Elin, try this sambal with fried fish (minus the ikan bilis) and its really good. Hope Jo like this dish.

Jo, me too. Any terung dish is good for me :)

Christelle said...

I love eggplants, lol! this dish sounds fab :)) humm, very hungry now!

m said...

i've made this several times now and it's an awesome recipe! i'm vegan so i add miso instead of anchovies. :) thanks!