Sunday, June 06, 2010

Sambal Nasi Lemak/Dried Anchovies Sambal

Sambal Ikan Bilis is the main condiment for Nasi Lemak. To me a good Nasi Lemak is all about the sambal.. It can either make or break this popular national dish of Malaysia. I usually prepare a huge batch of sambal and keep them in the fridge and I can use it whenever I want it. I am sure most of you already have your favorite version of sambal but I just wanted to post it here for my own record and also one of my blog reader JS asked for it too. I am not a big fan of having the whole ikan bilis in my sambal as I find them rather chewy after cooking it in the sambal paste. So when I came across the recipe from Ju of The Little Teochew I just have to try it out. She got this recipe from The Sunday Times. The different about this sambal is it has ground ikan bilis in it which I like a lot. I added some tamarind pulp to the dish and double up the quantity.


Ingredients:Here is the recipe adapted from The Little Teochew

140 grm of fresh red chili
2 large onions
12 cloves of garlic
½ cup of cooking oil
160 grm of ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
3 tbsp of tamarind pulp + 3/4 cup of water
Salt and sugar to taste

 

1. Blend chili, onions and garlic into fine paste and set it aside. Soak the tamarind pulp in the water for 15 minutes to soften it up. Then squeeze the tamarind constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice
2. Heat up the frying pan, add in the oil and fry the ikan bilis (anchovies) until brown and crispy. Remove and drain the oil. Ground it into fine powder and set it aside.
3. In the same frying pan and oil add in the blended chili paste and stir-fry until fragrant or until you see oil floating to the top. It will take about 10-13 min.
4. Add in the tamarind juice and the ikan bilis powder. Continue to stir-fry until the liquid evaporated. Add in sugar and salt to taste.

31 comments:

Zurin said...

agree! the sambal is everything in a nasi lemak..urs looks amazing. its only 10 am in the morning here and I cld do with a large plate of that. its to die for ;)

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

My gosh, Gert. Why do I have to come face-to-face with your nasi lemak when I am having nothing but kaya on bread for breakfast? It looks out of this world yummy! Better than Madam Kwan's, in fact. Haha. Thanks for the link up and I'm glad you liked the recipe. :)

WendyinKK said...

Wow, your husband can take the heat???
Kudos!!

Beachlover said...

your nasi lemak make me drooling even I just finish eating KFC!! btw,I also just cook 3 qtr of sambal tumis yesterday..this time mine sambal tumis is super hot!! where do you cook your sambal indoor or outdoor?

Angie's Recipes said...

I always want to make this sauce, but a few of the ingredients are quite difficult to find here.....I just love spicy food.

Bakericious said...

Yummy, my favourite dish!

ReeseKitchen said...

Mmm...yummy! You know what, I have nasi lemak for breakfast at least 2times a week..heehee..;p I just love it, but never never try to cook myself. I find it abit too much work, haha! (lazy excuse). Btw, yours looks good!!

mycookinghut said...

Yeah, I have seen Ju's recipe and absolutely keen to try. I think I just need get myself enough Chili and make this one day!

ann low said...

hehee...I would love to have this for my tomorrow breakfast! Looks so yummy.

Yee Er said...

Wow...u wouldn't know how much i miss nasi lemak. I always like to make my own sambal but it's hard to get the fresh chili like the one we found in m'sia. Will try it out when i back to m'sia, hehe~~ tkz for sharing.

Unknown said...

I've never had this dish - but your version looks delicious. A definite must try!

Kitchen Corner said...

Wah!! Your nasi lemak looks so good! I think you don't think of dining out, right?

Elin Chia said...

Gert, I must try this out. I have love nasi lemak all my life and will not get bored with it. We can have it for breakfast , lunch or dinner and you are right...a good sambal is important if making nasi lemak. Your recipe is slightly different here. I am sure it is very tasty and delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe and thanks to Ju too :)

Jeannie said...

Irresistable sambal! I love sambals too...Great with bread.

Noob Cook said...

your photo is really hunger inducing, hehe... I agree sambal is the most impt ingredient. I can have just nasi lemak rice and sambal alone!

pigpigscorner said...

Looks so yummy! and I agree with you, it's all about the sambal!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Super! You can cook this up even when you are thousand of miles away from your hometown! Looks like you won't miss this. ;)

ICook4Fun said...

Zurin, thank you. We Malaysian love our nasi lemak :)

Ju, kaya with bread for breakfast is not bad at all and thanks for sharing the sambal recipe.

Wendy, oh my husband can take all the heat from my cooking. I train him well ha ha

Lesley, I cook my sambal indoor as you notice I didn't add belachan to it. By the way I love your spicy sambal. They are out of this world!

Angie, this sambal has very minimal ingredients and I am sure you can find it there.

Jess, mine too :)

Reese, yea we love nasi lemak for breakfast too :)

Leemei, you should try it out. They are good.

Anncoo, is easy to get this in Singapore so you can have it anytime :)

ICook4Fun said...

Yee Er, nope. I cook this pretty often. By the way, where are you located? You can always replace the fresh cili with the dried ones. It will taste just as good and it will give you better color too.

Valley Write, thanks for stopping by. Hope you like this dish.

Grace, we only dine out once a week so I cook most of the meals at home :)

Elin, yea we can have 3 meals for Nasi lemak ha ha..

Jeannie, yes I made sandwich out of the sambal too with some sliced cucumbers :)

Noobcook, me too :)

Pigpigscorner, yeap.

Bee bee, nope I don't miss much of nasi lemak but I do miss good plate of CKT :)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Nasi Lemak Lover come to eat your sambal ikan bilis, hmm, yum yum..

A Little Yumminess said...

Homesick.....my mother walked past and did a double take...yum!

Yee Er said...

Hi, me is in CA. I do find fresh chili but it looks like red jalapeno to me. R u using those to make ur sambal?

Little Corner of Mine said...

Salivating! I have a huge love for nasi lemak.

Christelle said...

I could not get used to this dish in the morning when I was in Malaysia as I thought it was too salty then. Maybe I should try again :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Gert. I tried this recipe yesterday but my sambal came out all lumpy almost like hae bee hiam. wonder what i did wrong. any idea? wonder if adding more water would help or add more oil (alhtough I felt that I used alot of oil). I came back to your blog and love the texture/consistency of you sambal. That I know is how it should be. any advice you have would be much appreciated. regards josephine

Jess said...

How do you get the nice deep red color? My sambal is kinda greyish light red.

ICook4Fun said...

Josephine, it might need a bit more water to it.

Jess, the color sometime do depend on the type of chili you used.

ICook4Fun said...

Jess, you have to fry the ikan bilis really well. Some part of the ikan bilis might still be a bit on the chewy side that is why it is not blending well.

ICook4Fun said...

So sorry Jess, I might have accidentally deleted your previous comment.

Juniper Wolf said...

Hi!
i have only one question - how long can you keep the sambal in the fridge?
Thanks for the recipe! :P

ICook4Fun said...

Hi Juniper, It can keep in the fridge for a week. I normally will cook a large batch and freeze them up.