Easy Sweet Sambal with Gula Melaka

You might thought that i did not like nasi lemak anymore since you did not see me cook nasi lemak so frequently. In fact, we are still enjoying nasi lemak, but we bought it from outside more often as we found a stall selling good nasi lemak near my area..

Anyway, yesterday i just cooked nasi lemak with this easy sambal recipe from my blogger friend Makcik Manggis and using the good gula melaka (palm sugar) given by Penang bloggers .



My family complaint this sambal taste too sweet, i guess i have added too much of gula melaka but my daughter said it taste similar like sambal that selling outside by Malay nasi lemak stall. I have reduced gula melaka in below recipe, you might just need to adjust to suit your taste. Anyway, this sambal is easy to be prepared with just few ingredients.

Easy Sweet Sambal with Gula Melaka
(recipe source: adapted from Makcik Manggis with minor changes)

15g dried chili (trim and cut into 2-3pcs, boil in hot water and drained)
2 fresh red chilies
3 large onions
a small knob of belacan (shrimp paste)
50g Gula Melaka (palm sugar)
1pc tamarind peel (asam keping)
1 cup cooking oil
½ cup water
salt to taste

Method
1. Blend dried chilies, fresh red chilies, onions and belacan (with little water) till fine paste.
2. Heat cooking oil in a wok, deep fry 1 cup of ikan bilis (anchovies) till golden brown. Remove fried ikan bilis and keep aside for later serve with nasi lemak.
3. Add in blended chili paste into remaining oil, sauté till aroma.
4. Add in gula Melaka, tamarind peel and salt, continue to sauté over low flame for 30mins. Cook till half way, paste will become thick, add in water and continue cook.
5. Serve with coconut rice (refer old recipe here ) and other condiments like fried ikan bilis, cucumber slices, hard-boiled eggs, roast peanuts and other as per your preference.

Sweet sambal tumis, a CNY potluck

Today i would like to share this sweet sambal tumis (improve version from here) that i prepared for a recent CNY potluck party held at my house..I always prefer sambal tumis (mean slow stirring in Malay) with slightly sweet taste.

These are the foods that I prepared
1. Nasi Lemak with sweet sambal ikan bilis (just cook fried ikan bilis paste and onion with this sweet sambal tumis)
2. sambal udang (just cook this sweet sambal tumis with some chopped garlic, prawn and onion),
3. fragrant fried chicken with lemongrass and spices (this time i added more lemongrass and omit curry leaves)
4. Lychee Lime Soda drink (not in the picture)..

I love the 2 tier cake stand given by Jane and I use it to serve the Nasi Lemak's condiments, peanuts, ikan bilis, cucumber, hard-boiled eggs, and stir fried kangkung.

These were the bloggers came and their yummy foods:-

1. Lena (Frozen Wings)- sweet sour crabs, radish cake and pandan kuih.
2. Veronica (Quay Po's cooks) -Tuna Cheese Mini Toast, Swedish Wedding Balls and cauliflower salad
3. Swee San (The Sweet Spot)- Pistachio Blackberry Cake and Plum Frangipanne Tart
4. Sharon (Feats and Feasts) - Pork Stuffed Youtiao and Apple Cabbage Slaw
5. Wendy ( Table for 2 or more)- beef rendang, Kumquat Almond Tea Cakes and Goiabinhas

Sorry, i forgot to include ReeseKitchen (she reminded me ^_^) who did not manage to attend this portluck party due to personal reason, but she was so kind to contribute salted paprika grilled chicken wings (forgot to take picture)..

Veron (Quay Po) serving us nasi lemak ^_^

Now come to the sambal tumis recipe. I remembered my Malay friend told me to add more cooking oil when tumis sambal and need long stirring, so this time i added 3/4cup cooking oil to cook this sambal for an hour.

Also i checked with a Malay makcik who selling nasi lemak, she use bawang Rose (Rose shallots) to cook sambal

If you don't like too sweet sambal, you can reduce the amount of sugar..
Latest update- Actually i cooked with 1 cup of cooking oil, but i only mentioned 3/4cup of oil in below recipe because i feel the amount of oil is a bit too much. After cooked for few times, i think 1 cup of oil just nice..so you choice of preference, less oil or more oil...
Updated on 27th Nov 2012-if you intend to make extra sambal and keep in freezer for later usage, I suggest not to add in "tamarind pulp" as not all recipes requires to add tamarind..
Updated on 6th Apr 2013- cooking oil increased to 1 cup to 2 cups...adjust accordingly..

Sweet Sambal Tumis
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

100g dried chilies
100g fresh red chilies
10g bird’s eye chilies
250g shallots (I use Rose shallots, bawang Rose)
1 big onion
10g ginger
15g galangal (blue ginger)
30g garlic
15g belacan (shrimp paste)

1 cup to 2 cups of cooking oil **updated on 06 Apr 2013
40g tamarind pulp , add 1/4cup water to become assam water, discard the seeds
50g sugar or palm sugar (gula Melaka)
1tsp salt

Method
1. Use a scissor to discard dried chili’s head and cut into 2-3pcs and boil in hot water for 5mins. Drain and discard the chili seeds if you want less spicy.
2. Toast belacan in a frying pan, chopping and break it up till powdery and aromatic.
3. Blend dried chili, fresh chili, shallots, big onion, ginger, galangal and toasted belacan with 1/4cup of water till smooth paste.
4. Pour chili paste into a big wok, stir fry for 5-10mins over medium low heat until slightly dried paste (By not adding oil at this time as to avoid oil spill)
5. Now add in cooking oil, continue stirring (tumis) over low heat for 30-40mins. The chili paste will turn darker, light and oil separated after long stirring.
6. Add in assam water, salt and sugar, continue stirring (tumis) for 5-10mins.
7. Leave to cool before storing in the fridge or freeze in small containers for later use.

You may also visit two of my blogger friends who also cook a good sambal,  Tee Kitchen and Mummy I can cook .

This basic sambal tumis is very versatile, you can use it to prepare the followings dishes that i can think of:-

1. sambal ikan bilis (anchovies)- just deep fried ikan bilis, pound into paste and add into sambal tumis.
2. sambal "Hae Bi" (dried shrimps)-pound dried shrimps into paste and add into sambal tumis
3. sambal sotong (squid)
4. sambal udang (prawn) or Assam prawn
5. sambal goreng tempe
6. Mamak style mee goreng
7. Malay style meehoon goreng
8. Laksa
9. sambal petai
10. sambal ikan (fish) or Assam fish
11. Nasi goreng
and etc

Nasi Lemak bungkus, one more please!

Nowadays it is hard to find a good and simple nasi lemak (coconut rice with sambal chili) that wrapped with banana leaf, brown paper with wax is widely use instead. We actually prefer those very basic and simple nasi lemak that comes with coconut rice and simple sambal chili and wrap with banana leaf.

The other day, i gathered all ingredients and banana leaves, and pretend like nasi lemak seller, bungkus (pack) nasi lemak in advance as to let coconut rice to absorb the banana leaf's fragrant, then we enjoyed nasi lemak bungkus for dinner. My son Lucas ate 3 packs at one go, another Nasi Lemak Lover, hahaha !

When prepare nasi lemak bungkus at home, i can also pack according to my family's preference.

I put sambal chili on a small piece of banana leaf as my son Desmond can not take too spicy, no roasted peanuts and cucumber, and more eggs !

As for my son Lucas, he loves everything except roasted peanut, and more cucumbers please !

This is how to pack nasi lemak bungkus

Nasi Lemak Bungkus
(recipe souce: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)
* makes about 15 packs

Nasi Lemak (coconut rice)

4cups rice (I mix Jasmine rice and local rice)
150ml coconut milk
550ml water
5pcs pandan leaves (screwpine leaves)
1 and 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
3 slices ginger, shredded

Method
1. Place washed rice, salt and knotted pandan leaves in an electric rice cooker.
2. Pour coconut milk, water, ginger and salt over the rice and leave to soak for 30mins (make it more fluffy).
3. Cook rice. Once “cooking” button auto switched to “keep warm” button. Then fluff the rice with a fork or chopsticks.
4. Leave it warm in the rice cooker before serve.

** you need to adjust water amount according to the type of rice you use.


Sambal Chili

Blend to chili paste
20g dried chili, cut into two, boiled in hot water for 5mins
1 big onions
3 cloves garlic
1tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
2 slices blue ginger or ginger

1 onion, sliced
30g tamarind paste, add 125ml water, remove seeds, to become tamarind water
30g ikan bilis (anchovies), deep fry and ground to fine powder
200ml water

¾ tsp salt or taste
1 and 1/2tbsp sugar or taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok, add in blend chili paste, stir fried over low medium heat till fragrant and oil separated, take about 20mins.
2. Add ikan bilis powder, tamarind water and water, keep stirring.
3. Season with salt and sugar, last add onion slices, cook to mix well for 1-2mins.

To assemble Nasi Lemak Bungkus

Banana leaves, washed and patted dry
Old news paper

Accompaniments
Hard-boiled eggs
Deep fried anchovies
Roasted peanuts
Cucumber slices

Method
1. Layer banana leaf on an old newspaper, the size of newspaper is slightly narrower and longer ( I did measured as the paper size 20x39cm, banana leaf size 23x23cm, this measurement is for your reference only)
2. Put hot coconut rice in the middle, sambal chili on top and accompaniments on the side.
3. Fold the top and bottom halves together in the middle. Flap the paper and banana leaf on the left and right.
4. Tuck the flaps underneath tightly.
5. Enjoy it an hour later as to let rice to absorb banana leaf's fragrant.

Other topic:-

I'm touch by Quay Po's latest post -Mothers will do anything for their children. If you have a facebook account, please support Quay Po's son  Nick’s band ROSEVELT is one of the top 5 bands competing to be the opening band for the famous rock band from USA, INCUBUS.  In order to get there, they need votes from people who has a facebook account and SMS votes from TUNETALK’s subscribers. Please vote at http://apps.facebook.com/tt_incubus/index.php?tttg=8,  voting close at 12 mid-night on 16th July 2011.