5 Authentic Indonesian Sambal Recipes
Looking for something hot for dinner tonight ? Check out this 5 authentic Indonesian sambal recipes.
Different dishes need different sambals, this is no different with food that require different sauces. For most Indonesians, sambal is a must on every meal. When we eat without sambal, it feels like we are going out without shoes, yes…painful!
Anyhow, there are more than 500 languages and dialects in Indonesia. Having the third highest population in the world, Indonesia is rich in culture and of course food. Indonesian cuisines vary greatly by region and has many different influences. Sumatran cuisine, for example, often has Middle Eastern and Indian influences, featuring curried meat and vegetables such as gulai and kari. While Javanese cuisine is mostly indigenous, with some hint of Chinese influence. The cuisines of Eastern Indonesia are similar to Polynesian and Melanesian cuisine. Elements of Chinese cuisine can be seen in Indonesian cuisine: foods such as bakmi (noodles), bakso (meat or fish balls), and lumpia (spring rolls) have been completely assimilated.
Known throughout the world as the “Spice Islands”, the Indonesian islands of Maluku contributed to the introduction of its native spices to world cuisine. Spices such as pala (nutmeg/mace), cengkeh (clove), daun pandan (Pandan leaves), kluwek (Pangium edule) and laos (galangal) are native to Indonesia. It is likely that lada hitam (black pepper), kunyit (turmeric), sereh (lemongrass), bawang merah (shallot), kayu manis (cinnamon), kemiri (candlenut), ketumbar (coriander), and asam jawa (tamarind) were introduced from India, while jahe (ginger), daun bawang (scallions) and bawang putih (garlic) were introduced from China. Those spices from mainland Asia were introduced early, in ancient times, thus they became integral ingredients in Indonesian cuisine.
So, are you ready for something hot?
1. Resep Sambal Kecap (Sweet Soy Sauce Sambal Recipe)
Soy sauce is one of the most important flavourings in Indonesian cuisine. Kecap asin (salty soy sauce) was adopted from Chinese cuisine, however kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) was developed with generous addition of palm sugar into soy sauce. Sweet soy sauce is an important marinade for barbecued meat and fish, such as satay and grilled fishes. Sweet soy sauce is also an important ingredient for semur, Indonesian stew and sambal.
Living in Australia for years makes me more creative with the variety of food I can enjoy with this sambal. It doesn’t have to be served in the Indonesian way, sweet soy sambal is absolutely divine to enjoy with grilled lamb ribs.
Roast leg of lamb is delicious too to enjoy with sweet soy sambal.
Sweet Soy Sauce Sambal Recipe
Serves: 4-6
- Ingredients:
7 small chilli (bird’s eye chilli), roughly chopped
5 small shallots, peel, roughly chopped
1 medium-size tomatoes, roughly chopped
8 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fried shallot (optional)
- Method:
Mix all ingredients together. Taste, add more of the ingredients if needs to. Add fried shallot if you like.
2. Resep Sambal Tempe Penyet Surabaya (Tempeh Sambal Recipe – Surabaya Style)
Tempe or tempeh is regarded as a Javanese invention, a local adaptation of soy-based food fermentation and production. Another fermented food is oncom, similar in some ways to tempe but using a variety of bases (not only soy), created by different fungi, and is particularly popular in West Java.
This tempeh sambal is one of the famous dishes in Surabaya beside Sup Buntut (Oxtail Soup). The unique taste of kencur (Kaempferia Galanga – part of the ginger family) makes this dish become one of Indonesia’s culinary favourites.
Indonesian Food
This one is another tempeh sambal recipe I made using slightly different ingredients. Instead of using kencur, I use kafir lime leaves (you can see the green bits in the picture) and the taste is just as good. Tempeh sambal is best to enjoy with warm steamed rice, fresh Asian basil leaves and sliced cucumber.
If you live in Australia, tempeh can be found in most Asian stores. Usually in the frozen food section. And I think Mariza is not a bad brand.
Tempeh Sambal Recipe – Surabaya Style
Serves: 4
- Ingredients:
250 gr tempe, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
10 small red chillies (bird’s eye chilli)
5 shallots, sliced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cm kencur, peeled
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetables oil
- Method:
Heat the oil in a frying pan, fry tempeh until slightly golden brown. Set aside.
Reduce the oil until roughly 3 tbsp left, fry the chillies together with shallots and garlic until cooked and texture just soft. Turn off the heat.
Using mortar and pestle, crush red chili, onion and garlic that have been fried along with kencur, coriander powder, sugar and salt. Season to taste.
Add sweet soy sauce. Stir until completely mix.
Place the fried tempeh on a serving plate. Add the sambal paste on top, tap-tap gently using the pestle and make sure that the sambal paste mix equally with the fried tempeh.
Enjoy this tempeh sambal Surabaya style with warm steamed rice.
3. Resep Sambal Orek Kampung (Fresh Chilli Sambal Tulungagung Style Recipe).
This sambal is definitely my family’s favourite. Fresh, super spicy and goes with everything. When we were young, our dad often cooked a few cassava from our garden in the fireplace. The kitchen was the old-fashioned kitchen using firewood, and the stove was made of dirt. After dark, we sat around the fire place and told each other stories. No TV, no electricity, the only entertainment for us after the dark was talking to each other as a family. Once the cassava was cooked and still really hot, our dad will cut them open and drizzle with this sambal. Often that was our dinner and we loved it. Sitting in front of the fireplace while eating cassava with my family is priceless!
By using just four ingredients, this sambal is no less delicious compared with other sambal. Not only small red chillies, you can also use small green chillies. If you use big chilli, the taste is not as good as the big chillies normally gave a little bit of a bitter taste when it’s raw.
This sambal can also be enjoyed with any type of Indonesian soup such as Soto Ayam (coconut chicken soup), Sup Buntut (oxtail soup), Sup Bening (clear vegetables soup), Bakso (meatballs soup) and others. Or even just a steamed vegetables.
Fresh Chilli Sambal Tulungagung Style Recipe.
Serves: 2
- Ingredients:
7 small red chillies (bird’s eye chilli)
2 cloves of garlic (large size)
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons vegetables oil
- Method:
Coarse crushed chillies and garlic.
Heat the oil until really really hot.
Pour hot oil over the crushed chillies and garlic.
Fresh chilli sambal is ready.
4. Resep Sambal Matah Bali (Fresh Chilli Sambal Bali Style Recipe)
Sambal is usually made by using a mortar and pestle. However this fresh sambal originating from Bali is a little bit different. All you need to do is just slice the ingredients thinly without grinding them. Sambal matah can be enjoyed with fried duck, fish, chicken, fried tempeh or any other favourite.
Fresh Chilli Sambal Bali Style Recipe.
Serves: 2
- Ingredients:
10 small red chillies (bird’s eye chilli), thinly sliced
1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, thinly sliced
4 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1 lime leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp sugar
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon lime juice
3 tablespoons vegetables oil
- Instructions:
Prepare a heat-resistant bowl. Mix all the ingredients except the vegetable oil, salt and lime juice.
Heat oil in a frying pan until really hot. Then turn off the heat.
Pour the hot vegetable oil into the sliced sambal mixture.
Add salt and lime juice. Stir well.
Enjoy your fresh sambal Bali style along with your favourite dish.
5. Resep Sambal Dabu Dabu Dari Manado (Fresh Chilli Sambal Manado Style Recipe)
This sambal is originally from Manado, Sulawesi island. Manado is famous for it’s culinary such as Rica-Rica (super spicy chicken or fish), Cakalang fufu (cured and smoked skipjack tuna), Mie cakalang (skipjack tuna noodle, a Chinese-influenced dish), Woku or its variant woku belong (chicken or fish in woku spices), Kuah asam (sour soup, is soup of fish or seafood in tamarind or vinegar-based soup), Nasi kuning (turmeric rice, although similar recipes are also known throughout Indonesia), Paniki (spiced fruit bat), and Tinutuan, sometimes called bubur manado (Manado style vegetables and rice congee).
The taste and look of Dabu-Dabu sambal is close to Mexican salsa. Dabu-Dabu sambal is best to enjoy with grilled fish, but you can enjoy with other dishes of course.
Fresh Chilli Sambal Manado Style Recipe
Serves: 2
- Ingredients:
7 red bird’s eye chilli, sliced
3 green bird’s eye chilli, sliced
4 shallots, thinly sliced
5 basil leaves, chopped into small pieces
1 red tomato (get the one that is still hard) small size to medium, deseeded, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cooking oil
- Methods:
Prepare a heat-resistant bowl, add all the ingredients except the vegetables oil.
Heat the oil until really hot. Pour the hot oil over the sambal ingredients mixture. Stir well.
Those are 5 easy authentic Indonesian sambal recipes and still more to come. I hope you enjoy your sambal, remember, you can adjust the spiciness by reducing or adding more chillies. Good luck 😉
Thank you for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment bellow if you like of have any question about Indonesian sambal recipes. Terimakasih 🙂