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Singaporeans love their chillis as much as they love to shop, and while every Singaporean grandmother seems to have their personal recipe for the perfect sambal belachan, we found this to be our favourite.
This is the fried version that goes with radish cake, noodles, char kway teow and fried rice. You can also fry French beans, long beans and all kinds of meat with it. This recipe is enough for two to three jars of sambal belacan.
Some people like to remove the seed from the chillies. But not only is that too much work, it halves the heat of the chillies. In fact, to take the heat up several notches, just throw chilli padis into the mix which results in a fiery aftertaste.
You can always add more if you fancy that tongue-burning sensation.
Sambal Belachan Ingredients
- 100g dried chillies
- 20 chilli padis
- 150g shallots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 30g belacan powder
- 200g dried prawn, soaked
- 3 candlenuts
- 2 pieces lemongrass (5cm of white root part, sliced thinly, reserve the remaining part of stalk)
- 2cm piece of turmeric, cut into small pieces
- 2cm piece of ginger, cut into small pieces
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp assam (tamarind pulp)
- 2 tbsp water
- 100ml water
- 100ml cooking oil
Sambal Belachan Recipe
- Mix the tamarind pulp with two tablespoons of water. Let it soak for five minutes.
- Strain and reserve the tamarind juice.
- Remove the stems of the dried chillies.
- Place dried chillies in a boiling pot of water and boil for five minutes or until softened.
- Discard the water, rinse the chillies and grind into a paste. Set aside.
- Grind the lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, shallots and garlic together. Mix in the chilli paste, belacan powder, chilli padis, candlenuts and dried prawn. Add 100ml of water to make grinding easier.
- Heat the oil in a wok until medium-hot. Add the ground paste. Lower the heat. Gently mix and continuously stir-fry the mixture.
8. After frying for five minutes, add the bruised unused part of the lemongrass stalks.
9. Tear up the kaffir lime leaves and add to the mixture.
10. Fry for another 10 minutes, then season with sugar and salt.
11. Fry for another five to 10 minutes until the chilli paste becomes drier.
12. Turn off the heat. Transfer into deep dish and allow to cool down before storing in jars. Keep jars refrigerated.
If you like this story, be sure to check out other interesting kitchen tips here:
- Stainless steel VS cast iron cookware: Which is better?
- Cooking oil: The good, the bad and the one you should be using.
- How to cook perfect al dente pasta at home.
This article first appeared in The New Paper in 2017.