Sambal Prawns
For those of you that like spice, this is a recipe that I would recommend you try making.
Sometimes, Asian cooking isn't so much about following a recipe to the "t"...but rather about tasting as you go. The balance of flavour in this recipe is all about adjusting for the right amount of spice, salt, sour and sweet. Thus it is with this recipe. I can only recommend taste as you go as there are a number of variables in the recipe that can bring a different flavour balance each time you cook it.
1. The dried chilli used here can have different spice levels. I'm sure you've bought fresh chilli only to find that individual chilli's can be incredibly spicy to rather mild.
2. Tamarind is usually sour; but sometimes you might need to adjust for a little bit more or a little bit less...depending on the mix with the paste.
3. The Belachan or shrimp paste is usually rather intensely shrimp-y in flavour. But again...depending on the balance within the paste, you might need to adjust the balance of the taste around this ingredient.
NOTE: The recipe below provides you with doubled quantities for all ingredients. I've doubled the quantity because of the number of people I'm serving this to.
My starting ingredients for the Sambal:
- Dried Chilies, about 40 – 50 g. You might notice that I used two types of dried chillies. The longer ones are usually less spicy and impart a beautiful red colour to the sambal. The shorter ones are very spicy.
- Fresh Red Chilies, 4; seeded and chopped.
- Shallots, 4 - 5; peeled.
- Onion, ½; peeled and roughly chopped into quarter.
- Garlic, 1 clove
- Ginger, 1 slice
- Candlenuts (Buah Keras), about 10
- Shrimp Paste (Belacan), 3 – 5 tsp or equivalent. Preferably Roasted; but I did use mine without roasting.
- Tamarind Paste, 60 g mix with 200 – 400 ml hot water. Strained after the tamarind has been soaking for a while and remove the pulp and seeds.
- Salt, to taste.
- Sugar, to taste; allow for 1 – 2 tablespoons.
- Oil, for frying. I used about 10 – 12 tablespoons or thereabouts.
My other starting ingredients :
- Green vegetables - for colour purposes. I used string beans and some okra. This is optional.
- Onion, 1 ½; peeled and sliced. You may have noticed that I had 2 onions in the first picture. The onions here are the remainder of those.
- Shrimps, 2 kilos (nearly 2 lbs). Peeled and deveined with the tails left on. The shrimp is NOT pictured.
Making the sambal
To make the sambal, soak the dried chili pieces with boiling water until they are soften. Drain the chilies and make sure to get rid of the seeds. Then combine it with red chilies, shallots, candlenuts, shrimp paste and blend in a food processor until they become a paste.
Check the paste and scrape down the sides from time to time.
You want to end up with a fine paste.
Heat oil and cook the sambal paste in a low heat. Do not skimp on the oil as you want this to fry.
The paste will absorb the oil. As long as the paste does not stick to the bottom of the pan, do not add more.
When you look in recipe books for sambal, you’ll notice that most of them will say “Cook until the sambal is fragrant”. What the heck does this mean? With the chillli and the belachan, this paste will be fragrant from the time you place the ingredients on the table!
For me, I want to fry the paste on a heat high enough to sizzle; but not so high that the paste will burn….afterall, I am trying to gently caramalise the ingredients. So, again…one of those balancing act moments. Not too much oil, not too little oil, not too much heat, not enough heat.
“Cook until the sambal is fragrant”…usually means after about 12 – 15 minutes of frying depending on the heat and oil used. My fail safe check? The sambal will start to release oil back into the pan.
When the oil starts to come back out, add the sliced onions.
Give it a quick stir…
…and add the string beans, if you’ve added the greens.
Pour in some of the strained tamarind mixture.
I didn’t add all the tamarind juice. Stir to mix all the ingredients. You can choose to add more or less water…depending on whether you prefer a ‘wetter’ sambal or not.
Season with sugar and salt. This is the crucial tasting point for spice, salt, sweet and sour balance. Adjust depending on your taste by adding more salt, sugar, tamarind juice or even chilli powder.
Cooking the protein
When you are happy with the taste of the sambal, add the okra (if using)….
…and prawns into the sambal mixture.
Cook until the prawns are cooked.
My Sambal Prawns! You can serve this immediately when hot or at a room temperature.
Enjoy!
Hope you're there now. 
all around.
I am a person that doesn't do change real well and this Christmas was full of change. But at the end of the day we had a really nice time.
