Peanut Sauce

Peanut sauce is rich and savoury. It is a must when we are making satay or grilled meat on skewers. It can also be eaten with compressed rice (nasi impit), deep-fried taukwa or fruit / fruit and vegetable salad.

Ingredients:

• 350 g peanuts
• 50 g tamarind pulp
• 50 g water - to mix with the tamarind pulp
• 30 g dried prawns
• 50 g dried chilies
• 200 g onion, peel and cut into small pieces
• 45 g garlic, peel
• 50 g lemongrass, slice thinly
• 20 g galangal, slice thinly
• 200 ml water - for blending
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 10 g coriander powder
• 200 ml cooking oil
• 100 ml water - for cooking the sauce
• 80 g gula Melaka/ brown sugar or to taste
• 1 tbsp salt or to taste

Instructions:

• Wash and fry the peanuts without oil in the kuali till they are crunchy. Remove the membrane. Pound them coarsely or finely according to your preference. I pounded them coarsely as I like to bite and feel the crunch of the peanuts. Set them aside. (You can do this one day in advance to spread out the work.)

• Add water to the tamarind pulp to yield the required tamarind juice. Set it aside. (Increase the tamarind pulp if you want a more sour sauce.)

• Wash and blend the dried prawns. Set aside.

• Wash the dried chilies and soak them in hot water till soft. Cut them into shorter pieces.

• Blend the dried chilies, onion, garlic, lemongrass and galangal with water till a fine paste is formed.

• Heat up the kuali with cooking oil. You may add more oil for a more shiny sauce.

• Add the blended ingredients, turmeric powder and coriander powder to the kuali. Fry the ingredients till they are fragrant and the oil separates from the ingredients. Add water slowly if the ingredients are too dry. The sauce should not be too watery.

• Add tamarind juice, gula Melaka/brown sugar and salt.

• Scoop up once the sauce has boiled.

Sambal Egg

Eggs are one of the cheapest sources of protein. They are easy to prepare - fried, soft or hard boiled, scrambled or poached. Eggs also go with almost any food, for example, you can boil them and add them into your braised pork. Or you can add them into your fried rice or fried noodles. The possibilities are endless. And according to Healthline, they are highly nutritious. While they are high in cholesterol, they don't adversely affect blood cholesterol. Eating eggs is a good way of raising the good cholesterol (HDL).

One of the most delicious egg dishes that my family likes is Sambal Eggs. Eggs by themselves taste awesome. Eaten together with the sambal, they can really whet our appetite as the dish is spicy, salty and sweet. Sambal Egg goes very well with white rice.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 10 pcs red chilies
• 10 pcs dried chilies
• 5 pcs bird's eye chilies (chili padi) (optional)
• 1 small onion
• 3 pcs shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch shrimp paste/belacan
• 5 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Salt, to taste

Instructions:

• Wash and boil 4 eggs. When done, soak in cold water, peel and set aside.

• Remove the stems of the red chilies. Wash and dry them. Then, cut them into smaller pieces. Some people may not like the seeds and would like to remove them. However, I do not remove them.

• Remove the stems of the dried chilies. Wash and soak them overnight or soak them for at least 4 hours with hot water. When they have softened, cut them into smaller pieces. You may or may not remove the seeds but I did not.

• The bird's eye chilies are for those who want a very spicy sambal. You may leave them out if you wish. if you are including them, then remove the stems and wash them.

• Remove the skin of the onions and slice them. 

• Remove the skin of the shallot and slice them. 

• Remove the skin of the garlic and chop them up roughly.

• Toast the shrimp paste.

• Put all the ingredients - all chilies, onions, shallot, garlic and toasted shrimp paste into the grinder/blender.

• How fine you want your sambal to be depends on you.

• Heat up wok with cooking oil.

• Add your blended chili paste into the wok.

• Saute the chili paste till it is fragrant.

• Add sugar and stir till it is melted.

• Add salt to the chili paste (according to taste).

• Fry till the chilies separate from the oil.

• Add the eggs to the sambal to coat them.

• Dish out and serve.

Sambal

I

Our family loves spicy food, however, the degree of spiciness varies from person to person. I love my food to be as spicy as possible. In order to be able to cook my dishes easily, I will

usually grind a lot of chilli at one go and freeze them in containers.

I have the following ingredients to make my chilli sambal:

• fresh red chilli - 1 kg
• dried chilli - 1/2 kg
• bird's eye chilli (chilli padi) (optional) - 200 g
• onions - 2 big ones
• garlic - 1 bulb
• shrimp paste - 1 1/2 inch

The directions:

• Remove the stems of the red chilli. Wash and dry them. Then, cut them into smaller pieces. Some people may not like the seeds and would like to remove them. However, I do not remove them.
• Remove the stems of the dried chilli. Wash and soak them overnight or soak them for at least 4 hours with hot water. When they have softened, cut them into smaller pieces. You may or may not remove the seeds.
• The bird's eye chilli are for those who want a very spicy sambal. You may leave them out if you wish. if you are including them, then remove the stems and wash them.
• Remove the skin of the onions and slice them.
• Remove the skin of the garlic.
• Toast the shrimp paste. You don't have to if you don't want to.

• Put all the ingredients into the grinder.
• How fine you want your sambal to be depends on you.
• Once all the ingredients have been ground, put them into a few containers for easier use.
• Freeze them.

Note: If you are making sambal for nasi lemak, the amount of fresh chilli and dried chilli should be reversed i.e. more of dried chilli and less of the fresh ones. Then add 1 piece of galangal (about 1 inch) to be ground together.