Sambal - Rejoicing Hot Spicy Food from Home for Celebrating Victorious Days

[indahnuria]

Caption: a collage of photos of the process of cooking sambal goreng teri by LG @indahnuria

Hello everyone...

Sending love and best wishes from Aotearoa, the land of long white clouds, and Eid Mubarak dear LG friends celebrating it, wherever you are!

As the holy month of Ramadhan is ending, we are celebrating celebrating the Eid Al Fitr, the victorious day. This year marks the second Ramadhan and the second Eid celebration for me and my family in New Zealand, having a taste of Lebaran, a famous term we use to call Eid Al Fitr in Indonesia, away from home.

Back home in Indonesia, we have such beautiful and unique traditions for Ramadhan as well as Idul Fitri. Ngabuburi , ifthar party, ziarah, mudik or heading back home to gather in the big day. In my family, we also have saweran or giving money and/or presents to the kids and more. Even during the pandemic COVID-19, we developed virtual versions of these traditions. I have shared some of these beautiful traditions with @Zuhralc .

In Wellington, New Zealand, we try to live up our spirits and traditions in this big day. Here, we mingle and gather with Indonesian moslem society, known as UMI or Umat Muslim Indonesia in Wellington, for various Ramadhan activities and Eid celebration. Every weekend, we have ifthar gathering and sholat tarawih together, hosted by different Indonesian moslems community depending on the area where we live.

Usually, in the case of Wellington, we divide the hosts into 4 areas, namely Hutt City, Wellington City, Northern Wellington, and Indonesian Embassy. That is why every weekend we have wonderful gathering during Ramadhan. Well, that's a long introduction to my sambal recipe and apologies for that :). Let's get back to our kitchen and get yourself ready for a little cooking session.

Caption: Lebaran feast packed with Indonesian food at LG @indahnuria dining table

Being away from home during this special day make us crave for all the festivities and joyous celebration that we are so used to have back home in Indonesia. Especially the food!

I know that those rich, coconut-milk-and-spices-induced like rendang, opor ayam, and sayur godog, are so tempting. We also have other choices like sambal goreng. They become sort of the signature food for Lebaran day. Together with my family, I tried to revive and recreate some of my mom’s recipes at home. I guess I have shared a few before (please READ : Glorious Food for the Auspicious Day ), so now let me share one of the recipes that my family enjoys so much, during Ramadhan, Eid, or even on daily basis.

Let’s cook some sambal, Indonesia's scrumptious chili sauce,  and since we have so many types of sambal in Indonesia, this time I would like to share sambal teri kacang .

Sambal teri kacang, or spicy fried anchovies and peanuts with chili sauce, is commonly found in many Indonesian dishes such as nasi uduk (steamed rice with coconut milk), nasi liwet (steamed rice with anchovies and herbs), and nasi kuning (yellow rice). My family love it because it’s basically an upgrade version of sambal, or chilli sauce. Sambal can probably be considered as staple food at home, as for us Indonesians, we always love eating literally almost everything with sambal. The difference is the level of hotness, either it’s mild, moderate, hot, or super hot. I usually go with the last two LOL. So sambal teri kacang is another version of sambal added with deep fried anchovies and peanuts.  We have this ready during Ramadhan and prepare more for ifthar and Eid as well, at least in my family. Ready to cook it?

Caption: ready-to-eat sambal teri kacang cooked by LG @indahnuria

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

Dried anchovies – 200 gr, or 2 packs (per pack is usually 100gr). If it’s salted, you can wash it with water to reduce the salt.

Raw peanuts – 200 gr or more, if you like. I usually use the ones with their skins.

Sambal and Spices to ground:

Onion - half and chopped

Shallots - chopped

Chilies – 6-10 pieces depending on the size, or less as desired if you don't like it hot

Garlic – 5-6 cloves, as desired.

Tomatoes - 2 pieces

These ground spices are super duper handy, it can be used as a base (hot) paste for many Indonesian food. So you can make them in big batches and store them in the fridge or freezer for the next food.

Extra ingredients:

Shallot – 3 cloves, thinly sliced

Tamarind - 3-4 pieces for extra tanginess. Or to make it simpler, you can also use the tamarind paste for about a spoonful. Feel free to take it out.

Salt and pepper - as desired

Sugar – ½ tea spoonful or as desired.

Galangal - 1 piece, pressed.

Bay leaves – 4 -5 pieces

Lemon grass – 2 pieces, pressed

Coconut milk - 3 spoonful

Vegetable oil for sauté - 1- 2 teaspoonful

How to cook:

First, prepare the anchovies and after cleaning it, deep fry or pan frying them in order to use less oil, until golden and crunchy. Set them aside. Do the same thing to the peanut. Fry till golden, don’t overcook it.

Sauté the thinly sliced shallots with vegetable oil and add the ground spice all together. Put galangal, bay leaves and lemon grass, stir evenly. Cook it for a while until it's fragrant and don’t forget to stir it so it won’t get burned.

I usually prepare sambal in big batch as I can definitely use it for other food as well. You can tell when the spices are well cooked and I always enjoy the process when the wonderful smell of the spices fill the house.

Caption: the first batch of sambal cooked by LG @indahnuria

Try the sambal and correct the flavor as needed. Once the sambal is ready, add the fried anchovies and peanuts, stir evenly, wait for a while until all the spices are well mixed and cook it in low heat. Stir for about 10-15 minutes and turn off the stove. Your sambal teri kacang is ready!

Well, originally I would love to share kue nastar or pineapple jam cookies recipe, that I make this time for Eid celebration. But this post is already long enough and I guess I will share it on the next post.

Cheers and terima kasih.

Selamat mencoba!

*Just a little note, I really love galangal as it will add extra aroma to your dish. But feel free to drop it of you prefer to do so. Galangal is easily found in Asian groceries or oriental market. I have also made a public list on Google Maps about the Asian market and stores around Wellington to give more information to those who, like me, need to get some items from there.

Caption: the screen shot of Asian supermarket in Wellington public list prepared by LG @indahnuria

[Zuhralc]

This is so awesome, A very nice Food Recipe for me to try. Especially when Ending the three days EID CELEBRATION 🎉.  Because on this days, you can eat a number of different foods. after joining this forum 🙂, it's so easy for me to try out new recipe at the comfort of my home, as long as am able to have all ingredients and follow the recipe . I am used to home made Recipe, because it involves most organic ingredients. I hope will gather these ingredients and give it a try.  Am much interested in " anchovies" in my country we have these kind of Small fish we call it OMENA, when dry. So if I can't get anchovies, can I still use "Omena" . Because I searched it and I have ever tested the anchovies, but the big sizes than the ones you used here.... Thanks Mbak @indahnuria  for sharing this recipe

 @DeeDesty am sure you have tested this 😉. Aha! what about you  @Nyainurjanah . Still in the EID Mood 😊... Thanks and happy guiding Mbak.🥂

[DeeDesty]

Sure, this is one of my favourite dishes, I am eating with nasi goreng (fried rice) @Zuhralc 😋

Thank you mbak @indahnuria for sharing the receipt 🤗

[KashifMisidia]

Wonderful post as always @indahnuria , as you know I never been in Indonesia, that's why I didn't tasted any Indonesian dish yet. But I hope InshaAllah one day I will.

And I will try to convince my daughter after her exams to make these recipes for me which you shared here 😍

[Nyainurjanah]

Happy eid Mubarak teteh @indahnuria @Zuhralc 

This year eid so special and challenging ahaha 

I don't know why but because my pregnancy my taste about food little bit different, I still love spicy.

Chikent porridge is my option.

[AlphaSays]

@indahnuria This look so good! My taste buds were dancing tango as read through this piece and the pictures 😋😍😌

If I find these ingredients I will try and make this. 

[RosyKohli]

@indahnuria 

Thanks for sharing it will definitely try your sambal &spice .it looks spicy & definitely dish would yummy adding it .Very true when you go to other city specially during festival time we miss that place,family friends .Will prayer to waheguru ji you get back transfer to Indonesia.

Hope you to meet you soon.Come to India.Here you will get all type of food.

[SanjayBDLG]

@indahnuriaThanks for the post.

[Yuni83A]

Wah melihat gambar juga ulasannya yang detail bikin penasaran mencicipi rasa sambel terinya yang begitu menggoda.....yummy. Thanks to sharing mbak @indahnuria 

[br14n]

Halo mbak @indahnuria 

Wah wah, sambal goreng teri ini salah satu kesukaan saya. Apapun menunya, ditambahin sambal goreng teri makin nikmat. Sebaliknya, gak ada lauk pun, makan nasi panas-panas plus sambal goreng teri udah terasa sedap.