Sambal Tumis (Malaysian Sautéed Chilli Paste)

Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of you!!!

I hope you've all  had a tremendous start to 2012. Did you make any new year's resolutions? I've not made any resolution list this time and just go on living my life the best way I love it. Hope it will work for me.

Begin the year with a simple spicy stir fry sauce. An authentic Malaysian Sambal Tumis. The refreshing  Sambal Tumis is a tastefully  blended of spicy, sweet, tangy with a swing of  belacan (shrimp paste) flavor.The aroma of belacan gives a oomph to the Sambal tumis.

There are so many variations of Sambal Tumis out there in Malaysia, but this my basic Sambal Tumis is always come first as my favorite. This versatile Sambal Tumis is used as a main base sauce for many Malaysian dishes.Nonetheless, a dollop of this Sambal would be the first thing is serve with our national dish, Nasi Lemak followed by other condiment.

Simply mix this pre made sauce with seafood, meats and vegetables to produce Malaysian dishes such as sambal udang, sambal telur or use as dip or pour over blanched bendi, aubergine, long beans to get a authentic Nyonya dishes or serve as its with rice or noodles.

Sambal Tumis (Malaysian Sautéed Chilli Paste)

Ingredients:

50g dry red chillies, soaked in hot water for 1hour, drained

5fat clove garlic

2medium onions

2tbsp toasted belacan {shrimp paste}

4tbsp tamarind pulp

1/2cup water

1/2-1tsp palm sugar

1pandan leave,knot

salt

oil

Method:

Place the soaked dry chillies, garlic, onion and water in a food processor, whizz up them to a smooth paste. Heat a work or heavy bottomed pan over a high heat, add the oil and heat until it is smoking hot. Pour the paste very carefully. Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat to medium low, add the pandan knot, belacan, tamarind juice, palm sugar and salt. Stir to combine and cook until oil separate from the mixture, about 30-35 minutes, stir it occasionally. The sambal should turned to a deep red color and highly fragrant. Turn the heat off and let the sambal to cool.

Once the sambal is cooled, store them in a clean bottle and keep in the fridge. The sambal is long last for 3-4 weeks. Use a cleaned dry spoon each time you take sambal tumis out..