Sambal Terasi ( Hot sauce with shrimp paste )

Indonesian loves hot sauce , and their hot sauce is really different because not only it’s spicy , but it is also sweet . Unlike mexican’s hot sauce , their sauce usually hot and sour , ours , is hot and sweet , which is awesome ! I remember when we went to any restaurant , esp. seafood place , they always serve the hot sauce , all kinds of sauce , ones with shrimp paste , or just plain refreshing hot sauce with just tomatoes as it’s main ingredients , etc . This time , after my friend sent me shrimp paste , i’ve been so tempted to try making sambal terasi . What stopped me ? why did it wait so long ? Well i wasn’t sure about deep frying shrimp paste inside the house . Because of the strong smell . But today i thought oh well .. just do it anyway ..

So here is my recipe for sambal terasi ..

About 30-35 bird’s eye chilis , yes it’s a lot of chilis !

1 tomato ( on the vine ,hot house , or whatever .. i don’t use roma tomatoes though )

2 large shallots

5 garlic cloves

about 20-25 grams of shrimp paste

salt and pepper

40 grams of palm sugar

1. In a skillet , add vegetable oil , enough to fry all sides of the garlic , shallots and shrimp paste , about 1-2 minutes on medium heat , and set aside .

2. In the same skillet , fry the tomato wedges , and all the chilis , until the tomatoes are softened .

3. Put all ingredients together into the food processor ( without the oil of course ) , pulse until smooth . Then once it’s smooth , add the grated palm sugar , and pulse together again , add salt and pepper to your taste .

Your sambal terasi is done !!!