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Sambal Goreng - Fried Chili Paste
With a large batch of sambal goreng (fried chili paste) at home, you can quickly whip up sambal goreng dishes with fish, chicken, eggs, and even potatoes.
Sambal goreng (fried chili paste) is a basic multi-purpose chili paste that can be the base of many delicious Indonesian spicy dishes, plus it can be enjoyed as is. This chili sauce is especially great with fried food, such as ayam goreng/fried chicken, bakwan/fritters, bakso goreng/fried meatballs, tahu goreng/fried tofu or perkedel/potato fritters.
What do I need to make sambal goreng?
I want my sambal goreng to be full of umami, and for this, I usually use all of these to make my trusted fried chili paste:
- dried red chilies. My Asian market typically stock chilies from China and from Thailand, the Chinese are usually slightly milder than Thai ones, so choose according to how hot you want your chili paste to be.
- shallots. I use smaller Chinese/Asian shallots, but regular French shallots are okay too.
- garlic
- onion. Choose yellow/white, though, in a pinch, you can use red onion too.
- terasi/belacan/shrimp paste. This stinky and pungent block of fermented shrimps is the key to umami-rich chili paste, so definitely try to hunt it down. In a really short pinch, you can use fish sauce, but the final chili paste is definitely inferior to the one using terasi/belacan/shrimp paste.
- kaffir lime leaves. This adds that lovely citrusy fragrance to the chili paste, sub with lime zest in a pinch.
- tamarind. I usually buy a wet seedless tamarind packet and add water as needed to make my own tamarind paste. In a pinch, you can use tomato paste too, but it will taste slightly different from our traditional chili paste.
How do I make sambal goreng?
Making your very own sambal goreng is quite easy. You will need:
- a blender
- a saucepot/a soup pot/a wok
Here is the step-by-step process to cook sambal goreng:
- Boil dry chilies in a small pot. Simmer until chilies are soft. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Toast terasi/belacan/shrimp paste. The easiest method is using a microwave and cooks for 30 seconds.
- Place boiled chilies, shallots, garlic, onion, toasted terasi/belacan/shrimp paste, and water in a blender. Process into a smooth paste.
- Transfer the smooth chili paste into a saucepot/soup pot/wok, cook on medium-high until the paste is thicker and drier.
- Add oil and kaffir lime leaves to the paste. Stir to mix, and cook for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to a medium-low and cook for another 20 minutes, or until oil starts to separate from the chili paste. We call this phenomenon “pecah minyak” in Indonesian/Malaysian.
- Season with salt, sugar, and tamarind juice. Stir until everything is incorporated into the chili paste. You may adjust the amount of sugar/salt to suit your taste.
And our sambal goreng is done! You now have the option to store them for longer storage or enjoy the chili paste immediately.
How to store and use Indonesian sambal goreng?
This recipe will yield about 4 cups of sambal goreng. I usually divide the chili paste into 4 portions, 1 cup each, and store in sterilized glass jars. Any unopened jar of chili paste should last for up to 2 months in the fridge. Once opened and used, you want to finish it within a week.
How do I use this sambal goreng?
Sambal goreng is basically one of Indonesian handy instant sauce. Arm with this, we can make delicious dishes within minutes. The guide to make a sambal goreng dish is like so:
- 1/2 cup of sambal goreng/fried chili paste
- 500 gram (1 lb.) of meat, seafood, vegetables, egg, tofu, or tempeh
Basically, you need to only heat the chili paste in a frying pan/wok, then add your choice of protein/vegetables. Stir, cook, and toss until the protein/vegetables are cooked and coated. If you want some examples of authentic Indonesian dishes made with this handy chili paste, you can try some of these recipes:
- sambal goreng ikan - fish in spicy chili sauce
- sambal goreng telur - eggs in spicy chili sauce
- sambal goreng kentang - roast potatoes in spicy chili sauce
Based on these examples, feel free to create your own sambal goreng dishes. Have fun and enjoy. :)
Sambal Goreng - Fried Chili Paste
Ingredients
- 60 gram dried red chilies (use Thai chilies for hot version, and Chinese chilies for a slightly milder version)
- 100 gram garlic
- 200 gram shallots
- 300 gram onion
- 30 gram shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi, Malaysian: belacan), toasted
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 10 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
- 200 gram sugar
- 40 gram salt
- 20 gram tamarind + 4 tablespoon water, massaged into thick paste, strained
Instructions
- Remove seeds from the dried red chilies, then soak in hot water for 15 minutes to soften the chilies.
- In a food processor/blender, grind together chilies, garlic, shallots, onion, toasted shrimp paste, and water into a fine paste.
- Transfer the paste to a wok/frying pan. Cook the chili paste on medium-high until the paste becomes thicker and drier, i.e. we want to evaporate the water as much as possible before adding oil to prevent splattering. Stir every so often.
- Add in the oil and kaffir lime leaves. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir to mix well.
- Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 20 minutes, or until the oil starts to separate from the chili paste. Stir every so often.
- Add sugar, salt, and tamarind juice. Cook until everything has been incorporated into the chili paste. You can adjust salt and sugar to taste.
- Turn off heat. Let the chili paste cool, then transfer to glass jars to store. Since this recipe makes 4 cups of chili paste, it is best if you can store in multiple glass jars. Any unopened jar can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 months. Any opened jar should be used within 1 week.
Comments
Just found your website, and am eager to try your recipes. I'm from The Netherlands where I used to go out for 'Indonesian Ricetable' every so often. Here in the US I've been making just a couple of dishes, i.e. I am much in need of expanding my Indonesian menu, which is where you and your site come in. So for now: Thanks for setting this up; Expect me back once I've tried making some tasty hot and spicy indonesian dishes using your directions. Will rate recipe later.
This sounds lovely, but I'm wondering if you use a specific type of chili?
Hi Niki, I use dried red chilies from China. It's probably the most common dried chilies sold in typical Chinese/Asian market in the US. I think there are also dried chilies imported from Thailand, but those can be much hotter, which can be good if that's what you want. :)
The more spice the better! This looks like a great recipe to try, lots of flavor!
This sauce sounds amazing. Some of these ingredients are new to me. I'll have to check out my local specialty store to see if I can find them.
Annissa, if you can show the picture when you go to the store, it will really help a lot. From my experience, it is usually best to find an older store helper and get him/her to help with finding the ingredients. :)
What a great use of dried chilis. So delicious!
Wow!! I would have never thought to make this myself. I am much too lazy and buy chili paste. This sounds so good!!!
Haha, I know what you mean. It's so easy to buy this from almost any market in Indonesia so it's not something I make when I was still living in Indonesia. Now I simply have to make it myself if I want to prepare Indonesian sambal goreng dishes. :)
This is so flavourful! Perfect addition to just about anything.
I would like to try this sambal goreng recipe, but will probably need to use lime zest. How much is needed? Thanks!
I usually substitute one lime zest for two kaffir lime leaves, so you will need five limes for this recipe. If you don't have that many limes at home, try to use at least zest from two limes. :)
I normally don't make comments in any website, but I have to now to protect my Javanese heritage dish. This is NOT sambal goreng. This looks more like sambal tumis. Sambal goreng consist of tempeh, bean curd & occasionally long beans with many, many other ingredients & spices.
Thank you for your feedback, Jumi. Both my parents are from Sumatra, and up til SMP (junior high) I was raised in Medan, so we still get some food names wrong every so often. :) That said, you are right that this is still half-done, which is what I stated in the post. We use this chili paste to prepare dishes, a more complete one as you described with tofu, tempeh, etc. I also provided some simple examples on how to use the chili paste for this such as sambal goreng kentang, sambal goreng ikan, and sambal goreng telur. Anyone can take this basic sauce and create as complicated a dish as one wish.
This is so much easier to make than I thought. Such a versatile sauce too, yum.
Great recipe with amazing flavors. Cant wait to make this one.
Oh I definitely need to try this. It looks like it would have so many uses.
This is so very interesting and I love that it has so many lovely flavors. Definitely best when homemade and stocked up too.
u go girl! sambal tumis..sambal goreng..what’s in a name? as long as it tastes delish!!😁
I'm working on preparing this delicious recipe, I just need some clarification on a couple things. The lime leaves, are they put in whole and removed later, or crushed and added to the paste? Also, the tamarind part (I'm using already made paste) it says to add the water and make it to a paste then strain. Is it the juice that is added to the recipe, or the paste after this separation? Thank you, very excited 😁
Hi Travis, you can use either whole leaves or cut into thin slivers, both will work but I usually just use whole leaves. Either way, please remember to remove the middle ribs from all the leaves to help release the fragrance from the leaves. And you won't need to remove the leaves from the finished sauce.
I use wet tamarind (not tamarind paste), so I need to soak it in water and massage into a thick paste and strain to remove pulps and occasional stray seeds. If you were to use tamarind paste/concentrate, you can use it immediately, though you may still need to dissolve the thick paste/concentrate with a little water to dilute.
Sambal Goreng, or Fried Chili Paste, is a fiery and flavorful condiment that brings a burst of heat to any dish. Its aromatic blend of spices creates a tantalizing experience for spicy food lovers.
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