SMALL BITES

Food editor Sally Butters is experimenting with spicy sambal and making grape jam

I’m using: SAMBA L

Every cuisine seems to have its own favourite hot sauce, and in the case of Indonesian food that condiment is sambal. My Dutch stepfather introduced me to it many years ago; an excellent cook, he would make a mean nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and it was never without a decent dollop of sambal.

Sambal, translated from Indonesian, means sauce and there are hundreds of different named types and innumerable recipe variations. All are basically a paste of mushed chillies mixed with a range of herbs, spices or aromatics. The fieriness level ranges from mild to very hot and is directly related to the variety of chilli used. Sambal oelek (or ulek) is the classic, most widely used sambal. “Oelek” refers to the mortar and pestle used to create sambal in Indonesian kitchens. The recipe is generally a simple combination of hot red chillies, vinegar and salt. Sambal oelek is up there on the Scoville heat scale so I tend to use it as a flavouring ingredient rather than a condiment.

Sambal manis – manis meaning sweet – is milder, with a pleasant balance of sweetness and spiciness. If you find sriracha, the Thai chilli sauce, a bit too hot but sweet chilli sauce just too sweet, I think you’ll enjoy sambal manis.

On page 124 you’ll find some IndoDutch recipes that use sambal oelek, including an amazing zingy fresh fruit salad. Don’t hesitate to buy a jar of the stuff, thinking you’ll end up wasting it – once you have some in your fridge you’ll be surprised how often you reach for it to give your cooking a bit of zip. It can be used in dipping sauces, soups, stir-fries, noodle or rice dishes, is great stirred into mayonnaise or tomato sauce, gives salad dressings and meat dishes a kick, and is an easy substitute for fresh, crushed or dried chillies. Plus it keeps for months after opening.

If you want to make your own sambal, the web has many easy recipes. It would be a great way to preserve a bumper harvest of chillies.