Homesick and Restless

Gifted up

I was at home sick. I was restless. I should rest but resting is just so tiring. What should I do? Should I sleep, should I go for a wander, should I cook? My friends think I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I don't. I just sometimes find it hard to stay in one spot, focus on one thing, keep my mind or feet still - but that is just because I am good at multi tasking. I decided to cook.

It is almost Christmas and what better excuse to experiment with homemade food gifts than when you have guinea pigs, who are so far still my friends, to bestow them upon. I had seen a Smoked Chilli Sambal recipe I had been wanting to try by Anna Hansen of the Modern Pantry in London. I love chilli, sambals, satays and any sauces of the like. Give me 5 different types of sauces in any meal and I will likely sample, mix or meddle with just a tiny quantity of each. 

I followed the quantity of ingredients in the recipe, except for the addition of 8 fresh chillies and extra chilli flakes initially - it just did not seem right that a sambal did not have any fresh chillies in the recipe. Then again, it was not coming from a native Malaysian source. I tasted it and found it way too tangy, lacking the smokey dried shrimp flavour and I thought it tasted more like a chilli-ginger sauce that usually accompanies Hainanese Chicken Rice. I also think I didn't deep fry the ingredients for quite long enough. It was at this point my mini food processor decided to die on me! I resorted to the hand blender and added some fried dried anchovies, sugar, salt and more chilli flakes. 

After trying to puree this for awhile and the blender getting stuck, I gave up and bottled and processed the jars*. It tasted ok I thought but have decided it is a tangy chilli sambal, rather than a smokey chilli sambal so I am calling it that. It would go well with Hainanese Chicken Rice or perhaps Nasi Lemak, or really just with any meat or Oriental dish as a condiment or even to cook with. Although the non-rest renders me even more sick - at least I have had time to shop for a new food processor.

The array of ingredients

Deep frying all the elements

The ingredients to be mixed and blitzed

All jarred up

Tangy Chilli Sambal (adapted from Anna Hansen's Smoked Chilli Sambal)

Ingredients (makes about 700g)

1. rapeseed oil for deep–frying 
2. 250g red peppers, sliced 
3. 250g onions, sliced 
4. 250g ripe cherry tomatoes 
5. 80g fresh ginger, cut into fine strips 
6. 80g garlic, sliced 
7. 25g dried shrimps, ground finely in a spice grinder 
8. 1 tsp hot smoked paprika
9. ½ tsp dried chilli flakes (add more to your tasting)
10. 125g tamarind paste 
11. 40ml fish sauce (nam pla)
12. 8 fresh chillies (more could be added depending on taste)
13. handful dried anchovies, grounded
14. pinch salt, and sugar

Method

1. Heat some oil to 180C in a deep–fat fryer or a large, deep pan, then deep–fry the red peppers, onions and tomatoes separately in small batches until they are a deep golden brown – almost burnt–looking. Drain them on kitchen paper and then tip them into a large bowl as you go. 
2. Deep–fry the ginger, chillies and garlic, in separate batches also, until golden brown. 
3. In a small frying–pan, fry the shrimps and anchovies in a some  of the oil from the fryer until aromatic. Add them to the bowl along with all the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Now blitz the sambal in batches in a food processor until almost smooth, emptying it out into another bowl as you go. Mix the batches back together and allow to cool. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate until needed.

*The jars need to be sterilised. I did this by washing them then boiling the jars in a big saucepan for about 10 minutes. Add enough water so it covers the jars by around 1 inch. Keep the jars hot until ready for use. When the jars have been filled, put them back into the hot water and make sure there is at least an inch of water covering them and bring to a boil for around 10 minutes. When done, you might hear a ping as the lid becomes concave, indicating that they have been sealed properly. Let the jars sit for at least 5 minutes before taking them out to cool. Keeps for a month in the fridge.