*Resep ini dalam bahasa Indonesia ada di Cookpad kita ya!*

Well, what do you know… My first post on the blog is the last one of 2015 — my cousin Yasmina has been bugging me to blog for months now and I couldn’t let 2015 go by without posting one of my signature recipes :)

Sambal bawang literally translates into “onion chilli”, although it’s actually garlic chilli. The Indonesian language can be ambiguous, and sometimes inaccurate when translated, in that “bawang” is the root word for “onions” that is often followed by another descriptor word to indicate the different types of onions, e.g  shallots (“bawang merah”, lit. red onions), spring onions (“bawang daun”, lit. leaf onions) and garlic (“bawang putih”, lit. white onions).

In this recipe, we will be using “bawang putih” or garlic. This is a quick, easy sambal recipe that is very tasty to accompany any (Indonesian) meal… I make a small portion right before my meal and this gets eaten right away. You can make larger portions and keep in an airtight container for a day or two in the fridge.

What you need

5-7 red bird’s eye chillies, roughly chopped; you can remove some of the seeds if your spicyness threshold is low. 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped. Terasi paste, in quarter the amount as the garlic. About 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. A pestle and mortar. A tiny bit of salt, to taste.

Ground the spices

In the pestle and using the mortar, ground the chillies, salt and garlic together until it forms a rough paste.

Make the chilli paste

Over a medium fire, heat the coconut oil until it starts to smoke. Remove from heat, then add the terasi paste and using the back of a spoon, crush the terasi paste into the oil. Pour the hot oil and crushed terasi paste into the chilli mixture in the mortar and mix well.

The hot oil “cooks” the terasi paste, releasing its aromas. Indonesians often serve sambal in its mortar at the table; not necessarily the mortar the sambal was made in, but a table-appropriate one, usually out of wood for both practical and aesthetical reasons.

Serve and enjoy!

I eat this with simple Indonesian dishes like fried chicken and steamed rice, or fried tempeh, to add an extra spicy kick.