By now you should know why I love Indonesian food so much. Never mind that I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, or the fact that my basics in cooking anything is based on Indonesian food recipes.......What was I trying to say again??
Anyways, I love Indonesian food because it involves three top things that I love in food: chili, coconut milk, and chili. Wait, those are two things, but who's counting?
So naturally, I love sambal goreng. And not just any sambal goreng, it has to be Indonesian sambal goreng, because it contains stink/pete beans more often than not*big grin. So I guess I could say the number three ingredient that I like in Indonesian food is pete beans, except I don't eat them....for aesthetics purposes.
I have shared with you my recipe for sambal goreng ati ampela. which is basically similar to this one, except in this recipe we work with shrimps instead of chicken innards. Some of the herbs are different, but not by a lot. Basically, we still work with the same base flavors. I guess if you can master making the two sambal goreng dishes (both with seafood and non seafood), you can basically make sambal goreng with anything.
So, let's start.
First, we need some shrimps. Again, I used the frozen, peeled shrimps here, because it's very convenient for me. I don't have to spend extra time to clean the shrimps before I work with them.
I submerge them with water here because I planned to get rid of the unwanted odor from the shrimps by squeezing some lime juice, and let it sit in the lime juice water for about 15-20 minutes.
I chose to mix the lime juice with water so that the shrimps do not smell and taste strongly of lime, I still want them to taste neutral but odor free.
I also used blue ginger here and of course, palm sugar. My mother taught me to use this as a secret ingredient when cooking, it just tastes marvelous. I only need to use a little bit of palm sugar, to brighten up a dish, to give it that extra kick of richness.
Another ingredient used in this recipe is chopped shallots. You can slice them or chop them more finely, as long as it is the same size so they will cook at the same time. Usually other sambal goreng recipe also calls for garlic, but I want the sambal goreng to have a mellow sweetness to it, and I think if I put garlic in, it will change the whole intended dynamics of the dish.
I also included leeks. I saw this at one of my favorite Padang restaurants (just so you know, it was Garuda). They cooked the sambal goreng udang using leeks, and I thought that was pretty cool. The taste sure was awesome. So that is why I also included it in my recipe :)
And of course, it will not be sambal goreng without the chili. The ground chili that I used already had a little salt in it. So in this recipe, I do not include that much salt. But you should adjust the saltiness to your liking. Feel free to change this part of the recipe as you see fit.
And this part is one of my favorite part, the part that makes the dish. You can use coconut milk, but coconut cream is thicker and more concentrated, so please take that into consideration when you're cooking with this recipe.
Another important element to this dish, if not the most important, is the stink/pete beans. If you've had stink beans before then you know how special these beans are. They may make you breath and pee smell bad, but boy do they enrich a dish. And I mean this in the best possible way of course.
I always have the urge to eat them, but when I weigh in the risk of heaving bad breath for the whole day, and probably the following morning till noon, I usually change my mind.
Okay, so let's get cooking.
1. Heat up vegetable oil on medium high heat, and when the oil is hot enough, throw in the shallots, blue ginger and leeks. The leeks that I used here was the big Australian leeks. They ran out of the usual, regular size Chinese leeks. Since the Australian leeks are bigger, and the texture is harder, I figured they'd take longer to cook. So I included them in the beginning. But I suggest you use the regular Chinese leeks and include it in the dish only towards the end so they retain their beautiful colors while also becoming soft and tender, and enjoyable to eat.
2. When the shallots started to wilt, include the chili. I have to warn you that cooking with chili can give you sneezing spells, and it won't let out until you feel your nose is sore, runny, defeated and hot, very miserable. So, it's a good idea to wear a facial mask to cover your nose at this point.
3. Add in some water, and let everything come to a simmer. Add a little bit of salt here too. Don't forget to taste, even though you don't feel like it. So you'll know whether it's salty enough or not.
4. As the aromatics are simmering, you can put the palm sugar in. Mix it to let the sugar melt and combine into the sauce.
5. Let the sauce comes to a boil again. Let it cook down the leeks so that it's edible. Once the leeks have started to soften, include the coconut cream. Mix it together so that the cream lumps disappear.
6. Have a taste, and see whether the shallots, blue ginger and leeks are pronounced in the sauce. If so, then that means, it is ready for the shrimps. The purpose is so that any remaining unwanted aroma of the shrimps can be covered and complimented beautifully with the aromatics infused in the sauce.
7. Throw in the shrimps together with the stink beans. The stink beans cook fairly quickly. The shrimps would take longer in fact. For a portion like this, it takes about 4-5 minutes for the shrimps to cook. Be careful not to overcook them. The texture you're looking for is firm but still crunchy.
8. When the shrimps have started to curl up and the flesh becomes firm and turns pink all over, then the shrimps are ready. The dish is done, you can turn off the heat.
I promise you, they taste amazing, and it is super easy to make :).
I have made a video to show you the step by step for this recipe, I hope you find it useful. And if so, please share :)
Here's the complete recipe for sambal goreng udang, thank you for tuning in:
200 gr shrimps
2 tbsp ground chili
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 stalk leeks
1 bowl of stink/pete beans
2 tbps chopped shallots
Vegetable oil for stir frying
2 tbsp palm sugar
300 ml water
100 ml coconut cream
Anyways, I love Indonesian food because it involves three top things that I love in food: chili, coconut milk, and chili. Wait, those are two things, but who's counting?
So naturally, I love sambal goreng. And not just any sambal goreng, it has to be Indonesian sambal goreng, because it contains stink/pete beans more often than not*big grin. So I guess I could say the number three ingredient that I like in Indonesian food is pete beans, except I don't eat them....for aesthetics purposes.
I have shared with you my recipe for sambal goreng ati ampela. which is basically similar to this one, except in this recipe we work with shrimps instead of chicken innards. Some of the herbs are different, but not by a lot. Basically, we still work with the same base flavors. I guess if you can master making the two sambal goreng dishes (both with seafood and non seafood), you can basically make sambal goreng with anything.
So, let's start.
First, we need some shrimps. Again, I used the frozen, peeled shrimps here, because it's very convenient for me. I don't have to spend extra time to clean the shrimps before I work with them.
I submerge them with water here because I planned to get rid of the unwanted odor from the shrimps by squeezing some lime juice, and let it sit in the lime juice water for about 15-20 minutes.
I chose to mix the lime juice with water so that the shrimps do not smell and taste strongly of lime, I still want them to taste neutral but odor free.
I also used blue ginger here and of course, palm sugar. My mother taught me to use this as a secret ingredient when cooking, it just tastes marvelous. I only need to use a little bit of palm sugar, to brighten up a dish, to give it that extra kick of richness.
Another ingredient used in this recipe is chopped shallots. You can slice them or chop them more finely, as long as it is the same size so they will cook at the same time. Usually other sambal goreng recipe also calls for garlic, but I want the sambal goreng to have a mellow sweetness to it, and I think if I put garlic in, it will change the whole intended dynamics of the dish.
I also included leeks. I saw this at one of my favorite Padang restaurants (just so you know, it was Garuda). They cooked the sambal goreng udang using leeks, and I thought that was pretty cool. The taste sure was awesome. So that is why I also included it in my recipe :)
And of course, it will not be sambal goreng without the chili. The ground chili that I used already had a little salt in it. So in this recipe, I do not include that much salt. But you should adjust the saltiness to your liking. Feel free to change this part of the recipe as you see fit.
And this part is one of my favorite part, the part that makes the dish. You can use coconut milk, but coconut cream is thicker and more concentrated, so please take that into consideration when you're cooking with this recipe.
Another important element to this dish, if not the most important, is the stink/pete beans. If you've had stink beans before then you know how special these beans are. They may make you breath and pee smell bad, but boy do they enrich a dish. And I mean this in the best possible way of course.
I always have the urge to eat them, but when I weigh in the risk of heaving bad breath for the whole day, and probably the following morning till noon, I usually change my mind.
Okay, so let's get cooking.
1. Heat up vegetable oil on medium high heat, and when the oil is hot enough, throw in the shallots, blue ginger and leeks. The leeks that I used here was the big Australian leeks. They ran out of the usual, regular size Chinese leeks. Since the Australian leeks are bigger, and the texture is harder, I figured they'd take longer to cook. So I included them in the beginning. But I suggest you use the regular Chinese leeks and include it in the dish only towards the end so they retain their beautiful colors while also becoming soft and tender, and enjoyable to eat.
2. When the shallots started to wilt, include the chili. I have to warn you that cooking with chili can give you sneezing spells, and it won't let out until you feel your nose is sore, runny, defeated and hot, very miserable. So, it's a good idea to wear a facial mask to cover your nose at this point.
3. Add in some water, and let everything come to a simmer. Add a little bit of salt here too. Don't forget to taste, even though you don't feel like it. So you'll know whether it's salty enough or not.
4. As the aromatics are simmering, you can put the palm sugar in. Mix it to let the sugar melt and combine into the sauce.
5. Let the sauce comes to a boil again. Let it cook down the leeks so that it's edible. Once the leeks have started to soften, include the coconut cream. Mix it together so that the cream lumps disappear.
6. Have a taste, and see whether the shallots, blue ginger and leeks are pronounced in the sauce. If so, then that means, it is ready for the shrimps. The purpose is so that any remaining unwanted aroma of the shrimps can be covered and complimented beautifully with the aromatics infused in the sauce.
7. Throw in the shrimps together with the stink beans. The stink beans cook fairly quickly. The shrimps would take longer in fact. For a portion like this, it takes about 4-5 minutes for the shrimps to cook. Be careful not to overcook them. The texture you're looking for is firm but still crunchy.
8. When the shrimps have started to curl up and the flesh becomes firm and turns pink all over, then the shrimps are ready. The dish is done, you can turn off the heat.
I promise you, they taste amazing, and it is super easy to make :).
I have made a video to show you the step by step for this recipe, I hope you find it useful. And if so, please share :)
Here's the complete recipe for sambal goreng udang, thank you for tuning in:
200 gr shrimps
2 tbsp ground chili
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 stalk leeks
1 bowl of stink/pete beans
2 tbps chopped shallots
Vegetable oil for stir frying
2 tbsp palm sugar
300 ml water
100 ml coconut cream
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