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Sambal Terasi Recipe - authentic Indonesian shrimp paste chilli sauce

A rustic, hot and umami-rich chilli sauce made from charred chillies, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, lime and terasi (Indonesian shrimp paste).
(Fair warning - this is a spicy sambal. See the note at the footer of this recipe for details on reducing the heat).
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: Indonesian
Servings: 1 Jar (enough to serve 4 with extra for freezing)
Author: Will Helliwell

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp oil e.g. vegetable oil
  • 4 g terasi or another shrimp paste such as Malaysian belacan or Thai kapi, see 'ingredient notes' in main article for more information
  • 7 shallots (around 130g) skin removed and halved
  • 10 birds-eye chillies*
  • 5 large red chillies (red-spur or serrano) halved lengthways
  • 5 cloves of garlic peeled
  • 2 large tomatoes roughly sliced into wedges
  • 2 tsp lime juice around half a lime
  • Palm or dark brown sugar to taste I added 1.5 tsp
  • Salt to taste I added around ½ tsp of fine salt

Instructions

Toasting and Charring

  • Toast your terasi for a couple of minutes in a dry non-stick pan until fragrant, then set aside. If using Thai kapi as a substitute, then I suggest frying at the end because it is wetter (see ‘Ingredient notes’ in main article for more details).
  • Char your vegetables. To do this, heat the oil in a non-stick over a high heat and first add your shallots. Fry, tossing occasionally, for 2 minutes or until beginning to colour.
  • Add the chillies and garlic. Continue frying and tossing occasionally until all the veg are softened and charred (around 4 minutes depending on the heat of your stove).
  • Add your tomatoes to the pan and continue to fry until everything has softened and taken on some colour (again, around 4 minutes). Once your pan looks like the photo below, remove from the heat.
    Frying the chillies shallots garlic and tomatoes until they are blackened and soft

Grinding

  • Tip the garlic, chillies, shallot, salt and sugar into the pestle and mortar. Bash until there are no large chunks and a rustic consistency is achieved (this will take around 5 minutes).
    Close-up of my sambal terasi in mortar with pestle resting in it showing rough texture required
  • Add the tomatoes and terasi. Bash for a further minute to incorporate.
  • Squeeze in the lime juice and mix well.
  • Taste and adjust the seasoning levels to your own liking (see ‘Where is my sambal terasi recipe from?’ for ideas).

Notes

*This makes for a very spicy sambal terasi (spicy even by Indonesian standards). If you are not a fan of intense heat, then you can certainly reduce the number of birds-eye chillies - you could go down to as few as 2 or 3 and quite happily keep the essence of the sambal.