When you're miles away from home, sometimes all you want is a taste of it. My husband longed for proper sausages and pork pies when we were living in Asia. Similarly I find myself dreaming of the food of my homeland now that I'm here in Scotland. I think of nasi lemak, lontong, char kuey teow... all the delicious smells of my country! - and I think of home. I'm Malaysian. All we think about is food.
For those of you faraway Malaysians looking for a super-easy, super-delicious sambal recipe, try this one here called "My Amah's Sambal Udang Petai". This is the recipe I used when I made nasi lemak a week ago. I can vouch for its authenticity and sheer syiok-ness. I didn't have petai on hand when I made it so I just left it out. I also didn't remove the seeds from the dried chillies as I didn't have time so it was like yowza! spicy. To tone it down, I added in some brown sugar... I like my sambal on the sweetish side anyway, just like how my mum makes it.
Just a warning: My entire house smelled of belacan after that and I had to open all the doors and windows to try and air it out. So be careful if you live with angmoh housemates/partners who aren't used to the smell of belacan. Some foreigners find the smell quite objectionable. I had to go pick Connor up from school after I'd cooked the sambal and I was careful to stay away from the usual pack of parents because I didn't want everyone to faint as I knew I had to be smelling of belacan.
Happy cooking!
Ha ha .
ReplyDeleteBut belacan is so sedap.
That's what I keep telling my British in-laws but they don't believe it! HAHA!
DeleteHa ha I cannot imagine if your british in laws will one day succumb to the succulent taste of sambal or durian .
ReplyDeleteYeah... when the end of the world is near... hahahahaha..
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