Recipe: Sweet Sambal Tumis

Necessity of the mother of invention cooking. Since husband and I love spicy food and I don't have confidence in those bottles of imported chili paste sold in Asian stores, I've been cooking up batches of this yummy condiment for a while. With my mini food processor and my shallot peeling and slicing skill practices supervised by my mother during my teens, I am saving money by making my own sambal tumis.

Recipe taken from here.

Sweet Sambal Tumis
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

100g dried chilies
100g fresh red chilies
10g bird’s eye chilies
250g shallots (I use Rose shallots, bawang Rose)
1 big onion
10g ginger
15g galangal (blue ginger)
30g garlic
15g belacan (shrimp paste)


3/4 cup cooking oil (suggest change to 1 cup)
40g tamarind pulp , add 1/4cup water to become assam water, discard the seeds
50g sugar or palm sugar (gula Melaka)
1tsp salt


Method
1. Use a scissor to discard dried chili’s head and cut into 2-3pcs and boil in hot water for 5mins. Drain and discard the chili seeds if you want less spicy.
2. Toast belacan in a frying pan, chopping and break it up till powdery and aromatic.
3. Blend dried chili, fresh chili, shallots, big onion, ginger, galangal and toasted belacan with 1/4cup of water till smooth paste.
4. Pour chili paste into a big wok, stir fry for 5-10mins over medium low heat until slightly dried paste (By not adding oil at this time as to avoid oil spill)
5. Now add in cooking oil, continue stirring (tumis) over low heat for 30-40mins. The chili paste will turn darker, light and oil separated after long stirring.
6. Add in assam water, salt and sugar, continue stirring (tumis) for 5-10mins.
7. Leave to cool before storing in the fridge or freeze in small containers for later use.