I’m happy with this dish. It’s easy to make, fast and a delicious replacement for meat. I love meat, but less meat is so much better for the environment. With Indonesian food eating less meat is not difficult at all.
Usually, I make different Indonesian dishes that I combine. For example a meat dish, a vegetable and tempeh dish and a fresh acar. Because of the variation I only need a little bit of meat to serve many people ;-).
Sambal Goreng
Sambal goreng means nothing less than ‘sautéed in sambal’. You can sauté a lot of different food in sambal. For instance, meat, fish, tofu, tempeh, egg or vegetables. Here you can find all the ‘sambal goreng recipes‘ that I have made so far.
This dish is enough for 6 people as a side dish and is done in 40 minutes.
Sambal Goreng with Egg #58 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch kookboek, page 82.
Ingredients
6 chicken or duck eggs
3 tablespoons of chopped onions
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
1 teaspoon of sambal terasi (or 1 teaspoon sambal ulek and 1/2 teaspoon terasi)
1 teaspoon laos(galangal)
1 teaspoon of Javanese sugar
1 stalk sereh (lemongrass)
1 salam leaf (Asian bay leaf)
1 teaspoon of tomato puree
1/8 block santen(coconutcream)
2 tablespoons of oil
salt
Boil the chicken eggs 10 and the duck eggs 15 minutes. Rinse them with cold water and take off the shell. Rub onions, garlic, sambal, laos, tomato puree, sugar and salt together into a mash.
Sauté this in the oil. After a minute or five, add the block of santen, the sereh, the salamleaf and 1 dl of water. After that, add the eggs to the whole and allow them to steam for about 10 minutes until the oil comes out of the sand. Remove the
Add the eggs and let simmer for about 10 minutes until the oil comes out of the santen. Remove the sereh and the salam leaf. Cut the eggs in half, arrange them on a dish and pour the sauce over it.
Today I use chicken eggs. I love duck eggs, though. They are a bit bigger and firmer than chicken eggs. They are not easy to get here in Holland. My Asian store sometimes sells them.
Sambal Trassi I make myself but I’ve finished it, so I just rub a chili peper and some trassi together. Trassi is fermented shrimp paste. Trassi is also widely used in Thai cuisine.
In this recipe tomato puréeis used, but I think tomatopurée from a can is sometimes too sour. That’s why I use a good quality fresh tomato to mix through my bumbu (spice mix). The mix becomes a bit thinner because of the extra liquid but that’s okay because it needs to reduce anyway.
Santen is a coconut cream and is sold in blocks at my supermarket or specialised Asian store.
Salam is Asian bay leaf. I buy it fresh or dried at my Asian store.
Laos is galangal. I buy it dry or fresh as a root at the supermarket. I use fresh galangal this time (about 2 centimeters). I use my blender to chop it up fast ;-).
Sereh is lemongrass.
Make the bumbu or spice mix
I place chopped onion, garlic, sambal, galangal, tomato purée, sugar, and salt together in a plastic jug and blend it with my emersion blender.
You can use a mortar, but with the blender the bumbuwill become smooth. This way it is easy to make into a nice sauce.
Now sauté in the pan with a tablespoon of oil.
Most of the moisture evaporates and when the onions turn yellow the rest can be added.
Now the bumbu is pretty dry, so I add 1 dl water first and heat it up.
The lemon grass stalks (sereh), the salam leaves and the santen can be added now.
Reduce the sauce
The hard boiled eggs are next. They need to simmer in the sauce until it thickens and the oil from the santen float to the surface of the sauce.
I wait for the sauce to be pretty thick and sticky. Then I take out the eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.
I leave the lemongrass and the leaves in the sauce because it looks beautiful and they still gives flavor.
I place a few sherry tomatoes on top for some color contrast. You can eat this sambal goreng with egg with white rice and another vegetable dish. Or it can be part of a larger rice table.
You decide how spicy the eggs will be. That’s what I like so much about this dish.
Selamat makan!
