Starting of a Family: Cravings

I was suffering from major indigestion back during my 1st & 2nd trimesters so basically spicy food was a no-no for me. Now that my indigestion is slowly wavering off, my gawd, all i want to eat is lots and lots of sambal! I kid u not! And not just any sambal. I'm craving for my late grandmother's sambal recipes. I even called up my aunty for her recipes. And since i'm feeling ultra generous today, let me share my favourites. And thank God for blessing me the talent to cook. I like to think i inherit it from grandma.

ps: kindly note that e pics below are not moi's! I'm too excited to eat to snap any photos. These are nicked off from the net. Just to give u a rough idea how the dish looks like.

Ikan Bawal Sambal Terutup



1 tsp ginger/garlic paste mix
1 red onion
4 tbsp chili paste
Abt 1 cm galangal (lengkuas)
1 lemongrass
Blend the above with 1/2 cup water

Heat up cooking oil. Saute the above blended items
Pour in abt 2 tbsp asam water (asam dunked into some water)
Put in 2 tbsp fish curry powder (preferably Babas brand)
1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp sugar
stir around until sambal looks fried and dried enough.

1 promfret (or any fish u like) marinated with salt and tumeric powder
Slice the side belly of the fish (on both sides) and squeeze in about 1 tsp of sambal
Fry the fish. Do note that your oil from frying might turn a bit balck due to the sambal
Once fish is done, take it out of the pan and pour the rest of the sambal on top of the fish

Serve with rice.

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Sambal Belacan



3 red chilis
1 green chili
10 cili padi (more or less up to u)
Belacan abt the size of a 20 cents coin
freshly squeezed lime juice & lime zest
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Mint leaves (optional)

Toast in the belacan and chilis into your pan and sautee (no need to use oil).
Once chilis look withered, pour these into a mortar & pestle (batu lesung) with the rest of the ingredients and pound into a paste.