Recipe: How tos: Easy Sambal Belacan a.k.a. pounded chillies with shrimp block

Yue's Homemade Sambal Belacan

What is a sambal belacan? Sambal belacan is a dip sauce for us to eat usually with grilled fish, plain rice and raw vegetables (as in salads). It is comprised mainly of chillies and belacan (shrimp paste block) and ofcoz there are other additional ingredients to vary it over. Always being prepared fresh, it's a very popular must have dip sauce in Malaysia and comes in various forms. If you visit the normal malay stalls or restaurants selling rice with varieties of dishes displays on a rack or table, the sides will always be sambal belacan. Because we can't live without it. Truthfully speaking. We can't go on without this hot and spicy paste/sauce. I usually can't eat rice if I don't have this.

Hence, I'm gonna teach a simple way to make sambal belacan.

4 servings (If you don't eat too much of it) = 1 small saucer

Ingredients

Belacan - 1 inch or so

2 Cayenne chilli pepper

5 Bird's eye chilli pepper/ thai chilli pepper

1/4 big onion/yellow onion

1 lime (deseeded)

1/4 tomatoes *optional

a pinch of salt

Don't know the differences between the chillies? Have a look here. In Malaysia, we usually used these 3 kinds of chillies for our cooking;

photo credits to google

Cayenne chilli pepper (about 2 1/2 to 3 inch long, usually long and slender)

  photo credits to google

Bird's eye chilli pepper (usually light green, around 1/2 to 1 inch long)

 photo credits to google   

Thai chilli pepper (around 1 - 1 1/2 inch long, slender and green)

Anyway, I usually used this kind of belacan for my cooking;

Any kind of it will do, but try not to get the ones with high red intensity coz it usually got colouring. Very dangerous. The darker version of these are way much better coz they are naturally made from fermented krill paste with salt and sundried. But the smell..aiyoo..it'll make u get a headache. Keep them in tight lid container n pop in the fridge. You can actually left them outside as well, no problem. Belacan won't expires. You can read some more infos about belacan here and here, though its in Malay..

Methodology

Pop in all the ingredients inside a dry blender except for the lime. Pulse it to the desired consistency. Some people likes it course, some likes it fine. In the olden days, people usually pound it with mortar and pastel. It actually tasted better. I only do that if I got time hehe

Remove from blender and squeeze a lime. Give it a taste with ur pinky. If the taste is not right, adjust it. It should taste hot and a lil salty with a hint of sourness. Can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days in an air tight container. Eat with grilled seafood..yum !