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Recipe for "sambal-bajak"

NAME

     SAMBAL-BAJAK - Fried chili-pepper sambal relish
     Indonesia is not known to have  nuclear  weapon  capability,
     but visitors to Djakarta often suspect that if enough Sambal
     Bajak is put into an artillery shell it will have  the  same
     general  effect.  Indonesian  hosts normally warn Westerners
     that this is ``an acquired taste.''

INGREDIENTS (makes 1 cup)

     200 g     fresh red hot chilies, chopped coarsely
     1         large onion
     6         cloves garlic
     8         kemiri nuts, chopped fine
     50 ml     peanut oil
     3 ml      laos powder
     15 ml     trasi (dried shrimp paste)
     5 ml      salt
     75 ml     tamarind liquid
     20 g      sugar

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Chop the chilies, onion, and garlic in a food pro-
               cessor.
          (2)  In a small frypan, saute this mixture in oil until
               well cooked.  Do not brown.
          (3)  Add the kemiri nuts, laos, trasi, and  salt.  Stir
               and mash until it is well blended.
          (4)  Add the tamarind liquid and  sugar;  simmer  until
               the oil separates out.
          (5)  Cool, and serve cold.

NOTES

     Laos is a form of ginger. Other names for it  are  galangal,
     Java root, galingale, or lengkuas. If you can't find it, use
     5 ml of powdered ginger mixed with 1  ml  of  powdered  cin-
     namon.   Trasi is shrimp paste; it can be left out. Tamarind
     liquid is made by soaking dried tamarind pulp in  hot  water
     for  1  hour  and  then straining. To make 75 ml of tamarind
     liquid, use 60 ml of pulp and 100 ml of hot water.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy if you  have  the  ingredients.   Time:  30
     minutes.  Precision: approximate measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Brian Reid
     DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA
     reid@decwrl.DEC.COM -or- decwrl!reid