sambal belacan – the traditional way

yummy yummy! sambal belacan (pounded chili with fried shrimp paste) is the one thing that i must have with my rice. if there is no curry to go along with my rice, then i must have sambal belacan mix with the rice until the whole rice is red! well sometimes if some of the dishes already have some sambal or some curry/chili gravy, then i can take the gravy… if not, i have to have my sambal belacan!

well lucky me. my mother made the sambal belacan herself… and in the traditional way, by using this… (what’s it call eh?) stone mortar and pestle.

since monday was a holiday, i was around when she made the sambal belacan so i managed to take some shots.  pounded manually by hand sambal is always much better than the one that used machine (which is what you get when you buy it at the store). these days of course, you hardly see people pound chill to made sambal themselves as they prefer the easy life – using the blender!

here is the picture of the cut chilies, all ready for pounding. my mum also used cabai burung (bird’s eyes chili) mix with the red chili. the belacan she fried in the kuali first… and i like to steal to eat the belacan after it is fried. haha. really. the taste is so wonderful!

following is the picture of the chili that had been pounded. the red one is the well… red chili whereas the greenish one is the cabai burung.  my mum usually made quite a lot of the sambal belacan. she put them all in small containers, and gave some to friends. for us, we put a little in a container where we will use often, whereas the remaining… lots of them… we put in a bigger container and stored in the freezer (so that it won’t go bad) – also of course this is to replenish the sambal belacan we have finished.  when the one in the freezer is going to finish, then mum will have to start her pounding job again!