Sambal Jate. Awesome Habis!

This is the fastest that I tried a recipe after seeing it on a blog. Thanks to LiNa_Pg I learnt about a sambal that I never heard of before. 

Apparently this is a Kelantan sambal and I am surprised that I never knew about this sambal even though I come from neighboring Terengganu. 

I was excited about this sambal because, well, I haven't had much appetite lately and I needed something to perk me up. I know. I heard someone say "Oi, PH. Isn't losing appetite good for you? Aren't you trying to lose weight?".

True true. But I love eating. If I can't eat or enjoy my food, it's like something is missing from my life. Yes,  I probably need therapy too, but for now, I will indulge in what I love best and that is to eat hee..hee..

This sambal is made of red chillies, onion, calamansi limes and seasoned with vinegar, salt and sugar.

Lina's recipe uses 25 red cili padi and 2 regular red chilies. Did you hear that? 25 red cili padi. It must be that red cili padi, you know, the one that can burn your tongue and send you flying through the roof. No, I cannot tahan that cili padi.

So I used only the red regular chilies and added 4 green cili padi instead. Coward. 

I also used red onion instead of the yellow Holland onion because that's what I had in the kitchen.

I put the ingredients into the blender and whizzed away. Then the blended sambal was poured into a bowl to be seasoned with vinegar, salt and sugar.

You need to do this cautiously by adding a bit at a time because you don't want it too salty, too sour or too sweet. Adjust to your own taste, as advised by Lina.

I managed to make 3/4 of a bottle. After tasting and adjusting, I found the taste of this sambal very pleasing - hot, sour, sweet and salty with the fantastic aroma of limau kasturi.

Though as Lina mentioned in her post, the overall taste in the beginning may feel unbalanced and there was a slight bitter taste. In fact I could taste the vinegar and I thought I should not have added so much.

According to Lina, let this sambal sit for a few hours and the taste will improve and it gets better and better as it sits. That sounds great and I stashed my bottle of sambal into the fridge for the flavors to develop.

And true enough, the following day when I ate meehoon goreng with this sambal, whoa! It was da bomb! I could have eaten the whole kuali of meehoon goreng with this sambal.

If you somehow feel inclined to make this into a sambal belacan, feel free to do so but leave out the vinegar and go easy with the salt. I bet this would make a kick ass sambal belacan on account of the limau kasturi (calamansi limes), skin and all.

Here's my adaptation of Lina's recipe. There are no hard and fast rules, just go with the flow.

Sambal Jate
Recipe source : Adapted from Teratak Mutiara Kasih

Ingredients :
- 8 red chilies
- 4 green cili padi
- 1 big onion (I chose a smallish one)
- 12 limau kasturi (mine were very small, that's why I added more)
- 3 level tsp sea salt (you may need less if using regular salt)
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 3 tbsp distilled/white vinegar

Method :
1. Cut the limau kasturi into halves and remove the seeds.
2. Put red chilies, cili padi, limau kasturi, onion and 2 tbsp vinegar into a blender and blend.
3. Pour the blended ingredients into a bowl and season with salt, sugar and more vinegar, if necessary.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings. This sambal must be sweet, sour and salty.
5. Store in an air tight container and keep in the fridge.

Note : I added vinegar into the blender so that the liquid would help work the blades. Lina recommends not to add water in order for the sambal to keep well.