Sambal oelek

Sambal oelek

What it is

The name is the tool: ulek is the grinding stroke made in a flat stone mortar, and the Dutch spelling oelek came through the colony intact. Indonesia counts hundreds of named sambals, and this is the one defined by what it leaves out - no garlic, no sugar, no fermentation, no cooking.

In the kitchen

A teaspoon stands in for a fresh chilli anywhere, and unlike sriracha it brings no sugar you then have to correct. Stir it in off the heat: fried, it loses the raw brightness that is the whole reason to keep a jar.

Goes with

Garlic Shallot Lime Fish sauce Palm sugar Fermented shrimp paste (belacan) Peanut Egg

Same species

Ají amarillo Ají panca Ajvar Aleppo pepper Ancho chilli Bell pepper

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