Cabe ijo is the green sambal of Padang cooking: green chillies, shallots, garlic and green tomato, blitzed rough and fried in oil until they collapse into a coarse, fragrant paste. It is warm rather than punishing, and much fresher tasting than a red sambal.
The Padang original uses long-fried chicken. We cut it down to thigh fillets in a hot pan so the whole thing lands in twenty minutes without losing the flavour of the sambal.
