- 8 partsFresh red chilli
- 1 partVinegar + lime
- 1 partSalt + sugar
- 200g long red chillies, stems removed, roughly chopped
- 4-6 red bird's eye chillies, optional, for heat
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp white vinegar or rice vinegar
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp caster sugar
- Pound the chillies and salt in a mortar, or pulse in a small food processor, until you have a coarse paste with some seeds and skin still visible.
- Stir in the vinegar, lime juice and sugar.
- Taste and add more salt if needed. It should be hot, salty and fresh.
- Spoon into a clean jar, press it down and cover the surface with a thin layer of vinegar or oil to keep it bright.
Sambal oelek is the simplest sambal: fresh red chillies pounded with salt, and often a splash of vinegar or lime. The name comes from the ulek, the stone pestle used to grind it. It's what's in the familiar jar with the green lid (our sambal oelek glossary page covers the bottled kind), but homemade is brighter and fruitier.
It's raw, so it's sharper and hotter than cooked sambal bajak. Use it as a table condiment, stir it into stir-fries and noodles, or use it as the base for other sambals. Use long red chillies for colour and body and add bird's eye chillies for extra heat.
Fried rice and noodles, satay, meatball soup, fried eggs, gado gado and anything that needs heat.
Stir it into mie goreng or nasi telur, add it to bakso or serve it with nasi lemak. Read about rice vinegar.
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