Title: Sambal bajak
 Categories: Condiments, Indonesian, Usenet
      Yield: 1 Cup
 
    1/2 lb Red hot chilies (fresh),
           -chopped coarsely
      1 lg Onion
      6    Garlic cloves
      8    Kemiri nuts,
           -chopped fine
      3 T  Peanut oil
    1/2 t  Laos powder
      1 T  Trasi (dried
           -shrimp paste)
      1 t  Salt
      5 T  Tamarind liquid
      2 T  Sugar
 
  Chop the chilies, onion and garlic in a food processor.  In a small
  frying pan, saute this mixture in oil until well-cooked.  Do not
  brown.  Add the kemiri nuts, laos, trasi and salt.  Stir and mash
  until it is well blended. Add the tamarind liquid and sugar; simmer
  until the oil separates out. Cool and serve cold.
  
  NOTES:
  
  *  Fried chili-pepper sambal relish -- Indonesia is not known to have
  nuclear weapon capability, but visitors to Djakarta often suspect
  that if enough Sambal Bajak is put into an artillery shell it will
  have the same general effect. Indonesian hosts normally warn
  Westerners that this is "an acquired taste."
  
  *  Laos is a form of ginger.  Other names for it are galangal, Java
  root, galingale, or lengkuas.  If you can't find it, use about 1 t of
  powdered ginger mixed with about 1/4 t of powdered cinnamon.  Trasi
  is shrimp paste; it can be left out. Tamarind liquid is made by
  soaking dried tamarind pulp in hot water for 1 hour and then
  straining. To make about 5 T of tamarind liquid, use about 1/4 cup of
  pulp and about 1/2 cup of hot water.
  
  : Difficulty:  easy if you have the ingredients.
  : Time:  30 minutes.
  : Precision:  approximate measurement OK.
  
  : Brian Reid
  : DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA
  : reid@decwrl.DEC.COM    -or- decwrl!reid
  
  :