Dish · indonesian
Sambal
A chili paste of chilies, shallot, garlic, and shrimp paste, pounded or blitzed and usually fried briefly in oil, served as a hot condiment rather than a standalone dish.
Where it comes from
Sambal exists in hundreds of regional and household variations across Indonesia, built around whatever chilies and aromatics are local, so there's no single fixed recipe, only a shared method of pounding and frying.
What cooks argue about
The main variable is how the chilies are cooked: raw-pounded sambal stays sharp and bright, while frying the paste in oil mellows the heat, and how long that fry runs changes it most.
Versions
Nobody has published a sambal here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
garlic