Homemade Dried Shrimp Chili Sauce 家傳蝦米辣椒醬 - "Malaysian Monday 84"

As promised I have prepared for you something very close to my heart.

There are shelves after shelves of chili sauce and condiments in just about every Asian grocer. Many made it to my pantry over the years; most are forgettable, some are exceptionally good but nothing beats this addictive homemade spicy condiment using my family recipe.

This is more than just a mere condiment one would serve alongside a meal;  it can also be used in stir fries, as topping for steamed tofu or seafood, as filling for sandwiches (sounds weird but it is utterly delicious) and the list goes on.

Different ways of using this very versatile and addictive sauce will be posted in the coming weeks so do make a large batch before that.

P.S For a halal version simply omit the bacon and double the amount of dried shrimps.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
makes 3 cups
you'll need;
6 large shallots (~600g), peeled and roughly chopped
2 heads of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
8 cm piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
40 dried chilies, removed stalks and seeds boiled for 15 minutes and drained
1 cup of dried shrimps, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes, drained and roughly chopped
3 rashes of bacon, removed rinds and diced
1 cm piece of shrimp paste (belacan), toasted
3 tbs of sugar
salt to taste
1 cup of cooking oil

Get all the chopping, soaking and dicing out of the way.

Blend wet spices in a food processor until you get a relatively fine paste.

Heat up the oil in a hot wok, saute dried shrimps and bacon briefly (30 seconds) before adding the blended spice mix. Stir and mix well, add toasted shrimp paste and cook on medium low heat for 25 to 30 minutes. Oil should separates by this stage, season with sugar and salt.

Store chili sauce in sterilized jars, use it as a condiment (with a squeeze of lime) or in stir fries. Ways on how to use this versatile chili sauce will be posted in the coming days.

My friend Sharon from Test With Skewer will be hosting this month's event, please send all your entries to its.sharon@gmail.com

To learn more about the event and on how to enter, please click here.