Sambal Nanas
Sambals are the little side dishes served at almost every Malay meal. In poorer societies, a main meal may simply be a bowl of rice and a sambal made from pounded shrimp paste, chillies and lime juice. This sambal includes cucumber and pineapple.
Ingredients
- 1 small or ½ large fresh ripe pineapple
- ½ cucumber, halved lengthways
- 50g / 2oz dried shrimps
- 1 large fresh red chilli, seeded
- 1cm/ ½in cube shrimp paste (blachan), prepared (see Cook's Tip)
- juice of 1 large lemon or lime
- light brown sugar, to taste (optional)
Preparation
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- Cut off both ends of the pineapple. Stand it upright on a board, then slice off the skin from top to bottom, cutting out the spines. Slice the pineapple, removing the central core. Cut into thin slices and set aside.
- Trim the ends from the cucumber and slice thinly. Sprinkle with salt and set aside. Place the dried shrimps in a food processor and chop fairly finely. Add the chilli, prepared shrimp paste (blachan) and lemon or lime juice and process again to a paste.
- Rinse the cucumber, drain and dry on kitchen paper. Mix with the pineapple and chill. Just before serving, spoon in the spice mixture with sugar to taste. Mix well and serve.
COOK'S TIP
The pungent shrimp paste, also called blachan, is popular in many South-east Asian countries, and is available in Asian supermarkets. Since it can taste a bit raw in a sambal, dry fry it by wrapping in foil and heating in a frying pan over a low heat for 5 minutes, turning from time to time. If the shrimp paste is to be fried with other spices, this preliminary cooking can be eliminated.
Serves 8-10 as an accompaniment.