Today is Thursday, the day hubby has to pop into his office. I like to cook him a surprise lunch every Thursday. I sent him to work this morning after giving him eggy bread and started to make my asam curry paste. I planned to finished cooking and showered by the time he comes back for lunch.

There are many ways of cooking this dish but this is the way I preferred mine to be cooked as this is the way I have eaten for as long as I could remember. I suppose like most dishes traditionally we are used to how our parents and grandparents cooked them.

As for me myself I still much preferred my fish to be seasoned and fried before adding to my asam curry sauce. Hence, I find it hard to eat fish curry outside and I always asked the vendor if they fried their fish first before placing my order.

As usual this is more as a guide than a fixed recipe as such. I have a pot of otak udang chilli that I have made the other day which I can add to my paste. If you do not have you can add a small handful of dried shrimps and blend with your paste. I also have daun kesom, laksa leaves, bravely surviving in the cold so I used some to boil my nasi kunyit.

As I am using oil to fry and aubergines and fish, I decided to also fry some keropok ikan and prawns from Kuching and some chicken and prawn wantons. This is because after frying my aubergines and fish I will throw away the oil. The oil will then have no more ‘strength’ for frying anything else. To try and reuse it some more will cause your cook to be very greasy!

p/s Otak udang – fried prawns heads with oil till crispy with garlic, salt, chilli and blitz in the blender to make a paste. Store in fridge and use at will.

I make this sambal udang balacan/belacan a few times a year. It is when we, the family kept asking me when I am making again or when my friends persuade me “when you next make sambal udang belacan can I book 10 jars please” then only I make.

Now I am not sure how to write a fix recipe as I have never measured my ingredients. I taste as I make and add a bit of this and that to make it resemble the taste I know. The taste of how my mother’s sambal used to taste like.

When I was a youngin’ when my mother made this, we always make them into sandwiches Do you know dried shrimps sambal that has a generous amount of dried shrimps taste amazing with buttered bread? If you have not try before, try it. My husband loves this on buttered brioche rolls.

Now as I said I have not measured my ingredients. when I asked my mother she will tell me a bowl of this and half a bowl of that. So I will attempt to tell you. However sambal is one of those dish you can make your own. There is absolutely no right or wrong. When I first started making I tried to add this and that (not mentioned by my mother) but in the end I do not like the taste. Not nostalgic lah. so I stick back to the basic ingredients. If for any reason I want to use this sambal to cook other things then I will add other ingredients as and when.

Take this recipe as a guide and make your own as sometimes our onions has a stronger taste or our chillies is hotter. I remember one time I bought some chilli powder that were so hot! I of course had to add more sugar. I will give you tips to adjust.

Oh yes when using the dried chillies, snip off the heads a bit and empty out as much of the seeds as you can. When I was young grandma use to say don’t let the males eat chilli seeds or they can’t pee – kekekekekeke Funny things I remember from young but now that I am all grown up I know that it is the spicy hot food that can increase bladder pain and inflammation in some people thus making it hard to pee for them. BUT there is some truth in so called ‘old wives’ tales after all!