Most of you are too young to remember, but if you lived in Australia in the 80s like I did, you’d know how hard it was to find Malaysian ingredients anywhere. That was why I had to learn how to make everything myself when I wanted to indulge in my craving for Malaysian food.
Nowadays though, you should be able to see quite a few Malaysian products on the shelves of your local Asian grocery store. This includes an ever growing range of chilli condiments, which broadly fall into two categories – ones called “crispy prawn chilli” or similar, and ones labelled “sambal”.
I know a lot of overseas Malaysians love these products because they’re great timesavers in the kitchen, but because I’ve been accustomed to making everything myself over the years, I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure how these bottled condiments measured up. I had the opportunity to evaluate them for the Malaysian Agriculture Counsellor Office, Sydney awhile back, and I was genuinely surprised at the quality of these items.
Here’s a video I made, with the help of examples from my Masters of Malaysian Cuisine chefs, on how to use these chilli sambals and crispy prawn chilli dips >> https://youtu.be/mpYfg1DhuSk
In some instances, depending on the dish, you can use the products straight out of the jar; in others, you would tweak them by adding extra seasoning to achieve the flavour you want, which would still save you a ton of time since you don’t have to make them up from scratch. I also discovered ways to “Malaysian-ise” your Western dishes by adding a spoonful of chilli sambal or crispy prawn chilli to your recipe.
Here’s a list of the 12 different uses for Malaysian bottled sambals and crispy prawn/shrimp chilli –
- Nasi Goreng (fried rice)
- Noodle Topping
- Stir-Fries
- Sandwich Spread
- Spaghetti Aglia e Olio
- Prawn Noodle Soup
- Baked Sambal Seafood
- Fried Kangkung
- Grilled Eggplant
- Nasi Lemak
- Canapé Spread
- Salad Dressing
The video covers them in greater detail, and I’ve also prepared a downloadable PDF which you can get in your inbox, by signing up to my mailing list here – MalaysianChefs.com/recipes
