Hello my loves,

I love sambal. For me it’s the perfect way to showcase one of my favourite-ever crops: the chilli. I’ve had a long love affair with chillies, and my ardour shows no signs of abating, so with my potted chilli plant producing waves of chunky, brilliant red fruit right now, sambal is featuring rather frequently in my kitchen rotation.

Sambal is essentially a sauce or paste with chilli at its heart, and all manner of other ingredients added depending on the will of the maker - there are endless permutations to be had. It’s a lovely way to preserve and enjoy chillies at this time of year, and is quick and easy to make. A jar of sambal will sit happily in your fridge for weeks, waiting patiently to be drizzled over anything that would benefit from a subtle sambal kick. It also doesn’t have to be spicy - you can use mild chillies, and remove the seeds if you prefer to focus on the fruity flavour of the chillies, rather than their heat. My version is super-simple, featuring just a few ingredients: chillies, limes, garlic, sugar and of course a pinch or two of salt. This creates a zesty, fresh sambal that will travel happily atop just about anything.

One of my favourite applications is to use it to create sambal scrambled eggs, or to put it another way, the stuff that breakfast dreams are made of. Chillies and eggs are wonderful bedfellows, and the addition of a spoonful of sambal to your morning scramble is a venture you won’t regret. I serve my sambal scrambled eggs on rice, but they would travel equally well on toast if that’s more to your liking, and of course they’re by no means confined to the realm of breakfast. They work brilliantly at any time of day, and make a delicious dinner on those nights where two eggs and a jar of sambal is all your fridge can give you. So my loves, I give you my recipes for both my simple sambal, and my sensational sambal scrambled eggs.

Sambal scrambled eggs

Serves 2 with plenty of sambal left for other purposes

Sambal
Makes about 200g

100g long red chillies (see note 1)
4 cloves garlic (about 20g total)
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons (10g) sugar
Juice of 2 limes (75-80ml juice in total)

You can make this in a food processor or using a mortar and pestle

Chop chillies into 5mm chunks (remove the seeds before doing this if you want a milder sambal). Peel and chop the garlic. If making in a food processor, add all ingredients to the processor and whizz till well combined. Taste and adjust to taste if necessary with additional sugar, lime juice and salt.

If making in a mortar and pestle, add the chopped chillies and garlic to the mortar with a pinch of salt. Grind until fairly smooth (some small remaining chunks of chilli are fine). Add the sugar and lime juice and grind again. Taste and adjust to taste if necessary with additional sugar, lime juice and salt.

Sambal scrambled eggs

4 pasture-raised eggs (50-60g each)
30g sambal, or more to taste
1 tablespoon (15ml) soy sauce
5g thinly sliced spring onions
5-10g fermented black beans (optional but delicious - see note 2)Sesame oil for drizzling
Steamed rice or toast to serve

Mix the eggs, sambal, soy sauce, spring onions and fermented black beans together with a fork. Heat a little oil in a pan on medium heat, and scramble the eggs gently until just cooked (turn the heat off when they are still a little gooey). Serve on steamed rice or toast, drizzled with sesame oil and a little extra soy and sambal. Add an additional sprinkle of spring onions if desired.

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Note 1: The heat of your sambal depends of course on the heat of your chillies. I used the long, red chillies that are commonly available in supermarkets to make this sambal. These generally have a medium-level heat, which gives you a salsa with a pleasant, but not overwhelming kick. Fiery little birds-eyes would give you an extremely hot sambal, and I would suggest using chillies with a medium heat unless you have nerves of steel.

Note 2: Fermented black beans (douchi) are available from Asian grocers. They're quite salty, which I like, so I use 10g in this recipe. If you prefer to go a little lighter on the salt, then use 5g.
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And so another weekend approaches, during which I'll be doing nothing, nothing, NOTHING! It's been a busy week, and the thought of a restful weekend feels very delicious indeed. From my couch to yours, I wish you a wonderful weekend, as I wave languidly in your general direction. Until next week my loves.

Love, Rachel xxx