Sambal Celery (Chili salsa)

To make sambal yourself seems complicated, but it is not! Since I cook from Beb Vuyk’s book I never buy sambal anymore. This sambal celery is super simple. Freshly made sambal is delicious. You only need a little to serve immediately. I make my sambal celery with my blender. Even faster than it already is to make.

This sambal celery is enough for 3 people and is ready in 10 minutes.

Sambal Celery #25 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesische kookboek, page 60.

Ingredients

5 lomboks (chilies)
1/2 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon terasi (shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon of finely chopped celery (leafs)
few drops of lemon juice

Create a sambal terasi with garlic and mix in the chopped celery without rubbing it through. Finish with a few drops of lemon juice. This sambal can not be kept long.

I use my blender to chop the peppers, garlic and shrimp paste. I’m making in fact a sambal trassi.  Trassi is a concentrated shrimp paste I buy at my local Asian shop. Trassi is used a lot in Thai cuisine as well.

I use a few drops of lime juice instead of lemon juice. Lime has a more tropical flavor 😉 Because of the acidity the chili peppers turn slightly lighter and brighter in color, beautiful.

Beb Vuyk’s book contains fantastic sambals: fresh or made for later. Here you’ll find the list of sambals I’ve already made.

Beb Vuyk, best known for her Groot Indonesisch Kookboek (Great Indonesian Cook Book), was much more than a great cook. She belongs to the most important Dutch-Indonesian (Indo) writers and journalists of her time. Check this out.