429 Pickled raw tomatoes (atjar tomat mentah)

I’m looking for a fresh Indonesian salad. Something a little spicy and fresh. This raw tomato salad or atjar tomat mentah from Beb Vuyk’s recipe book sounds good. The sambal, sweet soy sauce and especially the chives sounds like a delicious combination. Let’s get started.

Pickled raw tomatoes (atjar tomat mentah) translated from Beb Vuyk Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 346.

Ingredients

500 grams of medium sized tomatoes (firm)
1 tablespoon of chopped chives
the juice of 1 lemon

Herbs

1 tablespoon of chopped onions
1 chopped garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon of sambal oelek (chili salsa)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
pepper
salt

Cut the tomatoes into slices and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle pepper, a little salt and the chives on top. Rub onions and garlic together with the sambal (chili salsa). Add the soy sauce and the lemon juice. Pour this sauce over the tomatoes. This relish can be kept for only 1 to 2 days.

I keep frozen chili sauce in my freezer. I freeze my sambal oelek in ice cube molds. Handy if you need fresh chili salsa quick. The amount in the photo is too much for this recipe. I use half the block.

The tomatoes can go into slices now and I sprinkle the chives over it. I also add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of grounded pepper.

Now I rub the onions and garlic together with the sambal (which I have popped in the microwave for a few seconds). When my onions and garlic are fine I add the soy sauce (I use sweet soy sauce -kecap manis) and the lemon juice.

And now the easiest part: pour the sauce over the tomatoes. It is that easy. I leave my pickled tomatoes for at least 30 minutes on my counter before serving. It needs some time to suck up all the acids and flavors. Enak!

I think the chives add something special to the flavor. After a day (I keep what was leftover from dinner in a bowl in the refrigerator) the flavor of the chives is different. The chives taste almost sweet. I really love this fresh salad. It’s healthy and easy. I do not regularly eat my tomatoes like this. Beb indicates that these pickled tomatoes can not be kept for a long time – about a day or two. But that’s fine with me. We finish it easily in two days.

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.