Sambal Petai

by Pauline Chavannes de Senerpont Domis · Published February 12, 2017 · Updated July 17, 2017

One of my favorite chili salsas: Indonesian sambal petai. This homemade sambal contains loads of petai (parkia speciosa) beans also known as bitter beans, twisted cluster beans, or stink beans. They have a very specific, peculiar taste. To me it smells a bit like gas. Yes, gas.

Beb Vuyk has no sambal pete or petai in her book, but I think this sambal belongs on this blog. It is great with fish especially shrimps and vegetable dishes.

Ingredients

100-120 grams of petai beans
150 grams of chillies
3 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of chopped onions
40 grams of santen (coconut cream)
1 teaspoon of laos (galangal)
1,5 teaspoons of trassi (shrimp paste)
1 teaspoon asem (tamarind) mixed with 2-3 tbl water
1 sereh (lemongrass) stalk
50 ml of water

I buy petai beans at an Asian specialist shop from the freezer. I never use the ones they sell in jars. The do not taste as good. The frozen ones have the best flavor.

The asem (tamarind) I use is from my Asian shop too. It is already filtered and sold in a small jar.

Santen is coconut cream or boiled down coconut milk. I buy them in rectangular, solid, blocks. If you cannot get santen, use full fat coconutmilk in stead (about 30 ml).

You can use fresh galangal root the size of a thumb and then cut in two ;-). Fresh galangal or laos is wonderful, but I still have loads of laos powder left, so I use that.

I cut the lemongrass 3 pieces and hit them with something heavy so the juices can run out more easily.

Trassi or shrimp paste is used in more Asian cuisines, like Thai cuisine. It has a very strong smell, love it. In Indonesian cuisine it is used a lot in vegetable dishes.

Preparation

I add peppers, garlic and the onions in a jug and hit it with a blender to make a very smooth sambal in texture.

Don’t hold your nose over it while blending; the vapor irritates eyes and throat from the sharp peppers sting much.

I add my galangal powder when the blending is done and scoop it through.

I cut my trassi in smaller pieces, therefore it dissolves well in the wok.

I heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in the wok and add the chili mix together with the trassi.

I stir fry the sambal well; keep it moving.

After a few minutes some of the liquids have evaporated. Now I add the santen, lemongrass and the asem (tamarind).

I’ve diluted the asem with two tablespoons of water.

The santen melts slowly in the sambal.

I stir the sambal until all the santen has melted and add the 50 ml of water.

and the salt. I use about 1,5 teaspoon.

I taste the sambal now. The beans will add to the flavor too, so easy on the salt.

I cut 2/3 of the beans lengthwise in three neat slices. I leave the reast as they are. That looks nice.

The petai beans can go in now. I stir them through and let the sambal petai simmer for another 5 minutes. I check once in a while if I like the thickness of the sauce.

I have ready a super clean jam jar. Before I add the sambal directly from the hot pan, I rinse the jar with boiling hot water (don’t forget to rinse the lid too).