Sambal is a spicy Southeast Asian condiment made, in its simplest form, from chile peppers and salt. A more elaborate sambal may contain onion, lime juice, lemongrass, sugar, garlic, oil and/or vinegar. You will find sambal in a jar or bottle at an Asian food market or in the international aisle at the grocery store.
There are many varieties of sambal. Sambal Oelek is the kind you're most likely to find in the U.S. ("Oelek", "Olek" or "Ulek" refers to the mortar and pestle used to create sambal in Indonesian kitchens.) One Malaysian version, Sambal belacan, is made with shrimp paste. Sambal ikan bilis has dried anchovies in it. Sambal kemiri contains candlenuts.
Generally speaking, any sambal adds a dark, fiery flavor to dishes. A dollop of sambal can enliven some plain rice or a simply cooked piece of meat. For a quick, bright salad dressing, mix together 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons each of lemon juice and capers, and 1/4 teaspoon of sambal oelek.
Recipe: Spicy Turkey Meatball And Cabbage Soup (Cookthink)
Recipe: Sambal-Roasted Sweet Potatoes (Cookthink)
Recipe: Sambal Borscht (Cookthink)
Recipe: Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork In Barbecue Sauce (Cookthink)
Recipe: Quick-Fix Kimchi (Trail of Crumbs)
Or try another of our sambal recipes.
A Chinese fruit shaped like its name and containing a small seed in each of its points, star anise is cultivated before ripening from small Southwestern Chinese evergreen trees. It is unrelated to anise seed, although both get their flavor from a compound called anethol.
Star anise has a more bitter taste than anise seed, and is used as a spice and infusion in Asian cuisines. It can also serve as cheaper alternative to anise in baked goods and liqueurs.
One of the five ingredients in Chinese five-spice powder and a major component of garam masala, star anise flavors Vietnamese pho broth and Southern Indian biryani. It is also an ingredient in the bird flu remedy Tamiflu.
Lemongrass is a Southeast Asian grass that has a lemony aroma and flavor thanks to its high content of essential citral oil.
Commonly used in Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai cooking, the tough, fibrous grass can be bought fresh, frozen (usually minced), or dried and ground into a powder. It can either be finely chopped and integrated into soups and other preparations, or chopped into sticks and bruised and used to flavor dishes while they cook, then removed before serving.
It also makes a nice herb tea -- just add hot water, steep, and serve.
Recipe: Southeast Asian Chicken And Cabbage Soup (Cookthink)
Recipe: Rasa Malaysia's Malaysian Chicken Satay (Cookthink)
Reference: How to prep lemongrass (Cookthink)
The word curry was invented by British colonialists in the 18th century. Most likely a bastardization of the Indian word kari (meaning sauce), it refers to a number of saucy dishes flavored with curry powder or curry paste.
The idea of curry began in India. By the beginning of the 18th century, the Dutch and the British were selling standardized curry powders. At the Universal Paris Exhibition of 1889, a curry decree set the composition of curry as having prescribed amounts of tamarind, onion, coriander, chilli pepper, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, pepper, and mustard.
Today, curry powder may also include cloves, cardamon, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, caraway, ajowan seeds, dried basil, mustard seeds, mace, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, saffron or cinnamon. The mix depends on the cook, as curry recipes can be found in the cuisines of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Caribbean.
While there is no rigid definition of "a curry," many restaurants use it as a generic term for sauce-based dishes that can vary in spice content and heat, and can contain meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, coconut milk, onions, fresh ginger, kaffir lime leaves and other ingredients.
Curry powder's flavors fade quickly, and Indian curry powder is ideally made to order depending on the dish. Madras curry powder is named after the southern Indian region from which it comes. Careful if you're not used to it, as it tends to pack a lot more heat.
Recipe: Curried Brussels Sprouts And Sweet Potatoes (cookthink)
Recipe: Red Curry Chicken Breasts (cookthink)
Southeast Asian shrimp paste is made from salted, fermented, sun-dried, ground shrimp.
Used in small amounts in East and Southeast Asian sauces, soups, curries and rice dishes, shrimp paste has a strong taste of the sea. Its pungent odor mellows with cooking. It's sold jarred or in a solid cake that is brownish in color.
Reference: What does it mean to devein a shrimp? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is fish sauce? (Cookthink)
Often referred to as "Indonesian soy sauce," Kecap Manis is a syrupy, dark brown sauce sweetened with palm sugar and seasoned with things like garlic and star anise.
Used as a condiment and for marinating dishes like satay (and ribs), Kecap Manis should be kept in a cool, dry place. Though it's generally a little sweeter than soy sauce, you can use the two interchangeably.
(Image courtesy of FotoosVanRobin.)
If you have the option, choose whole nutmeg over ground. Store the nutmeg in an air-tight container in a dark cupboard at room temperature. Heat, moisture and light will speed up the deterioration of the volatile oils that give nutmeg its distinctive flavor. When properly stored, nutmeg will be keep for at least a year.
Nutmeg is best when it's freshly grated. We prefer to use a microplane zester (like one of the ones shown above) to prep nutmeg. (There are all sorts of fine graters available for use with nutmeg; some of them are even designed specifically for that use.)
To prep nutmeg, simply rub the nut over the grater (being careful to keep your fingers away from the grater) into a small bowl. The outer skin is not as flavorful as the oily interior that it protects, but the outside grates easily and is fine to include.
The choice between ground nutmeg and whole nutmeg is an easy one: always go with the whole nut and freshly grate it as needed.
Ground nutmeg may smell and taste great the first time, but once the container is opened, the quality will start to deteriorate as the spice's volatile oils are exposed to oxygen. Whole nutmeg won't last forever, but properly stored you can squeeze a good year out of it with no noticeable loss of flavor.
The nutmeg that we use in the kitchen is the inner nut or seed of the nutmeg fruit.
The evergreen tree that produces the fruit is native to southern Asia and parts of the south Pacific. It produces both nutmeg and mace.
Here's how it happens: when the nutmeg fruit is ripe, it splits open to reveal mace-covered seed. The red or orange mace is removed and dried. The seed is then dried for a couple of months, until the nutmeg can be heard rattling around inside the shell. The seed is then cracked to produce the small egg-shaped nutmeg. Whole nutmegs will keep for months if properly stored in a cool, dark cupboard.
How do nutmeg and mace compare? Nutmeg has a stronger, more rounded flavor than mace, which is often likened to both cinnamon and pepper. In a pinch, you can substitute one for the other.
What can I substitute for nutmeg?
What can I substitute for nutmeg?
The best substitute for nutmeg is mace, the red membrane that surrounds nutmeg when harvested. Though it's a bit more delicate in flavor and lacks nutmeg's bittersweetness, mace will work in a pinch.
Cinnamon is brighter, sweeter and less woodsy than nutmeg, but it fills in nicely in smaller amounts. Allspice and garam masala are both reminiscent of several spices, and will also work in place of nutmeg in small amounts.
A satay (or saté) is an Indonesian and Southeast Asian kebab made by threading almost any kind of marinated meat, fish or poultry on skewers and grilled or broiling. It is also very popular in the Netherlands.
Recipes for satay vary from country to country, but it is usually served with spicy peanut sauce, slivered onions and cucumbers, and is often eaten as an appetizer.
