Sambal Udang

Sambal udang is prawns cooked in the mother sauce of Malay cooking, a sambal of chilies, shallots, and belacan that is sweet, sour, and seriously hot. It is a weekday dinner staple, served with rice and cucumber, and the sauce alone can turn plain rice into a feast, while a good sambal is a matter of pride, because every family’s version is slightly different, which is the whole fun of it. The tamarind gives it a tang that keeps the heat from becoming one-note.

The mother sauce, poured over plump shrimp

The sambal is thick and glossy, clinging to each plump shrimp, and the palm sugar rounds off the sharp edges of the chilies, making it the kind of dish that makes you sweat a little and reach for more anyway. Cook the sambal until the oil separates from the paste; that is the signal that it is ready for the shrimp. Quick to make and impossible to stop eating, it is Malay home cooking at its most direct, and it is one of the first things children learn to make.

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This dish leans on the condiments covered in Beginner’s Guide to Asian Sauces & Seasonings.

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