Exotic-spicy eggplant sambal

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 6 g shrimp paste (terasi udang)
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste, from the can
• 2 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
• 1 tsp Soy sauce (Kecap Tim Ikan 2), recipe link see instructions
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tsp, heaped vegetable stock powder or powder for strong bouillon
• 4 m.-large tomato(s), fully ripe
• 4 small eggplants (globe eggplants)
• 6 small onions
• 3 medium-sized garlic cloves, fresh
• 2 small limes
• 30 g soy sprouts
• 2 small red chili peppers
• n. B. Snake bean(s)

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 3 minutes

a side dish for seasoning especially dishes with sprouts

For the sauce, process the shrimp paste with the sunflower oil and tomato puree until smooth. For the fresh lemon juice, wash a lemon and cut a piece lengthwise to the right and left of the stem. Deseed the cores and squeeze the juices by hand. Discard the empty sections and the middle part, as they contain bitter substances. Heat the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and stir in the paste and lemon juice. Transfer the finished sauce to a bowl and immediately add all of the prepared ingredients to the sauce and mix. Wash the tomatoes, remove the stems, peel the flesh, quarter them lengthwise, and discard the green core and seeds. Cut the quarters crosswise into small pieces. Wash the eggplants and cut off the top ends to remove the attached leaves. Halve the balls lengthwise and cut into thin sections. Trim both ends of the onions and garlic cloves, peel them, and slice them thinly. Wash the limes thoroughly with hot water. Cut a slice out of the middle of each lime and discard it, as its bitterness could spoil the dish. Remove the seeds from the four remaining edges, essentially four “hemispheres.” Do not juice the limes, but add them to the sauce as they are. Blanch the soybean sprouts and snake beans in boiling water for 30 seconds. Wash the red chilies, cut them crosswise into thin rings, leaving the seeds and discarding the stems. Let the finished sambal steep for about 30 minutes, mix thoroughly, and arrange on a serving dish. Garnish the sambal with the snake beans and serve at room temperature as a side dish. Notes: In Indonesian, the word sambal is used for both a spice paste and a chili-based dish. This eggplant sambal is a rarely seen Indonesian specialty that should not be missing from any rice table. If you omit the shrimp paste and use light soy sauce instead of Kecap Tim Ikan, it becomes a vegetarian sambal. A recipe for “Kecap Tim Ikan 2” can be found here: https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/3650261549535469/Sojasauce-Kecap-Tim-Ikan-2.html