What makes a great sambal belacan? Some say its the way you pound, not with hard punchy strokes but rather a grinding motion. Hence a lesung batu is essential. Some say its the quality of the belacan and to be sure you can't achieve great sambal belacan without the key ingredients being good. And you have to dry-fry the belacan first or else don't bother. Yet, the quality of the chillies are important too. The straight, shinny ones you get in the supermarkets are too hard to grind down properly. For great sambal you need chillies with a bit of life experience, the crinkly ones that are supple and holds juice. This pounds like a dream. Finally, the balance- you need balance, the heat, the pungent kick, the fresh sourness of lime with just a smidgen of sweetness.

Great sambal belacan lingers. It whets the appetite like no other. It makes you a little teary but unable to stop. It singes the tops of your ears and leaves an afterburn, like the snap of a bright flash on your eyes. And yet the great ones, though commands attention does not drown out the other things on your plate. It elevates humble fare and thus brings out the richness of white rice, the freshness of ulams and dances with the saltiness of ikan masin.

Here are 5 ways to eat sambal belacan. We used an Indonesian cobek because frankly if there's one contraption made for making sambal belacan, this is it. It's got a wide and flat surface that lets you really grind down the chillies to release their heat and juices.

Basic Sambal Belacan
This basic mix can be used to make all kinds of interesting sambal. I like mine as hot as I can stand it so its only bird's eye chillies in here.

The soft grinding sound that comes from the cobek as it mushes the chillies into pulp is strangely comforting

Ingredients:
25- 30 bird’s eye chilli (a mix of red and green)
1 thumb-sized belacan
½ tsp sugar
Pinch of salt if needed

Method:
Pound and grind down all the ingredients until you get a rough paste. This makes about half a cup of basic sambal belacan. For you wusses out there use 20 bird's eye chillies + 3 red chillies instead of all bird's eye chillies.

Sambal belacan meletup
1 tbs basic sambal + juice 1 kalamansi lime + ¼ tsp lime skin sliced finely.
Pairings: Super hot and super addictive, goes like a dream with ikan masin, hot rice and ikan goreng.

"Great sambal belacan, elevates humble fare"

Think of it as a super spicy song tam

Sambal mangga
1 tbs sambal belacan + 1 young mango (julienned) + ½ tsp sugar
If you can get kuinin (this is in my opinion the queen of all sambals), omit the sugar.
Pairings: Has a sweetish, sourish edge that will go well with a Thai dish or a masak lemak cili padi or a gulai tempoyak.

Make sure to grind the tomatoes in

Sambal tomat
1 tbs sambal belacan + 1 small tomato, cut in small slices + ½ tsp sugar
Pairings: Milder, almost salsa-like with a fresh tinge from the tomato- great with ulams and young eggplant, boiled.

If you steam the coconut first, you can keep it for a for a few days

Sambal kelapa
1 tbs sambal belacan + 1 tbs grated fresh coconut + juice 1 kalamansi lime
Pairings: Like an Indonesian urap, you can mix it with raw vegetables to make a kerabu or salad.

This will make a fantastic serunding on hot buttered toast!

Sambal udang kering
1 tbs sambal belacan + 2 tsp udang kering (dry fried and blended until fine) + ½ tsp sugar
Pairings: Can make a nyonya kerabu with pineapple and cucumbers or even to fry with some rice.

Go on! Add some sambal into your life!