Chef Joost
Acar Ketimun (Indo-Dutch Cucumber Pickle)
Acar means pickle, ketimun means cucumber, and this little bowl of sweet vinegar, chilli, and crunch is the cool note that lets an Indo-Dutch rijsttafel keep its balance.
Culinary Explorer
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Sambal Badjak
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This is the sambal that learned patience in the pan: fried until the raw fire softens, the shallots sweeten, and the rijsttafel finds its red punctuation.
Sauces & Condiments
Dutch
Make Ahead
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
20 min
Active Time
25 min cook•45 min total
YieldAbout 350ml
The Dutch word for this sambal, badjak, carries the old colonial spelling with it, that little dj standing where modern Indonesian writes j. The name already tells you we're at the Indo-Dutch table, where language, empire, homesickness, and lunch all sat down together and behaved as if this were normal. History and cookery, they cannot be separated. Not here.
But let me tell you a secret: sambal badjak is not the fiercest sambal on the table, and that is precisely its intelligence. Raw sambal oelek gives you chili as weather. Badjak gives you chili as a cooked argument, shallots, garlic, trassi, tamarind, and palm sugar fried slowly until the heat rounds itself and the oil turns red. The bakken, the frying, is the whole lesson. Hurry it and you have harshness with good intentions.
I first understood this not in a restaurant but at an Indo-Dutch family table, where the sambal came out in a small glass jar beside rice, satay, beans, eggs, and more dishes than the Dutch talent for modesty can honestly explain. A spoonful was enough. It didn't shout over the food. It made everything else speak more clearly. Hou het altijd simpel: grind, fry, sweeten, sour, salt, and stop when the oil glows at the edge of the pan.
Sambal badjak belongs to the Indonesian sambal family but entered the Dutch home kitchen through the Indo-Dutch table, especially after Indonesian independence and the postwar migration of Indo and Dutch families to the Netherlands in the late 1940s and 1950s. The spelling badjak preserves older Dutch-Indies orthography for modern Indonesian bajak, and the condiment became closely associated in the Netherlands with rijsttafel, the colonial-era rice table that was formalized in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth century. Its cooked style distinguishes it from raw sambal oelek: frying mellows the chili, deepens the shallot sweetness, and lets fermented trassi season the whole jar.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
red chilies
Quantity
150g
stems removed and roughly chopped
shallots
Quantity
4 large
roughly chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
roughly chopped
trassi or terasi
Quantity
2 teaspoons
crumbled
neutral oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons
makrut lime leaves (optional)
Quantity
2
tamarind paste
Quantity
1 tablespoon
palm sugar or dark brown sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
grated
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
water
Quantity
2 tablespoons
as needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| red chiliesstems removed and roughly chopped | 150g |
| shallotsroughly chopped | 4 large |
| garlic clovesroughly chopped | 4 |
| trassi or terasicrumbled | 2 teaspoons |
| neutral oil | 3 tablespoons |
| makrut lime leaves (optional) | 2 |
| tamarind paste | 1 tablespoon |
| palm sugar or dark brown sugargrated | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| wateras needed | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Mortar and pestle or food processor
- •Small heavy frying pan
- •Clean 350ml glass jar with lid
Instructions
- 1
Toast the trassi
Warm a dry pan over medium heat and toast the crumbled trassi for one to two minutes until it darkens slightly and smells deeply savoury. It will announce itself. Open a window and don't apologize; fermented shrimp paste is not shy, and the sambal would be thin without it.
- 2
Grind the paste
Pound the chilies, shallots, garlic, and toasted trassi in a mortar until you have a rough paste, or pulse them in a food processor. Don't make it silky. Sambal badjak should still have a little grain and body, enough to cling to rice rather than slide away from it.
For a gentler sambal, remove some of the chili seeds and pale inner ribs before grinding. Keep the red flesh; that is where the fruitiness lives. - 3
Fry it slowly
Heat the oil in a small heavy pan over medium-low heat. Add the chili paste and the makrut lime leaves if using, then fry for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often, until the paste darkens from raw red to brick red and the oil begins to separate at the edges. This is the badjak lesson: the pan turns sharp heat into depth.
- 4
Balance the sambal
Stir in the tamarind, palm sugar, salt, and a tablespoon or two of water if the paste is catching. Cook for another five minutes until glossy and thick, then taste. You should find heat first, then sweetness, then sourness, with the trassi underneath like a bass note.
- 5
Jar and rest
Remove the lime leaves and spoon the sambal into a clean jar. Let it cool, then cover and refrigerate. It is good at once, but better tomorrow, when the chili has stopped standing alone and joined the rest of the table.
Chef Tips
- •Use red chilies with flavour, not only violence. Fresno, red jalapeno, or Dutch rode peper all work; add a few bird's eye chilies only if your table truly wants the heat.
- •Trassi matters. If you skip it, the sambal becomes flatter and sweeter; if shellfish is impossible, use a little light soy sauce instead and accept that it tells a different story.
- •Fry until the oil separates at the edge. That is not decoration, it is the sign that the moisture has cooked down and the raw bite of onion and chili has mellowed.
- •Serve in small amounts with rijsttafel dishes, fried rice, eggs, green beans, or a plain bowl of rice. A good sambal is punctuation, not the whole sentence.
Advance Preparation
- •Best made one day ahead; the flavour rounds out overnight in the refrigerator.
- •Keeps up to two weeks refrigerated in a clean jar. Keep the surface covered with a thin layer of oil and use a clean spoon each time.
- •Freezes well in small portions for up to three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 15g)
Calories
25 calories
Total Fat
2 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
1 mg
Sodium
150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
0 g
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