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Sambal udang (prawn sambal) is a much celebrated recipe in my family and everyone loves it. My late mother made a killer dish of sambal udang…it was always the most popular dish on my family’s dining table. Whenever she made sambal udang, everyone would be waiting in anticipation for a great meal.
Sambal udang is quite easy to make and you need only a few key ingredients–prawns/shrimps, sambal, belacan, and tamarind. In our family, we use shredded kaffir lime leaves to infuse the sambal udang with its exotic and citrusy flavor; it also adds a lot of depth and aroma to this dish. My late grandmother loved sambal udang with petai (stinky beans), and I remember vividly the after smell of her eating petai. Personally, I am not a fan of petai. I like my sambal udang (prawn sambal) really simple, with plenty of shrimps and the right balance of spicy, sour, salty, and a tint of sweetness from the freshness of shrimps/prawns.
Sambal udang is great with steamed white rice. In fact, the sambal sauce is so good that I can drench dollops of it with rice and eat it plain. It’s really appetizing and the shrimps are simply delicious.
Here is my family’s recipe of sambal udang. Try it and let me know what you think!
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lovely! i hope you are going to make more photos ;)
cheers
Bon Vivant – this recipe is created by my sister-in-law. She is learning how to take food photography now. You will see more pictures in the future. :)
LOVE the photo! it looks fantastic – I must make some. Even have lime leaves and tamarind kicking around.
Julie – this is a great recipe. I love it. I can eat so much rice with this sambal udang.
hey there :D i m loving those dishes that you posted here :D
i m a BABA myself . i was wondering if it’s dried chillies or (dry)red chillies that you are talking about. got it a bit confused ^^
cheers
Hey Luke – yes, dried chilies mean dry red chilies. Typos.
ah i see. thanks alot. must try it one of these days ^^
One of my favourites too. And i like to add kaffir lime leaves as well.
Your sambal looks very yummy, Bee!
Yes, kaffir lime leaves add the exotic flavor to the sambal udang.
I would love to make this but what is belacan? I am not familiar with this ingredient .
Hi Wizzythestick – belacan is Malaysian prawn paste, and it looks like this: http://rasamalaysia.com/uploaded_images/belacan_yam_leaf/belacan.jpg, and comes in a block. If you are in the US, you can find them at Asian stores.
Can a vegan try same recipe but instead of the real shrimp, to use alternative , just vegetable sambal too should be just excellent right?
Debbie – I think that would work, but belacan is made of prawns…FYI.
I never tried this kind of mix: tamarindu and shrimp…but I will…the pictures make me feel like to eat.
I’m from Brasil, but I loved chinese food, I would like to invite you to visit my blog in portuguese, but there’s a translator in the beggining page.
hugs,
Paula
Love your new blog, will cook this sambal today.
By the way, in ingredients you’ve listed two cups of water, but in method you don’t mention any.
Thanks for noticing it, I have updated the recipe. Good luck!
Sambal was fantastic!
Cooked a lot of your “Rasa” recipes, love your work.
Nyonya Food,
I have a question-I cooked this sambal and the taste was just great.
The question is-on your photo sambal is of a very nice red colour, mine was not so nice. And I doubled the quantity of chilies. So, what’s the secret here?
Alex – there is no secret. Just use dried red chilies, and the red from the chilies will help with the color. Also, using oil to “tumis” the chili paste helps to bring the color out. I am glad you liked this sambal udang recipe.
Nyonyafood,
Do we need to soak the dried chilies first before blending?
Thanks!
Yes, you will have to soak them in water before blending.
Love going thru you recipes n blog. Will be trying your this recipe soon as i have the ingredients handy and petai too! When do i add in the petai and do i have to prepare them in any way? Thanks in advance
Put the petai in after frying the shrimp.
FYI there are 2 types of petai:
1. Petai Papan – bigger in size and in it’s natural cluster is darker green in color and have a slightly harder texture compared to:
2. Petai Padi – smaller in size and of a lighter green color and soft texture.
Hi Bee, I just stumbled across your website as was looking for a recipe for sambal udang. Your site is amazing…I’m a Malaysian chinese who has lived in Sydney for 23 years. My dad still lives in KL and I grew up on nyonya food since my grandfather is a baba. My late grandmother (who was not of nyonya descent) made the best nyonya dishes and I promised to honour the tradition and the legacy she left behind. Unfortunately nyonya food is not well-known here in Sydney and hence there are no such cooking classes offering this cuisine. Thankfully, with your help, it seems I can ‘virtually’ learn how to cook nyonya food!
As an aside, I cooked chicken pongteh last night using my late grandma’s recipe and it brought back so many great memories.
Can you tell me how many people this recipe for sambal udang can serve? Will it be enough if I am hosting a dinner for 5 people?
Thanking you in advance.
Hi Sui,
I think it’s good for 5 people if you have other dishes to go with. If not, you need to add more portion. Thanks for your comment and your background. Good luck in making and learning Nyonya Food. :)
If you can get cucumber, cut into two pieces lengthwise and slice the 2 halves, it will be great just to dip a slice of cucumber into the gravy and eat it by itself or with rice.
Hi Sui
By looking at the photo, it’s going to tell me how fabulous this dish would turn that my mum would be delighted for her 82th birthday over this weekend. As she could not take prawns, I’m going to replace it with ‘petai’, would there be any issue? Instead of 10 dried red chillies, can I use a combination of 7 red dried + 3 red fresh?
Appreciate your thoughts..
Melissa – well, this sambal udang dish is only great with prawn I am afraid. You can do it with petail but it will not taste the same!
I just found this site so am late to reply.
Perhaps there is a way to compromise. Cook as usual until adding the prawns part. Separate enough sauce for your grandma and add petai into the curry. In the other portion that you have separated you can put in prawns and fry until cooked.
If you grandma is not allergic to prawns and just doesn’t eat them, maybe she won’t mind if you all both prawns and petai in at the same time but you can serve her the gravy and petai without the prawns after cooking.
Am not a fan of petai as well but my husband is – horrors!! Gosh I can just imagine eating this with some steaming hot white rice…lovely!
Yeah, I am not a petai fan either, my late grandmother loved them though.
Hi. I’ve seen more complex versions of this recipe that involve lemongrass, candlenuts, etc. in the sambal recipe. When I’ve had this dish in Malaysia, it had a pronounced shrimp flavour but also a fair bit of sweetness. Is that from the sugar or the onions?
Yes, there are many versions of sambal udang but this is my mother’s recipe, which is always great. Sweetness is from the shrimp, shallots and sugar.
I’d like to try your sambal udang, but am unsure what to serve it with. Considering Nonya chicken, peanut sauce, green beans and coconut, and of course white rice. Any thoughts or suggestions? Also do you have a grilled chicken, Nonya style recipe to share?
Thank you (from Quebec)
You can serve it with curry chicken (just posted). Green beans sound good. Good luck.
I love this recipe! I haven’t tried it yet, but I can imagine the yumminess of it once I make it!! Can’t wait to try it out! Thanks :)
Yes, you must try this sambal udang recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipes and all the others also.
I miss my late Peranakan Grandma’s cooking and your contribution to this blog will enable me to replicate my favourites.
Well-done and congratulations once again.
Thanks once again Bee! Do you have the recipe for the dry sambal udang version? Used to remember my neighbour’s mum used to cook a lot and pack it into her daughter’s luggage before she left for nursing studies in London many years ago!
I believe you are talking about dried prawns sambal (sambal heh bee). I have tried cooking it before and it turned out okay.
I don’t have the correct recipe and amount of ingredients to put but for cooking curries or spicy gravy dishes where shallots are concerned, blend the shallots and fry until they are fragrant and stop sticking to the wooden or metal utensils you fry them with.
An old nonya friend of my mom told me long ago. This brings out more flavor.
Bee,
This recipe reminds me of Balado (Sambal Lado) Udang. Red and yummy! Seeing the pic here made me hungry.
Pepy – I have a bottle of balado sambal. :)
Thanks for sharing.
My great grandparent were peranakan and we still cook sambal udang at home in Thailand !
We also add stinky beans into the paste.
But what is different from your recipe is that we eat sambal udang with fresh mint leaves and cabbage.
Anyway, I’ll tell my mom to use some kaffir lime leaves, when she cook it next time ^_^ /
Some cooks like to put coarsely chopped bunga kantan into the sambal udang which gives it a special fragrant aroma.
Instead of prawns, maybe you can use slices of ray fish meat.
seriously….i want to make tht recipe …and for this first doing im my own ..and i hope it go well :)
Hey there guys,that is asian foods fusion must try it as i have cook it while my stays at Ukraine & Russia,cheer & enjoy it & happy cooking.
Bee,
Was just wondering if you ever substitute shallots with big onions. Shallots are too expensive in OZ.
If you do, how many shallots = 1 big onion (approx 100g) would u use?
Thanks.
Never use onion for this recipe so I don’t know.Sorry!
kl_changs, yes you can but try to use red onions instead of the yellow or lighter colors ones. I never really measure, just agak agak. A medium size red onions (greek size) is about equal to a handful of shallots i suppose.
I had cooked this twice, the taste was good but I couldn’t get the nice color like yours, and the prawns don’t look the same as the picture. Mine seemed to have too much gravy/sauce and a little tough on the prawns. The prawns in your picture don’t look like they were deveined.
No deveined, that’s how we eat in Penang. The color is from sauteing the chili paste. If prawn is tough, cook less time.
May i know How many per cup ? Thank u !
Sorry ! May I know how many mls per cup ? Thank you very much.
Hi there,
Thanks for sharing. I would like to try this in few days time. However I would like to confirm if you didn’t put in the garlic. I thought garlic is a must as one of “tumis” ingredients.
Appreciate your reply.
Regards,
Honey
No garlic.
Ok thank you.. Neither garlic nor ginger. Got it. Appreciate it!! :)
Just finished cooking, it’s superbly oarsome!!! I added some lemongrass as well as petai. TQ so much. Hope they will love it like I do :)
Regards,
Honey
Hi, i have tried 3 of your recipes and this is the 4th one. You are definitely great..i have made nyonya food using between 10 to 20 ingredients but you managed to simplify it without affecting taste! 2 questions before i cook this weekend..grey, tiger or which type of prawns is best for this? or it doesnt matter? Secondly, i read Peter Kong using bunga kantan, would that enhance or overpower this dish as this is pretty strong stuff. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.
Any prawn is fine better just use normal prawn and not tiger prawn. No bunga kantan.
Thank you..i think i will use tiger as the orangy red colour looks good after cooking..i will follow everything else exactly without bunga kantan and candlenuts..will tell you how it will turn out.