Sambal Tumis Telur (sambal eggs)

Born and breed in Brunei Malay food and cooking play an important part in my foodie life. Authentic Malay food is not easy to find in the Western world. I am so glad I have learnt enough to cook myself some decent Malay food before hopping on a plane over here to England many years ago.

Clearing the cupboard yesterday I found a jar of sambal tumis I made a while ago. Sambal tumis is very versatile can transform a plateful of vegetables, eggs, tofu, tempeh etc... into something spicy and savoury instantly. I made this sambal in large batch whenever needed and stored them in clean sealed jam jars and no refrigeration, will last me for months and months.

With this jar of sambal tumis I made some sambal tumis telur (sambal eggs). It's 'cepat, senang dan sedap' fast, easy and delicious like the Malay saying. Here is the bowlful of red and delicious eggs.

Ingredients:

6 - 7 shelled hard boiled eggs
1 medium-large onion
2 medium tomatoes, cut into quarters
5 tbsp sambal tumis**
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt (if required)
a little sugar

about 1/2 - 1 cup oil for frying eggs*

*You don't have to fry the eggs if you don't want to. Fried egg tastes better and will coat the sauce much better.

Method:

• Wipe the eggs with paper towel to remove excess surface water. Water will make oil spit. Heat oil till hot fry eggs at medium high heat, turning and browning evenly. Egg surface will blister a bit and light golden brown. Don't fry too long or the egg white will become tough. if you don't want to fry the eggs leave this step out.

• Tip the sambal into a clean wok or pan. There is enough oil in the sambal no need to add extra oil to cook onion. Add tomato paste and onion and fry at medium heat till onion is softened. Don't let sambal burn, if heat too hot turn heat down or add a touch of water.
  
• Add eggs and stir to coat with sauce evenly and warming the eggs. Add some water if sauce is too thick.
  
• Add tomato pieces cook till slightly softened.
• Taste to see if you need some sugar and a touch of salt to season.

Serve sambal tumis telur with rice, soft bread or flat bread.


**If you don't have a jar of sambal tumis you can make the spice paste with:

about 5 dried large chillies, de-seeded and soaked then cut into small pieces
3 walnut size shallots, cut into small pieces
1 large clove of garlic
1 tsp shrimp paste
l - 2 tbsp of tamarind juice extracted from a very small lump of wet tamrind and few tbsp hot water

Blend or pound the above to a fine paste. Cook with 2 - 3 tbsp of cooking oil till oil turning red and paste is fragrant, then add some salt to taste.