Sambal Naknan – Sambal Bawang Level 5
Sambal is a condiment I don’t have a tremendous amount of experience with, but one I’m eagerly looking forward to exploring in more depth. If you have some Sambals to recommend, please let me know in the comments below!
Like most people if tried the Huy Fong Sambal Oelek, which I actually prefer to their Sriracha as it doesn’t have the cloying sweetness, but I hadn’t explored much outside of that area.
Seeing someone post about this particular Sambal and it being the best they’d ever had made me decide to roll the dice and order several bottles from Amazon.
Something I learned in my research is that there are many more different types of sambals than I’d ever imagined. This particular style, Sambal Bawang, is known for containing both shallots and chilis for instance, and is known to be one of the spicier sambals.
Sambal Naknan makes multiple spice levels of this sambal with the same basic recipe but different types and concentrations of chiles. For example their level one sauce’s primary ingredient is 40% cayenne style peppers, their level three sauce contains 40% Thai Bird Chile as the primary ingredient, and this level five sauce ups the ante to 50% Thai Bird Chile as the primary ingredient.
The sambal itself is chunky and oily, but spreads well. The taste is extremely deep and filled with umami – it reminds me of a much spicier version of the popular Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp, but with a fuller rounder flavor and much more heat. The shallots and their oniony garlicky flavor absolutely come through, as do the exotic spices used.
Not knowing any Indonesian dishes myself to try to cook, I found one of the best applications of this sambal was in a grilled cheese or hot ham and cheese sandwich. Coating the inside of both slices of bread with the sambal before the other ingredients added a great heat and depth of flavor. In fact I liked it so much I ate grilled ham and cheese for dinner three times the first week I received these bottles and killed off my first bottle that week.
This won’t be the only new sambal I try, but I do absolutely adore it and can see myself always keeping a jar handy. If you like spicy umami and shallots this is absolutely one to pick up yourself.
Ingredients: Thai Bird Chile (50%), Shallots (33%), Cooking Oil, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Sodium Benzoate
Heat Level: 5/10. This is a very spicy sambal, and one that those with low tolerances will possibly not find enjoyable (I would recommend trying the Sambal Naknan Level 1 or Level 3 for them), however it does provide a great pleasurable warming burn for those with more spicy tolerance.
