Prawn Sambal Bostador is a delicious, somewhat spicy dish of prawns cooked in a chilli paste. This Eurasian recipe has its roots in Portuguese Malacca (Malaysia), and is very much Malay influenced in the spices used.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Prawn Sambal Bostador
The word Bostador is in the local Eurasian patois, known as Kristao (pronounced Kristang). It means “slap”, referring to the fiery heat of this dish, much like in Curry Devil.
The dish is so hot you feel like you’ve been slapped with the first mouthful.
Kristao is localised Portuguese spoken by the Eurasian population in Singapore and Malaysia, the ones of Portuguese heritage. It has an identity of its own, perhaps can be described as being a hybrid or macaronic language.
It certainly won’t be understood in Portugal!
What is Sambal?
You must know this by now, if it’s not a word you grew up with.
There is no direct translation for the Malay/Indonesian word “sambal”. It is almost always something spicy and can be wet or dry. It can be a condiment or a side dish like today’s Prawn Sambal Bostador
Sri Lankans also have same thing too, spelled “sambol”, the most famous being “Pol Sambal”, a spicy condiment made with grated coconut.
Prawn Sambal Bostador Recipe
It is a spicy dish. However, you can control how hot you make it with the number and type of chillies used. Go for milder chillies and even a red capsicum instead of birds eye chillies, if you’re not so keen on it being too spicy.
This is what we’ll be doing:
- Make the spice paste (soak the red chillies, then grind everything up).
- Prep the prawns (unless you’re using shelled).
- Brown the garlic.
- Fry the spice paste for 5 minutes.
- Add prawns and proceed with the rest of the recipe (only about 7 minutes here).
- Top with coriander leaves and the fried garlic.
Here, I’d like to briefly mention 2 kitchen gadgets that you must absolutely have in the kitchen: pestle and mortar and a food chopper. They come in handy for all sorts of recipes, not just Asian ones.
Sometimes, a pestle and mortar is a must, at other times, a food chopper takes care of the job at a fraction of the time. As for our Prawn Sambal Bostador rempah (spice paste).
This Ninja 3-in-1 power blender is what I’ve just upgraded to, wish I’d got it earlier! The video shows my old trusty mini chopper that’s now been binned as it wasn’t quite as sharp anymore.
So make your life easy and buy a food chopper. The most basic ones only cost about £20 and are good enough for simple jobs.
What is Pecah Minyak?
Pecah Minyak is the point where a spice paste loses its raw taste and changes from an emulsion to a distinct oil and paste mix. In English, this would be called oil separation or oil splitting. It’s a principle that’s used in many cuisines, not just Malay and Nyonya cooking.
How obvious this separation is and how long it takes for the pecah minyak stage depends on the amount of oil used, the water and the heat.
It can take anything from 10 – 20 minutes. In today’s prawn sambal bostador recipe, I’m happy at the 5 minute mark because there is no added water in the spice paste, allowing it to cook faster.
Ingredients
No 2 ways about it – today’s spicy Eurasian recipe has those pesky Southeast Asian ingredients many of us can’t live without. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Prawns (Shrimp in the US)
They want to be big, for maximum impact. Medium works too but tiny ones (what we call shrimp) are not going to do your Prawn Sambal Bostador justice.
Shell on, shell off? That’s completely up to you. I love cooking prawns with their shell on, because those shells impart incredible flavour to the sauce. After all, how do you make prawn stock? With prawn shells.
But if you’re not keen, buy them shelled. But for the love of Poseidon, or Neptune – whatever floats your boat – sea what I did there? Ok, ok, I’ll stop. What was I saying? Oh yes, whatever you do, don’t ever, ever, cook with pre cooked prawns.
Cooked prawns will not be giving any flavour to your dish (that sweet briny taste), and cooked a second time, will end up being like cotton in your mouth.
The Chillies
Get to know your chillies. So you’re not caught out using crazy hot chillies when you didn’t mean to.
Use mild chillies for a milder prawn sambal bostador or up the heat if you like to walk on the wild side.
Got questions about chillies? Drop me a line.
Spice Paste Ingredients
We have 3 ingredients that may not be the easiest to find, depending on where you live. These are essential ingredients in the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian kitchen. So get online and find them if your local shops don’t do them, if you’re serious about cooking Southeast Asian food.
- Shrimp paste – belacan in Malay, terasi in Indonesian, and kapi in Thai, this is made with fermented dried shrimp. Click here to read more.
- Dried shrimp – sundried tiny shrimp, with a concentrated aroma and flavour of the sea. Click here to read more.
- Candlenuts – buah keras in Malay, these enrich our dishes. Click here to read more.
How to Serve Prawn Sambal Bostador?
I love to serve it with plain old white rice or nasi lemak (coconut rice), with a side salad or simple stir-fried vegetables. These are some of my favourite vegetable dishes/salads to serve with this Eurasian sambal.
And there you have it. Prawn Sambal Bostador – another traditional, almost forgotten recipe from Singapore and Malaysia. Got any questions? Just ask!
If you like the recipe and article, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Prawn Sambal Bostador, a Eurasian Recipe from Singapore and Malaysia
Equipment
- a wok or a large frying pan
Ingredients
- 500 g large prawns (shrimps), definitely not tiny ones about 20
- 2 large cloves garlic
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 125 ml coconut milk
- 125 ml water
- 4 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp white sugar
- ½ tsp rice vinegar or any clear vinegar
- freshly ground black pepper
- small handful fresh coriander leaves, chopped cilantro
Grind to a paste
- 1 medium onion
- 3 red Thai bird’s eye chillies the small fiery ones
- 20 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp dried shrimp
- 1 tsp shrimp paste belacan
- 3 candlenuts (or 3 macadamia nuts or 2 cashew nuts)
Instructions
Prep Work
- Soak the Dried Red Chillies. Put half a kettle on.
- Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut the dried chillies up into 2-3 pieces.20 dried red chillies
- Pour the hot water all over and soak until after you're done with the prawns, or for at least 15 minutes.
- While waiting, peel and slice the garlic widthwise. We'll be frying them later.Roughly chop your onion and fresh chillies.2 large cloves garlic, 1 medium onion, 3 red Thai bird’s eye chillies
- When the chillies have had their soaking time, drain and move on to the next step.
- Place all the paste ingredients in a chopper and chop to a fine paste. Set aside.1 medium onion, 3 red Thai bird’s eye chillies, 1 tsp dried shrimp, 1 tsp shrimp paste, 3 candlenuts, 20 dried red chillies
Prep the prawns (while the chillies are soaking)
- Move on to frying the garlic if using shelled prawns.Twist the head off the prawns carefully, leaving the rest of the shell on. Or you can take all the shell off, perhaps leaving just the tail on. It's prettier that way.I prefer to leave the shells on, but that's up to you.500 g large prawns (shrimps), definitely not tiny ones
- The intestinal vein that runs along the back of the prawn should be visible and just sticking out. Give it a firm but gentle pull. Rinse the prawns well.
Let's cook our Prawn Sambal Bostador
- Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan on medium-low heat and fry the garlic slices for 1 minute until they're just beginning to brown. Drain on a saucer lined with kitchen paper and set aside.4 Tbsp vegetable oil
- Turn the heat up to medium and fry the ground paste and turmeric for 5 minutes, until the pecah minyak stage. That's where you can see a clear seepage of oil, when the paste has lost most of its raw flavour and your kitchen smells like heaven, if a bit spicy.Read about pecah minyak in the article above.½ tsp turmeric powder
- Add the prawns, coating them with the paste, for about 30 seconds.
- Push the prawns to one side and add the the coconut milk, water, salt and sugar. Stir well and bring to a simmer.Leave to cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes until the prawns are done. Th ebigger the prawns, the longer this will take. So 5 – 7 minutes.Check seasoning and add more salt if necessary.125 ml coconut milk, 125 ml water, 1 tsp white sugar, 1 tsp salt
- Stir in the vinegar and a little freshly ground black pepper, and immediately take it off the heat.½ tsp rice vinegar, freshly ground black pepper
- Scatter the fried garlic slices and fresh herbs and serve immediately with Nasi Lemak or just a plate of steamed rice.small handful fresh coriander leaves, chopped