Pau Sambal

Pau Sambal
 a.k.a Burger Malaysia

Pau sambal is a savoury, buttery donut, not oily in every bite. Filled with anchovie sambal and sliced cucumber. It brings back my childhood days of me and my friends buying it from a vendor opposite my school. I immediately fell in love with the complex flavours and would buy it almost every day for the rest of my school years.

One day my daughter came home from school raving about her school's canteen having a new snack. She called it "burger Malaysia" and wouldnt stop talking about it. I was confused at first but a quick google search brought all the memories back. So I decided to make this dish at home. This is how I made it.

Ingrediants:

For the bun:

•1-1/2 cup all purpose flour

•1 tbsp sugar

•2 tbsp milk powder

•1-1/2 tbsp butter

•1/4 tsp salt

•1/2 cup warm water

•1/4 tsp yeast

METHOD

1. Combine yeast with water and 1 tsp sugar. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the yeast becomes foamy.

2. In a separate bowl, combine sieved flour, milk powder, salt and rest of sugar. Kneed for about 5 minutes. Then add butter. 

3. Kneed again for 25 minutes until it's smoothe. You can also use a stand mixer for this process. 

4. Form the dough into a big ball.

5.  Transfer the ball into a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and leave it to rest in a warm place for 90-ish minutes or until doubled in size.

6. Punch the dough( it helps to release air bubbles)

7. Divide the dough into smaller balls (30 grams each). Press lightly to flatten. Rest dough balls in a floured baking tray  till puffed up again (for about 30 minutes)

8. Prepare oil for frying(not to hot)

9. Fry till golden brown

Note: avoid tossing the bun to often. Let one side cook and get lightly browned before flipping to the other side so that it doesnt absorb to much oil.

Ingrediants:

For the sambal:

•5 shallots

•2 cloves of garlic

•small handful of anchovies(washed)

•1 inch of ginger 

•1\2 tsp of gula melaka(palm sugar)

•1tsp nampla sauce (fish sauce)

•2 tbsp chilli paste(for the recipe of this go to "dry chilli paste"in my blog where I explain how to make it)

•1/2 tsp of tamarind juice(extracted from     tamarind pulp)

•salt to taste

1. Blend the onions, anchovies,garlic and ginger into a smoothe paste.

Note: soak the shallots in a bowl of water for 10 minutes. This makes it easier to peel the skin.

2. In a pan add oil and fry the blended ingrediants until fragrant. 

3. Add in chilli paste until oil rises. Add in some water if required.

4. Add in tamarind juice, gula melaka and nampla sauce.

5. Keep frying for at least 30 minutes until the paste becomes darker. Add salt only if necessary because nampla sauce is salty and there is already salt in the chilli paste.

Assembly:

1. Use a serrated knife to cut in the middle of the fried bun (about 3/4 of the way deep)

2. Spread the sambal inside the bun and add the sliced cucumber.

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@_casualcook_