To make the dressing, squeeze lime juice into a bowl and add red onion, chile sauce, and sambal or chopped chile. Set aside. To make the salad, toast coconut in a nonstick pan over medium-low heat ...

Make a simple sambal belacan by blending red chillies, bird’s eye chillies and belacan in an electric mill then add salt, belacan and calamansi lime juice.

As the name of the book suggests, both coconut — in many forms — and sambal are central to the Indonesian table. Sambal, a category of condiments centered on chiles, is a key seasoning element.

Heat a small skillet over medium-high. Add peppercorns; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a mortar and pestle; let cool completely, about 5 minutes.

Chef Lara Lee's Sambal Matah is bright and fresh, packed with lemongrass, lime, and chiles. Use as a relish with noodles or fried rice, or to accompany fish, a steak, or fritters.

This colourful dish uses sambal oelek – a distinctive paste of red chilli, shrimp paste, garlic, palm sugar and lime juice – for rich and spicy depth of flavour that's hard to beat.