Balado (food)

Balado
Udang balado prawns in spicy balado sauce
Alternative namesSambal goreng, sambal lado
CourseMain course
Place of originIndonesia
Region or stateWest Sumatra
Serving temperatureHot
Main ingredientsEgg, chicken, meat, or seafood in hot and spicy spice mixture with a large amount of red chili pepper

Balado is a type of hot and spicy bumbu (spice mixture) found in Minang cuisine of West Sumatra, Indonesia.[1] It has since spread through the rest of Indonesia and also Malaysia especially in Negeri Sembilan.[2] Balado sauce is made by stir frying ground red hot chili pepper with other spices including garlic, shallot, tomato and kaffir lime (leaves, fruit, or both) in coconut or palm oil.

The ingredients are quite similar to sambal hot chili paste. However, unlike sambal, which is often treated as a separate dipping condiment, balado chili sauce is usually mixed and stir fried together with its main ingredients and treated as a dish. Balado is suitable to be served with various types of seafood, such as fried prawns, squid, fish (whole or cutlets), as well as other ingredients, such as chicken, fried boiled eggs, fried beef, eggplant, and potatoes.[3]

Because of its almost identical ingredients and technique, the term balado is often interchangeable with sambal goreng (lit.: "fried sambal"). Nevertheless, the term balado is more specifically referring to Minang cooking tradition, while sambal goreng refers to a more general Indonesian cuisine tradition.

  1. ^ Pepy Nasution (7 August 2008). "Balado, The Tangy Chili Sambal from West Sumatra". Indonesia Eats. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  2. ^ Aniza Zainudin (8 September 2018). "Cita rasa Minang tegar". Harian Metro (in Malay). Retrieved 1 July 2021. Tidak sempurna sajian tradisional Negeri Sembilan tanpa gulai lemak daging salai cili padi, ayam kampung berlado, sambal tumis petai ikan bilis, terung berlado...
  3. ^ "Balado sauce". SBS.