INTRODUCTION

I think a lot of Malaysian and Singaporean like to eat Nasi Padang and if you spotted eggs coated with chilli, it is likely to be this dish: Telur Balado or literally baladao eggs. You can easily spotted in most Malay food stores and it can come in the form of deep fried boiled eggs, hard boiled eggs or just fried eggs.

Balado neither is the name of a place nor it is name of an ingredient. It is a method of cooking originates from the Minangkabau in Sumatra. I was told lado means chilli in their language and balado means cooking with chilli. Therefore, it refer to dishes with sambal or spice mix(rempah). In fact,if you go to the Nasi Padang stores, most of the dishes cooked with chilli or rempah can be called balado be it terong balado (Chilli eggplant), ayam balado (chilli chicken) or ikan masak balado (chilli fish).

Usually this is cooked from a rempah (spice mix) comprises of various herbs and spices. The more common ingredients are : shallot , chilli, onion, tomato, lime or assam and depending on the dish, some recipe will call for galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, belachan or terasi.  These ingredients are blended/pounded until fine and sauté until fragrant before meats or vegetables were added to this sambal.

I blogged this because I really love this telur balado. I never failed to order this whenever I saw it being sold. Therefore, I have decided to prepare it at home and introducing my kids to dishes from other races. Of course there are some technical difficulties when I am issuing a recipe that looks spicy but in fact not spicy because of my kids. I will also share some techniques how I tone down the spiciness for the sake of my kids. In this illustration, I only added 2 deseeded big chilli but I enhance the colour using red yeast rice powder and some tomato sauce.

The whole family likes it . The kids are enjoying the eggs very much  and with the leftover gravy, I have added some chilli padi and use it to fry a plate of nenas balado (chilli pineapple).. It is definitely a satisfying meal. In this recipe, you can also add taukwa (firm bean curd) or deep fried fish balls.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-6 adult servings

• 6-8 hard boiled eggs
• 5 shallots
• 5 cloves of garlics
• 1 big onion
• 5 chilli padi
• 2 red chilli
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 buah keras or 1 tablespoon of cashew nuts or macadamia nuts
• Pinches of salt
• Sugar to taste

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Deep fried the eggs under medium heat until the eggs are golden brown. Drain and set aside.

• Put all the ingredients (except salt, sugar and eggs) in a blender and blend until fine. In a pot, put 3 tablespoons of oil, pour the rempah and sauté the rempah under medium heat until oils start to separate from the wet rempah. This will took at least 15 minutes.  In this process, you will witness  a lot of water vapour will be emitted and colour will gradually darkened by at least 2 tones. If it is too splashy, you may wish to put some cover with holes to prevent it splashing to the walls. As it dries up, you can remove the cover.

• This step is optional if only when you did not add chilli but you want to have an authentic chilli look. In this illustration, I have only added 2 deseeded chilli and not the chilli padi. As such the colour is not reddish enough. In order to enhance the colour, you can add 1 tablespoon of red yeast rice powder or 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce to enhance the colour or a combination of both.

• Once the above the done, the rempah is fragrant and oil starts to sip out from the rempah, add the eggs and stir fry until well mix. If it is too dry and you want more gravy to go with the rice, you can add 1/2 cup of water  and bring to boil. Before you off the heat and dishing up, add pinches of salt and some sugar to taste. Personally, I like it very sweet and I have added 3 tablespoons of brown sugar to enhance the colour and taste.

• The dish is best served with steaming hot rice.

CONCLUSION

Personally, I like Malay food very much. Many Malay food are influenced or originate from Mingakabau cuisines. If you like these foods, expect more recipes on Malay or Padang cuisines and I will share the food that suits my taste buds. Remember the techniques that I have shared, I am sure your kids will like this dish if it is not overly spicy.

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