Balado (food)
Balado is a type of hot and spicy bumbu found in Minang cuisine of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It has since spread through the rest of Indonesia and also Malaysia especially in Negeri Sembilan. Balado sauce is made by stir frying ground red hot chili pepper with other spices including garlic, shallot, tomato and kaffir lime 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, as well as other ingredients, such as chicken, fried boiled eggs, fried beef, eggplant, and potatoes.
Because of its almost identical ingredients and technique, the term balado is often interchangeable with sambal goreng. Nevertheless, the term balado is more specifically referring to Minang cooking tradition, while sambal goreng refers to a more general Indonesian cuisine tradition.