Rojak
A Malaysian salad whose name means "mixture" — in Malaysia the word is also used colloquially for the country's multicultural society. The combination sounds impossible: pineapple, cucumber and green apple in a black sauce of fermented shrimp. Yet it works, because the sauce unites four extreme flavours — salty, sour, sweet and hot — and cool, juicy fruit balances them perfectly.
Your own work in that: 8 min.
- Sauce 15 min
- Fruit and vegetables 20 min
- Assembly 8 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneDissolve the shrimp paste in hot water
Mix the shrimp paste into three tablespoons of hot water until fully dissolved. Undissolved it stays in the salad as lumps of very intense flavour — one such lump can dominate a whole plate.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp shrimp paste · 2 tbsp tamarind · 4 tbsp palm sugar · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs lime · 3 tbsp water
Combine the four flavours
Add the tamarind, palm sugar, chilli and lime juice and stir until the sugar dissolves. The sauce should be thick, black and sticky and simultaneously salty, sour, sweet and hot — taste and balance it.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp shrimp paste · 2 tbsp tamarind · 4 tbsp palm sugar · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs lime · 3 tbsp water
Thick, black and sticky — four flavours at once.Cut everything into rough chunks
Cut the pineapple, cucumber, mango, apple and daikon into uneven bite-sized chunks. Uneven on purpose: rojak was never an elegant dish, and different shapes pick up different amounts of sauce, which is part of the pleasure. Scald the bean sprouts with boiling water, refresh under cold water and drain.
Ingredients: 400 g pineapple · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green mango · 1 pcs apple · 150 g daikon · 100 g mung bean sprouts
Uneven chunks — different shapes catch sauce differently.Dry every piece
Pat the fruit, vegetables and sprouts dry with paper, especially the pineapple and cucumber. The sauce is thick and sticky; water from the fruit thins it within minutes and instead of coating the pieces it pools at the bottom.
Ingredients: 400 g pineapple · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green mango · 1 pcs apple · 150 g daikon · 100 g mung bean sprouts
Toss just before serving
Combine the fruit with the sauce and toss with your hands until everything is evenly black. Toss only at the table — the salt in the sauce draws water from the fruit and after a quarter of an hour the salad swims.
Ingredients: 400 g pineapple · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green mango · 1 pcs apple · 150 g daikon · 100 g mung bean sprouts
Evenly black — toss at the table.Scatter peanuts and sesame
Scatter with coarsely crushed peanuts and sesame, and add fried tofu if using. Peanuts last and coarsely crushed — ground, they absorb the sauce and vanish, and the point is clear, crunchy contrast.
Ingredients: 80 g peanuts · 2 tbsp sesame seeds · 150 g tofu
Before you start
The shrimp paste is the point
Malaysian hae ko is a thick, black, slightly sweet paste of fermented shrimp whose smell on first opening the jar can be startling. In the sauce it becomes a depth of saltiness fish sauce cannot match. Asian grocers stock it. Hard belacan is a different product — if that is all you have, use 1 teaspoon, toasted first in a dry pan, and add more sugar.
The vegetarian version
Replace the shrimp paste with two tablespoons of dark miso and a teaspoon of soy sauce. It will not give the same depth but does bring saltiness and umami. The rest of the recipe is vegan from the outset.
Eat it straight away
Rojak cannot be prepared in advance. The sauce can be made ahead — it keeps up to a week in the fridge; cut the fruit no more than an hour before serving, and toss only at the table.
