Sambal Goreng Boontjes (Spiced Green Beans)

On a full rijsttafel, the grand dishes like the rendang and the saté get the attention, but it is the little sides that make the meal, and sambal goreng boontjes is among the most beloved. Green beans stewed in a fried chilli sambal loosened with coconut milk, it is a small, spicy thing meant to be eaten a forkful at a time against the milder dishes around it.

An Indonesian side, kept alive in Holland

Sambal goreng, or "fried sambal", is a whole Indonesian family of dishes, in which some ingredient is simmered in a fried chilli paste until it takes on the sauce. Beans are the version the Dutch-Indo kitchen loves best, though the same treatment covers potato (sambal goreng kentang), egg, and liver. Like the rest of the rijsttafel, it came to the Netherlands through the colonial era and stayed, kept alive by the Indo community and sold ready-made in tubs at the toko. Naming its Indonesian origin is only right. The dish is theirs.

Small dish, careful balance

The whole art here is in the seasoning. A good sambal goreng holds three flavours in tension: the heat of the chilli, a faint sweetness from palm sugar, and a sour edge from tamarind or lime. Get those in balance and the dish sings; let one dominate and it falls flat. Keep the beans a shade firm, too. They need to stand up to the soft, rich company they keep.

The measure of a rijsttafel is often its smallest dishes. Few are as quietly perfect as a good sambal goreng.

Toast the trassi before it goes in if you use it: a moment in a dry pan turns its raw, low pungency into a rounded, savoury depth that underpins the whole dish without announcing itself.