Malaysian · salad

Ulam dengan Budu (Raw Herb Platter with Fermented Anchovy Sauce)

Name: Ulam dengan Budu (Raw Herb Platter with Fermented Anchovy Sauce)
Prep time: 7 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: Malaysian
Ingredients: ulam raja leaves — 80 g; pegaga leaves — 60 g; winged beans — 150 g; english cucumber — 150 g; long beans — 100 g; daun selom — 60 g; fish sauce — 89 g; lime juice — 44 g; brown sugar — 25 g; red bird's eye chillies — 800 g; shallots — 80 g; torch ginger flower — 60 g

Ulam dengan Budu (Raw Herb Platter with Fermented Anchovy Sauce) reads funk & ferment 6.8, umami 6.8 and salinity 6.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Malaysian salad, about 55 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 8.6 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 3.5 / 10
Sour & Bright — 7.4 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.0 / 10
Rich & Fat — 1.5 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 4.0 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Funk & Ferment 6.8 · Umami 6.8 · Salinity 6.1 · Citrus 5.7 · Sourness 5.6 · Marine & Briny 5.4 · Heat 3.5 · Sweetness 3.4 · Allium 3.2 · Herbaceous 2.1 · Floral 1.4 · Richness 1.4 · Bitterness 0.9 · Earthy 0.6 · Fruity 0.5

What's in it (12)

ulam raja leaves — 80 g
pegaga leaves — 60 g
winged beans — 150 g
english cucumber — 150 g
long beans — 100 g
daun selom — 60 g
fish sauce — 89 g
lime juice — 44 g
brown sugar — 25 g
red bird's eye chillies — 800 g
shallots — 80 g
torch ginger flower — 60 g

Time & effort: about 55 min (7 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 12.3 kcal, 0.6 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 2.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

Wash all the leaves and vegetables in several changes of cold water, then spin or shake them very dry and chill them for 30 minutes. Ulam is eaten cold and crisp and the water clinging to wet leaves will dilute the sauce on the plate.
Make the budu dip. Warm the budu gently in a small pan for 3 minutes without boiling, then take it off the heat. Budu is the Kelantan and Terengganu east coast fermented anchovy sauce, brewed for months with salt and palm sugar; it is thicker, browner and rounder than Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce, with a distinctly malty note, and neither of those is a substitute. Warming it briefly takes the raw edge off without cooking away the aroma.
Stir the lime juice, palm sugar and chopped chillies into the warm budu until the sugar dissolves, then add the sliced shallots and half the torch ginger flower. Leave 15 minutes for the shallots to soften slightly in the acid.
Taste the sauce on its own. It should be salty and fermented first, then sour, then just enough sweetness to hold the two together, with the chilli behind. If it makes you flinch, that is right; it is meant to be eaten in small amounts on a large amount of raw green.
Arrange the chilled leaves and vegetables loosely on a wide platter, keeping each kind in its own drift rather than tossing them together, and scatter over the remaining torch ginger flower. Ulam raja tastes green and faintly of mango skin; pegaga is bitter and slightly medicinal; winged bean is sweet and squeaky. Keeping them separate lets each eater build their own mouthful, which is the point.
Serve the budu in a bowl in the middle with rice and grilled fish. Nothing is dressed in advance; the eater dips.
Substitutions: young pak choi leaves can stand in for the daun selom.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Tam Mak Hoong (Pounded Green Papaya with Padaek and Field Crab) — Lao
Nuoc Cham — Vietnamese
Crispy Chile-Garlic Chicken Wings — Thai
Chicken Larb (Thai Herb Salad) — Thai
Thai Sweet Chili Shrimp Skewers — Thai

Keep reading: what funk & ferment, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.