Sambal Ikan Bilis

Aidilfitri this year seems to be the same as the previous years. I know a lot of people are busy cleaning and redecorating their houses, we don't. Oh yes I forgot, the house that I live in now is actually belongs to my daughters. I have transferred the deed in their names. So, I am just a visitor there but in actual sense it's still mine. She doesn't seem to realize that she has a valuable asset in her name. Taking care of it and taking responsibility to upkeep the house have not fully sunk in her mind yet. The furniture and the furnishing are about 20 years old and they are bored serving the household. Mom sometimes still has to take responsibility but she is retired and tired. The house I worked so hard for since young, seems to have no soul and looks so drab (sigh.....)
Living in PD gives me peace but Rania pulls me back so strongly. So I am in PJ most time. On top of that Mok is suffering from renal failure and needs to go for dialysis at least twice a week.
So this Raya eve, I cooked sambal tumis ikan bilis which everyone seems to enjoy, including Justin. Some friends asked how I cook it. Believe me, I am no great cook and cooking is not my favourite activity but I am quite successful in cooking one or two dishes! Sambal sardine and ikan bilis seem to receive overwhelming approval. To all those great cooks out there, please don't laugh because cooking sambal is actually a child's play.
To those interested, this is how I cook it.
1/2 kilogram of small ikan bilis.
2 cups of ciling giling - get the ready-made ones
2 bawang besar
10 garlic
1/2 bottle of vegetable oil
A fistful of asam jawa

1. Wash and clean ikan bilis at least 3 times to get rid of the excess salt. Let it dry for a while.
2. Cut bawang besar and garlic and put aside.
3. Make thick asam jawa juice, about 2 cups.
4. Put oil in a pan to deep fry the ikan bilis with medium fire. Fry until medium crisp. Put paper towels in a big bowl and transfer the fried ikan bilis in it, letting the paper towels seep in the excess oil.
5. With the ikan bilis oil, fry onions till cook, then pour in cili giling. Here, you have to be careful. You need to stir the cili and onions repeatedly. Let the cili cooked. You can see this by having the oil float on top of the cili. If it is not properly cooked, then your sambal will be hot (pedas). If it is overcooked, your sambal will taste bitter and dry.
6. When you're happy that the cili giling is cooked properly, put in the fried ikan bilis, mix well. Slowly pour the asam jawa juice, stir. The sambal shouldn't be watery. Taste for salt and asam. Usually the ikan bilis is salty enough.
7. Cook a few minutes and turn off fire. It's good if you drain the excess oil and throw it away. Taste it, add salt or asam juice if you are not happy. Good luck.

The sambal is good with rice, ketupat, nasi impit and any bread and it can keep for some time. It's simple. Even though I make it so often, I fail to achieve satisfaction sometimes - too hot, too oily, taste bitter etc etc. So I don't guarantee the best result if you follow this recipe.

Selamat Hari Raya and maaf zahir batin.