The making of patin tempoyak...

Patin fish cooked with tempoyak (fermented durian) is one dish that you either love or hate. 

My version of ikan patin with tempoyak...

Two main reasons why many people do not like this dish :

1) Patin fish is a fresh water fish. So it has that fishy smell that some people can't stand.

2) Tempoyak is not on everyone's fave food list.

So when patin and tempoyak are cooked together, to some people it's really a big NO-NO.  But to me, it's a match made in patin heaven!

This is the patin fish - sold at the wet market...

 And these are (barely) alive patin fishes
sold by the roadside in Temerloh, Pahang.

One of the stalls selling fresh patin fish...

Patin fish reared in cages along the Sungai Pahang... 
the longest river in Peninsular Malaysia.
Sebab bela dalam air sungai, baunya tak lah 
begitu buat like those reared in ponds.

 And make sure you buy the ORI's one.
Original ones, that is...

Anyway, back to our 'the making of...'

First of all, the patin fish needs to be cleaned properly
to get rid of its fishy smell. My mom's way is to soak the fish
with lime/lemon and/or tamarind slices. 
Leave for about 30 - 60 minutes.Then wash thoroughly.
In fact you can use this method to clean any types of fish.

The 'sambal' ingredients are onions, garlic, ginger, fresh tumeric 
(if not available, powdered tumeric can be used instead) 
and fresh chillies.  If you like it hot, add in more chillies.

Blend them up into a paste.

I like cucumbers in my gulai.

 And of course the very aromatic 'daun kesum'.
I think daun kesum is one of the most aromatic herbs 
and one of my faves. Enak banget tu baunya...

 And of course, here is the other aromatic ingredient.
The TEMPOYAK!!! (fermented durian)

Saute the blended ingredients for a few minutes.
Then add in the tempoyak.

 Here's how it looks like now. Add in a few cups of water.
Very yellow because of the tumeric and tempoyak.
Cook it for another couple of minutes.

Then add in the cucumbers.
Cucumbers go in first coz they take longer to cook.

 Then the fish goes in.

Put in more water if needed.

In goes the daun kesum.
Cook for another few minutes.

 All done now.  Add in salt to taste.

On a hindsight, I think my paste is blended way too fine. It makes the gravy a bit starchy (must be the onions).  So I feel it's better to blend the ingredients roughly.  And lagi bagus kalau ditumbuk. Tapi malas ni nak menumbuk lak... huhu.

Will try again and hopefully the result will be better....
tapi yang ini pun sedap.. but could be better, of course..  :))))