Minggu 4 Artikel 1: Gulai pisang ikan talang

The remeniscent of 'kampung' dish is calling me today. Way back in my hometown, a warm spicy yellow dish called 'gulai masak lemak cili padi' has always been well known there.

I plan to try out with salted 'talang' fish coupled with unriped bananas today. The bananas I'm using is called 'berangan'. Not sure though as my mom usually use 'pisang emas'. Lets experiment.

The taste of the dish mainly depends on the quality of the salted fish used. The more bones the sweeter the gravy will be. But I'm not using bones today, can't find it from the mini mart.

Here are the ingredients;
☑️ Salted 'talang' fish
☑️ Unriped bananas
☑️ Fresh turmeric
☑️ Garlic
☑️ Chillies (cabai burung)
☑️ Freshly pressed coconut milk
☑️ Turmeric leaves
☑️ Lemongrass
☑️ Asam keping

Preparations;
Soak salted 'talang' for about 30 minutes and clean several of the bananas. Remove some part of the skin and split into halves. Soak in salted water to reduce oxidisation.

Blend turmeric, garlic & chillies and put aside. Sliced the turmeric leave to your liking.

Cooking
Pour the blended ingredients into the pot together with coconut milk. Cook for about 5 minutes with high heat. Drain the salted fish and put it in the heated gravy. Not forgetting 2 pieces of 'asam keping'.

Keep cooking until the gravy starts to bubbles but keep stirring to avoid the coconut milk to separate, which is undesirable for this type of dish.

In Malay it is called 'pecah santan' where the coconut milk makes up a top layer of the gravy leaving the water below. It looks like a curd, sort of.

Next, after the gravy shows some spots of oil, reduce the heat and pops in the lemongrass which you need to bash first.

Put the unriped bananas as well as the sliced turmeric leave. Stir until the banana is cooked. It'll become soft when poked with a fork.

It's basically done now. It is best served with hot white rice. Yummy!