Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 44, The Long Reduction, the Merantau Road and the Veranda of Mecca
Gulai ikan patin
Riau, the Minangkabau rantau
Illustration
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Researched
- 11 sources cited
A river dish: wild-caught freshwater catfish, left in large bone-in pieces, in a yellow, turmeric-forward broth.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 45 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 river catfish (patin), cut into large, bone-in pieces
- a 3cm piece of turmeric, 3 large red chillies and 5 curly red chillies, 4 garlic cloves, a 2cm piece of ginger, a 3cm piece of galangal, 1 lemongrass stalk turmeric, chilli, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass
- 4, toasted candlenut
- 500 ml coconut milk
- to taste, optional asam kandis, to sour (optional)
- to taste salt
Method
- Grind the turmeric, chilli, garlic, ginger, galangal and candlenut to a paste and fry out until fragrant (Rung 2).
- Add the coconut milk and lemongrass, and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Add the catfish, kept in large pieces rather than filleted small, and simmer gently until just cooked through.
- Add asam kandis if a soured version is wanted, and season with salt.
What a modern chef changes
A clean, pourable curry, taken to its logical finish.
Rung 2
Method
- Grind the bumbu in the high-power blender and pass the finished sauce through a chinois before the fish goes back in, for a genuinely smooth, glossy broth: this is one of the wetter, cleaner-format dishes in this chapter where straining is an honest improvement, not a betrayal.
- Cook the fish sous vide separately, briefly, then reheat gently in the finished broth only at the last moment, protecting the large bone-in pieces from the risk of overcooking in an open simmer.