Patin, salmon, kunyit and cilipadi

kunyit

Some ingredients found locally in Penang, Malaysia. This is a photo of cilipadi or bird’s eye chillies which is a type of very hot chilli that burns the tongue. The other is tumeric roots and tumeric leaves.

HOW TO CLEAN FISH
fishead

I bought this Patin Hitam for the first time. It is a freshwater fish reared in fish farms which most people shun because of the strong, fishy, ‘earthy’ smell. Over here in Malaysia, we mostly consume fishes from the seas as fishes are easily available as we are surrounded the oceans. Patin Hitam is known for its very smooth and oily flesh. The original Patin is very popular in the East Coast of Malaysia as these are caught from the rivers. However, over here on the West Coast, many of us do not consume patin very often. A large fish only cost me RM2.38 from Tesco, gutted and cleaned by the staff.

On an adventurous mood, I also ordered one salmon head which cost RM6.90. Again, salmon head is not consume especially by most Chinese because of the ‘fishy’ smell.

To get rid of the strong smell, I did the following:
1. Rub the fish and fish head with tamarind pulp.
2. Rub with a lot of salt.
3. Rinse with water.
4. Quick boil the fish and fish head in hot boiling water with some rock sugar.
5. Remove immediately and left to cool down under running tap water.
6. Put into cooking.

What did I cook? Recipe later on.

(Local readers may be wondering why I tend to explain things more than usual like quoting the state and country. It is to ‘attract’ web crawler. Bear with me, I need to drawn attention using these terms.)

Posted by on May 23rd, 2005 under Ingredients

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No Responses to “Patin, salmon, kunyit and cilipadi”

  1. boo_licious Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 4:18 am

    wow, I learn something new today that will be extremely useful in the future. I usually just grill my salmon head with some teriyaki sauce and to get rid of the fishy smell, squeeze some lemon over it while grilling.

  2. Lrong Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 9:29 am

    Sometimes cook salmon fish head curry here… the chili padi… wooh, nice! But, no idea of this Patin Hitam fish…

  3. momof2 Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 10:10 am

    Patin Hitam, is it called cat fish? What is it called in Hokkien?
    Cooking Salmon heand in curry (especially the asam based type) very nice as the flesh is lemak and sort of complement the sour gravy.

  4. romantic Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 12:17 pm

    When we first moved to Canada, and when my parents craved curry fish heads, they would attempt to buy from the Seafood dept.. Instead they would be given a big box of Huge (AAARGH!!!)Salmon heads and with a lot of meat intact for free.They actually thanked us for taking them. :) Now , with so many Asian immigrants , they now sell everything including fish lips ( eew) and fishheads would have almost no meat on them.

  5. lilian Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 1:13 pm

    Romantic – Hahaha, I can imagine that. Chinese eats everything, including fish eyes.

    Momof2 – It is not catfish (semilang). I think it is called Pak sou kong. Sold steam with tomyam or ginger sauce at Chinese restaurant for RM60. But that kind of patin is different specie la, I suppose. Still it smells because that day we ate at Jade Palace in Wisma Chocolate. That’s how I got idea to buy and try. The head no misai, though.

    Lrong – Wow, you cook curry in Japan? Next time, take photo and show us ya.

    boo_licious – Some curry fish head stalls now sell salmon fishead curry too. Soon, they will turn salmon head into some expensive stuffs.

  6. zyrin Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 1:31 pm

    hmm… i didn’t know that patin comes in differnt colours. i always thought that patin was just… patin. heh. shows what an ignoramus i am, even though my mom has ‘roots’ in temerloh, a.k.a. bandar ikan patin.

    tempoyak + patin = yummy!

  7. AK Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 2:01 pm

    I learned a new way to take off fishy smell.

    Soak them in plain milk(not sweetened or evaporated) for ~1 hour+(depending on quantity). It works.

    Then rinsed under water, pat dry and cook as per recipe.

  8. percolator Says:
    May 24th, 2005 at 2:16 pm

    salmon? Yum! yum! I always find them best eaten hot-off the pan/oven/grill! And I always eat salmon by itself as a meal or as a dim-sum like snack, never as a dish with rice.. never.

    Just pan fry/grill a steak-cut with butter (never oil) and some salt and (black)pepper. Serve while hot with lemon juice, salt and pepper. I like mine dry, and in all it’s sea-saltiness, no sauce please. Fishy? Good excuse to crack open a bottle of wine..an acidic champagne or something sparkling (to balance out the high fat content of salmon lah)… Yumm, hehe.. me incurable romantic and hedonist.

    With fillets, cut in 3-in lengths (whatever is bite-size to you), drench with sake, a shake of basil or thyme, S & P, and wrap each piece in (buttered) foil, skin-side down. Pop them into the microwave for like 1.5 mins, depending on how thick it’s cut. Serve while still hot – with lemon wedges and -this makes it really special- fish roe or better, caviar.. I can eat a dozen of these… and get quite silly with the rest of the sake. Oooh heavenly…

  9. anasalwa Says:
    May 25th, 2005 at 1:35 am

    Lilian,
    I’ve made salmon head curry a few times in the past and they are pretty good. I could get two salmon heads( and big too and lot of meat)for $1.50. I never head patin head before. Are they good?

  10. lilian Says:
    May 26th, 2005 at 12:48 am

    Anasalwa – Cheap! Err…I threw the patin head away ‘cos it stinks. I use only the patin’s flesh. The patin is about foot long only.

    Percolator – Wow, you got expensive taste. Must copy your recipe and try real soon.

    AK – I soaked my tenggiri in milk today. It was fresh but heck, I just want to try out what you suggested. I am not sure it helps but my kids saw the fish swimming in milk and they seems to like the idea and ate more. I washed it and made sweet and sour fish.

    zyrin – The only time I tasted patin and tempoyak was along the N-S Highway at Perak. Eeek, I wasn’t prepared for the taste and cannot eat my rice at all. Must be brave and give it another try next time.

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