Smelly But Delish!

I was looking for something in the fridge and I noted that my fridge is overcrowded. So many bottles and containers of this and that taking up so much space. That made retrieving or looking for anything from the fridge rather cumbersome.

That's when I found a bottle containing the other half of my unused tempoyak (fermented durians). Let's see, the last time I used the contents was in January this year. It is now November. And I made that tempoyak in 2015.

I took a tentative sniff. It still smelt good. So. 

I pounded some cili padi and fresh turmeric. Then I fried a handful of ikan bilis until crispy.

Then the pounded ingredients were sauteed in hot oil and to that a stalk of lemongrass and shredded turmeric leaves were added together with the tempoyak.

Once well mixed and done, the ikan bilis was added.

I scooped it all into a glass jar and let it cool completely before closing the lid and keeping it in the fridge (thereby taking up space in the fridge again. Bah!).

This Ikan Bilis Tumis Sambal Tempoyak which I took from my friend's blog is da bomb! My version is a sickly greenish yellowish color because I used green cili padi. I cannot stand the red one because it is super hawt!

Tempoyak fans, this is a recipe you simply have to try. I would be very happy to eat just this with rice. 

Ikan Bilis Tumis Sambal Tempoyak
Recipe source : Adapted from Secubit Garam

Ingredients :
- 1 cup of tempoyak
- 10 green cili padi (or red if you prefer)
- 1 cm fresh turmeric
- 1 turmeric leaf, thinly sliced
- 1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
- oil for frying
- 1/2 cup ikan bilis, washed, drained and fried till crispy

Method :
1. Pound cili padi and fresh turmeric.
2. Heat oil in pan and saute the pounded ingredients.
3. Add tempoyak, turmeric leaves and lemongrass.
4. Stir to mix well and continue to saute until aromatic.
5. Add fried ikan bilis, stir to mix and then dish out to serve.

Note : I did not add any salt since it was salty enough.