Making Tempoyak
11 July 2009
984 views
6 Comments
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Equine Park, Seri Kembangan in search for durian stall. My mission was to make tempoyak or fermented durian. I bought around 50 pieces durian for RM30. To save me some effort from massive cleaning job at home, I brought along a huge container and asked the durian seller to remove the flesh from the shell. Let him worry about disposing the thorny shells later on.
How to make tempoyak?
- Remove the seeds from the flesh.
- Mix the durian well with coarse salt. The amount of salt determines the sourish-vs-saltiness level and how long you want it stocked. Light salt would make it sourish and ideal for short term storage. Slightly salty is ideal for 3-6 months supply. That was how our forefathers used to make tempoyak.
- However, with modern life where every households own at least a unit of refrigerator, it’s sufficient to make it lightly salted. Let it ferment at room temperature for a couple of weeks or up to a month, and then transfer it into the refrigerator to maintain freshness and lifespan. It could last up to a year!
- There you go. It’s very simple actually to make tempoyak. The secret lies with the amount of salt and how you store it later to keep it fresh.
Perhaps additional steps from my own preference:
- I don’t make direct skin contact when removing the seeds from the flesh. I wear a polyethylene disposable glove (plastic glove) or a fork and knife. Reason: hygiene; sweaty palms would spoil the taste of the tempoyak.
- Store it in a glass or earth jar. For this reason, I purposely bought 2pcs x 1.8l Forvar jar from Ikea at RM7.90 per piece. If necessary, dry it under the sun to make sure it is perfectly dry before you store the tempoyak.
Two weeks later my tempoyak is ready for consumption. My first recipe to go with the tempoyak tonight was siok gule mpuyak campur sabi (chicken cooked with tempoyak and cili api). Sidi boh (simply delicious) … 
Bon appetit 
wah! kaki tempoyak jugak ko ni!
.-= rumet´s last blog ..Some more Melbourne pictures =-.
Add on young ginger suckers and tumeric leaves for delicious aromatic taste OR JUST TUMERIC LEAVES ONLY.
I’m reading this after midnight, so imagine how hungry I am reading this.
Dahla doi tampoyak dati.
Interesting. I love the tempoyak too and often added it to my sambal belacan or my recipe would normally be Ikan Patin masak tempoyak which is simply marvellous.Thanks for the above tips on how to make tempoyak. It really helps.
durian here is cheap dont u think so? back in miri rm50 for one.
.-= RW FOTOGRAFI´s last blog ..//SHAH ALAM: A CONVERSATION =-.
my hubby was talking about cooking that chic with tempoyak too this morning… i pun baru 2-3 tahun tok pandei moalh tempoyak!!
Leave your response!
myQuick short updates
Recent Comments
Top Commentators
Blogs I Like!
Archives
Categories
View Stats
UserOnline
Calendar
Recent Posts
Most Commented
Most Viewed