There’s a story behind this dish. The Malays use fermented durian (tempoyak) in a number of dishes including in a prawn sambal (it’s called Sambal Tempoyak Udang). Back when I had my restaurant here in Sydney, my Malay staff...
There’s a story behind this dish.
The Malays use fermented durian (tempoyak) in a number of dishes including in a prawn sambal (it’s called Sambal Tempoyak Udang).
Back when I had my restaurant here in Sydney, my Malay staff (Iza and Tawfik) taught me how to cook this dish but because we didn’t have any fermented durian on hand, we used the non-fermented frozen variety.
The result was so good, we ran with it, but I soon realised not everyone was a fan.
When my child Noah was born and was very sick in hospital (he ended up spending the first 217 days of his life there), I had to take 6 weeks off to stay by his bedside in the NICU (neonatal ICU) ward. To “celebrate” my return to the kitchen, we decided to run a special pop-up dinner in Alexandria and sell tickets, with proceeds to go to the Westmead Children’s Hospital Grace (NICU) ward.
With only a handful of tickets sold within days of the event, I was told by Noah’s doctors that his heart was failing and they needed to operate on it urgently. The next slot they had was on – you guessed it – the day of the pop-up dinner. My staff and co-organisers got cold feet on both counts and suggested we cancelled.
Being Hakka-stubborn, I said no. It ended up being a sellout event, although most guests didn’t know that while I was smiling for the cameras, behind the scenes I was running to the back of the restaurant and calling up the hospital for updates about Noah’s post-op condition.
I thought the pop-up went well, but then the next day I got an angry email from one of the Australian guests. She had bought four tickets for herself and her family, and she complained that the durian sambal tasted awful.
I gave her a full refund of all four tickets immediately despite the protestations of everyone around me about how much food that family ate that night, plus the fact that the money was for charity etc.
Frankly, I didn’t want their money if they didn’t like my food, plus I had bigger issues to deal with (ie. Noah’s critical medical condition).
Anyway, as some of you would know, when Noah eventually came out of hospital, I ended up closing my restaurant to look after him.
I never cooked that dish again.
That was until some ten years later, when the recipe made its way into my collaborative Masters of Malaysian Cuisine Durian Cookbook and I had to cook it for the book’s photos (and that’s all).
Yesterday, in preparation for TV chef Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook)’s visit to Australia, the crew at Ipoh Hawker made this dish from my cookbook, because they will be serving it at my Martin Yan X Jackie M Lunch Experience on Saturday 14 October.
Everyone who tried it yesterday thought it was great.
But don’t take my word for it; try it for yourself on the day.
Get your tickets here > https://www.jackiemshop.com.au/product/martin-yan-ipoh-hawker-experience
Ten years since I closed my restaurant, I was back in the kitchen at Ipoh Hawker Macquarie Park to help guide their crew on my durian prawn sambal dish
The post My Prawn Durian Sambal – The Story Behind It first appeared on Jackie M.
The post My Prawn Durian Sambal – The Story Behind It appeared first on Jackie M.
