The Otak Otak, a fish dish cooked in a blend of spices,
thinly shredded limau purut(kaffir lime)leaves and coconut milk. My mum’s
signature dish, I remember how she would fill banana leaves that have been folded
into packages with the fish mixture for steaming. The waft of delightful spices
and aroma filling the air would not fail to stir our appetites.
I have modified the recipe a little, using only the daun
kadok(aromatic wild betel leaves), omitting the banana leaves to simplify the preparation
a little. My mum would say, “not bad at all.”
Baked Otak Otak Recipe
Ingredients :
300 to 400 gm white fish meat (2 blocks of Red Snapper or
Garoupa or other similar fish meat)
8 dried chillies (seeded for a mild flavour)
12 shallots
5 pips garlic
1 inch piece of fresh tumeric (about the size of your distal
phalange of middle finger
1 lemon grass
½ inch piece of
belachan (I do not like it too strong for this dish)
4 tabsp of fish curry powder, or 3 tabsp of wet curry fish
paste(this can be bought from the market)
Some limau perut/kaffir lime leaves (thinly shredded)
Half grated coconut, to get half a cup of coconut milk
3 eggs
Sufficient 'daun kadok' or wild betel leaves(a type of aromatic ground creepers) for lining tray or
pan
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation :
- Grind
the chillies, shallots, garlic, tumeric, lemon grass and belachan
together.
- Mix
the ground ingredients with the fish curry powder or wet curry fish paste.
- Add the
beaten eggs, and mix well.
- Add
the thinly shredded kaffir lime leaves.
- Add in
the fish meat that has been thinly sliced.
- Stir
well, add salt and pepper seasoning.
- Line a
baking or steaming tray with ‘daun kadok’.
- Scoop
the fish meat and egg mixture into the tray, leave about ¼ cup of the
gravy for spreading over the top of the top 'daun kadok'.
- Cover the
fish and egg mixture with a layer of ‘daun kadok’.
- Pour the remaining gravy onto
the ‘daun kadok’ and bake for about 30-35 minutes at at 180 deg. till sides of tray are slightly brown.
NOTES :
·
You could steam the Otak Otak in a plate/tray
for about 15-20 minutes instead of baking it.
·
You can estimate the proportion of coconut milk
used. It should be approximately 1.5 times the volume of eggs.
·
Some cooks omitted the curry powder and some do
add some rice flour to thicken the gravy.
