Easy otak otak

Otak otak is an aromatic fish cake wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over charcoal that's popular in Southeast Asia. Traditionally, all the ingredients are chopped by hand, but a blender makes this firm and fragrant fish mousse easy to cook at home.

Easy otak otak Credit: Kitti Gould

• makes

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Stream free On Demand

Dish From My Travels

Watch The Full Episode Here

G

Watch The Full Episode Here

G

Ingredients

• 500 g mackerel fillets, skin off
• 1 egg
• 150 ml coconut milk
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• banana leaves, soaked in water to soften
• toothpicks, soaked in water

Base

• 30 g dried chillies, soaked for 30 minutes, drained
• 1 bird's eye chilli, chopped
• 50 g lemongrass, roughly chopped
• 30 g galangal, roughly chopped
• 2 makrut lime leaves
• 100 g brown onion, roughly chopped
• 150 g red Asian shallots, peeled
• 1 tbsp grated palm sugar
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp belachan (fermented shrimp paste)

To serve

• steamed rice and sambal

Instructions

1. Preheat a chargrill pan or barbecue to medium high (see note).
2. For the base, place all the ingredients in the small bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3. To the same food processor bowl (you don't need to wash it), add the fish, egg, coconut milk, cornflour and ½ cup of the base mix. Blend until mousse-like.
4. Spoon 2 heaped tablespoons of the mix into the centre of a banana leaf and wrap up in a neat parcel, fastening with toothpicks. Repeat until the mixture is used up.
5. Chargrill the otak otak parcels for 2–3 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Serve hot with rice and sambal.

Note

• You can chargrill these parcels as per the recipe or steam them for 10 minutes or bake them at 200°C for 15 minutes.

• Use the rest of your homemade paste in stir-fries, curries and on your eggs in the morning. If you want to make it even simpler (and cheaper), swap the base for store-bought red curry paste.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

Want more from The Cook Up?

• Stream free here at SBS On Demand.

• Get the show recipes, articles and more here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Dish From My Travels

Watch The Full Episode Here

G

Watch The Full Episode Here

G