Otak-otak (Spicy Grilled Nyonya Fish Cakes) is a traditional Malaysian recipe for a classic fish cake made from a fish and chilli paste with coconut milk, that's fried in banana leaves to cook. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Malaysian version of: Spicy Grilled Nyonya Fish Cakes (Otak-otak).
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Ingredients:
10g dried chillies
3 fresh red chillies
15g turmeric (fresh)
10 shallots
3 garlic cloves
30g galangal
3 lemongrass stalks
10g ginger
100ml oil
150g fish fillet
100g coconut milk
100g water
1⁄4 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
15g tapioca flour
Method:
Soak and boil the dried chillies over medium heat for 4 minutes or until soft. Discard the seeds and membranes to reduce the spiciness. Set boiled chillies aside. Peel and chop the remainder of the fresh spices and herbs into smaller pieces. Blend all the ingredients until fine. To ease the blending process, add a little oil into the blender.
In a pan, add some oil and use to fry the blended spices over medium to low heat until fragrant. Continue stirring to prevent the paste from burning. Once the the oil separates or floats to the surface, set the chilli paste aside to let it cool to room temperature.
Once the chilli paste is no longer warm, discard the excess oil. Then, combine chilli paste with the fish fillet, coconut milk, water, salt, sugar, tapioca flour and blend until it becomes a fine paste.
Scoop 40g of this fish paste onto a piece of banana leaf measuring 615cm long and 10cm wide. Then, fold and wrap the fish paste. Secure the ends with toothpicks. Repeat until the fish paste is finished.
Heat up a dry frying pan over medium to low heat to cook the otak-otak for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. If there is a lot of fish paste in each package, the cooking time may be longer.
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