Otak-Otak (Grilled Fish Cake)

Step 1

Soak and boil chillies for 4 minutes or until soft over medium heat. Discard seeds and chilli membranes to reduce the spiciness. Set boiled chillies aside. Then, skin and chop the rest of the spices and herbs into smaller pieces. Blend all the ingredients until fine. To ease the blending process, add the oil into the blender.

Step 2

In a pan, add some oil to sauté blended spices over medium to low heat until fragrant. Continue stirring to prevent the paste from burning. Once the oil separates or floats to the surface, set the chilli paste aside to let it cool to room temperature.

Step 3

Once chilli paste is no longer warm, discard the excess oil. Then, add chilli paste with the fish fillet, coconut milk, water, salt, sugar, tapioca flour and blend until it becomes a fine paste.

Step 4

Scoop 40 grams of fish paste onto a piece of banana leaf measuring 6 inches long and 4 inches wide. Then, fold and wrap the fish paste. Secure the ends with toothpicks. Repeat until the fish paste is finished.

Step 5

Heat up a 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.