makes
6-8
prep
20 minutes
cook
10 minutes
difficulty
Easy
makes
6-8
serves
preparation
20
minutes
cooking
10
minutes
difficulty
Easy
level
Stream free On Demand
Dish From My Travels
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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
- Preheat a chargrill pan or barbecue to medium high (see note).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
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