Bali Spicy Grilled Fish - Ikan Bakar Jimbaran

Bali Spicy Grilled Fish aka Ikan Bakar Jimbaran means whole grouper marinated in a spice paste that includes onion, garlic, galangal, coriander, tamarind and red chilies, which is then grilled over coals and basted with sweet soy sauce.

Best enjoyed in a fresh island breeze that carries the smoky grilled smell to your table, followed quickly on by the charred sweet and spicy fish itself, this dish brings me right back to Bali, Island of the Gods. 

If you’ve read my About Me page, you know that Indonesia is one of the places in which I’ve had a bedroom, first in my father’s home in Jakarta and later, as a married person, in the small oilfield town of Balikpapan on the island of Borneo. When I’d tell people we lived in Balikpapan, they’d say knowingly and with some how’d-you-get-that-gig admiration, “Oh, Bali!” No, sadly, not Bali, not even close in attributes and amenities, but, fortunately, it wasn’t that far to get to when we needed a break.

And when we did spend time in Bali, we ordered the ikan bakar, or grilled fish. Over the years, I’ve tried to recreate it more than a few times at home. This version is the closest I’ve ever come to our memories of the original. I have to warn you that cooking it is a two-man job and requires a charcoal barbecue pit with a lid to control the flames which lick up at the fish, essential for flavor, but a challenge to manage. The second person is needed for basting quickly while person number one holds the lid off briefly, poised to close it quickly as the flames shoot up. 

We want lots of charred bits on the outside, but succulent white flesh inside. I also find that using a fish shaped metal barbecue basket greatly simplifies the task. Ikan bakar is traditionally served with a raw sambal of lemongrass, purple onions and chilies, with shrimp paste or ground dried shrimp, called sambal matah or green mango sambal.

My ikan bakar Jimbaran was adapted from these two recipes on Recipkoki and Bumbu Ikan Bakarku. Who knew I could remember that much of my Bahasa Indonesia, the Indonesian language?!

Ingredients
1 whole fish about 3 1/3 lbs or 1.5kg (Red Snapper or Grouper or other white fish) Mine is a Grouper.

For the marinade:
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
5 candlenuts (Sub macadamias if you can’t find candlenuts.)
8 small shallots or equivalent weight in purple onions, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
3 red chilies, stems cut off
3 teaspoons sour tamarind paste or equal amount of fresh tamarind, seeds and fibers removed
2 in or 5cm piece galangal, peeled and chopped finely
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola or other light oil
Juice half a lime (if your tamarind isn’t very sour)
1/3 cup or 90ml water

For the basting liquid:
1/2 cup or 120ml kecap manis or sweet dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons canola
Warm till butter melts, whisk to combine.

Method
Use a mortar and pestle to grind the coriander seeds to a fine powder then add the other marinade ingredients up to and including the sea salt, a few at a time. Grind everything to a smooth paste.

Sauté the paste in the oil for about 10 minutes over a low heat, until fragrant. Add in the water and cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove from the heat and allow the spice paste to cool before proceeding.

Clean your fish (or have your fish market guy do it for you) but leave it whole. Slash the fish down to the bones with a very sharp knife.

Heap the marinade on both sides and use your fingers or a spoon to make sure that it gets deep into the slashes. Rub marinade inside the fish as well. Leave to marinate for an hour or so. If you are preparing it ahead of cooking by several hours, put it in the refrigerator.

About 20-30 minutes before you are ready to cook the fish, light your charcoals.

Make your basting liquid by adding all the ingredients to a microwaveable measuring cup and warming it in the microwave until the butter is just melted. Whisk to combine.

When the coals are white, your fire is ready. Spray your barbecue basket with non-stick spray and put the fish inside securely.

Whole fish come in different thicknesses so it’s hard to tell you exactly how long to cook your fish. This one took about 20 minutes all together. We did about eight minutes on one side.

Then eight minutes on the other to start.

Once it’s just about cooked, start basting with the sweet soy mixture, turning the fish frequently.

Keep the lid down to control the flames so the fish smokes but the sugar in the soy doesn’t burn too much. Some char is desirable though. And some of the black is actually the dark soy. Check for doneness by separating the flesh up near the head with two forks. Fully cooked fish will be white to the bone.

Bring the whole fish to the table and let folks serve themselves by removing the meat from the bones.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our two hosts for this week’s Sunday Supper, Cindy of Cindy’s Recipes and Writings and Marlene of Nosh My Way for motivating this walk down culinary memory lane in search of a tropical recipe to share. If you are looking for more tropical inspired recipes, you have come to the right place this week!

Tidbits and Pupus

• Chicken and Lemongrass Sugarcane Skewers by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Coconut crusted Tofu with Spicy Mango Cucumber Topping by Soni's Food
• Larp (Laos chicken salad) by Caroline's Cooking

Breakfast

• Midwest Style Loco Moco by Our Good Life
• Tropical Sunrise Fruit Salad with Coconut Chia Cream by Cupcakes & Kale Chips

Companions

• Caribbean Black Beans with Rice by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Condiments and Sauces

• Mango Jam by Brunch with Joy
• Thai Sweet Chili Sauce by Magnolia Days

Coolers

• Cilantro Margarita by An Appealing Plan
• Coconut Mojito by Flour On My Face
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake Cocktail by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Strawberry Lava Flow by Nosh My Way

Main Event

• Bali Spicy Grilled Fish - Ikan Bakar Jimbaran by Food Lust People Love
• Crockpot Hawaiian Pulled Pork by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Grilled Jerk Shrimp Roll with Tropical Fruit Slaw by Food Done Light
• Grilled Swordfish with Pineapple Salsa by Cooking Chat
• Kalua Pig by Palatable Pastime
• Mango Barbecued Pork Chops by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Mango Lime Fajitas by Curious Cuisiniere
• Pineapple Pork by Basic N Delicious
• Pineapple, Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza by Family Foodie
• Catibias o Cativias (Dominican Yucca Empanadas) by The Petit Gourmet
• Shrimp Salad with Avocado Ranch Dressing by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Slow Cooker Kalua Pork Tacos by Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen
• Tropical Chicken Burgers by Momma's Meals
• Whole Roasted Bream with a Ginger-Tamarind Sauce by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Delectable Delights

• Seven Layer Bars by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Tropical Sunshine Cake by Lifestyle Food Artistry
• Double Ginger Cookies by Pies and Plots
• Majarete Ice Cream by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Mini Mango Cheesecakes by The Freshman Cook
• Pineapple Blueberry Ooey Gooey Cake by Recipes Food and Cooking
• Pumpkin-Coconut Biscotti by What Smells So Good?
• Tropical Fruit Salad by The Redhead Baker
• Tropical Layered Poke Cake by Daily Dish Recipes
• Ube Panna Cotta by The Joyful Foodie
• Whole Wheat Mango Coconut Bars by Peanut Butter and Peppers

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Ceviche - As it should be

Many a thing is called ceviche out in the world of restaurants. Some add tomatoes or avocado or mango or other abominations. I’ve even seen grapes! This dish is made exactly as I remember it from my childhood time spent in northern Peru, with fresh seafood, fresh lime juice, purple onions, cilantro, salt and chili peppers. That’s it. And boiled yucca on the side. 

About a year after my parents divorced, my father moved from Venezuela where we had all been living together, to a small oilfield company town in northern Peru called Negritos. If you’ve been in the mountains and the rain forests of Peru but never ventured to the northwestern coast, you might be surprised to find sand dunes to rival those in my current home, the United Arab Emirates. Negritos is set near the most western point of mainland South America, Punta Pariñas, with a beautiful coast in front and a massive desert at its back. I spent every summer there for several years, until Daddy moved again.

I don’t know that it was much of a place for being an adult but it was heaven for a child. I’d take off for hours, exploring rocks and sand dunes and crevasses, finding shells and fossils, building forts with the neighbor kids and “tightrope” walking on the pipes between the enormous town water tank and, well, town. (Shhhh! Don’t tell my father – the pipeline was strictly off limits.) My older sister and I shared a little blue Honda 70 motorbike and sometimes I’d ride the dunes on it, but most days, exploration was on foot and I’d often carry pen and paper, in case inspiration struck and I needed to write something down. I was deep into my Harriet the Spy phase then. Returning home, I’d drive my stepmother to distraction by taking off my shoes and socks and making two little piles on my bedroom floor with the sand that had accumulated in them. It was fun to see how big the piles were some days, as if it told me how far I had walked somehow. In retrospect, I must have been a strange child.

A big treat - I’m telling you it was a small town! – was to go to the small airport in the next town over and eat in the restaurant there. I’ll let you absorb that. We went to the airport just to eat. Watching the planes take off and land was a bonus. I always, and I mean always, without fail, ordered the shrimp ceviche. It was perfect. A healthy plateful of shrimp, swimming in lime juice with lots of sliced onions and just enough chili. The resulting liquid is called leche de tigre or tiger’s milk and when all the shrimp were gone, I’d sip it with a spoon and nibble on the boiled yucca that was always served alongside.

My father’s company also had a very rustic, open plan brick house on a beautiful beach called Punta Sal, which we were able to use on weekends and holidays. It was even farther north, in fact, about halfway to the Ecuadorian border. There we’d make our own ceviche, with fresh grouper hooked from the water by a local fisherman called Polo. Burnished and wizen by too many years in the fierce sun, Polo lived in a makeshift shanty right on Punta Sal and made his living fishing off of a raft of old logs bound together by frayed rope and luck. He'd come door-to-door with his daily catch and often let the more adventurous boys (my husband among them) "help" him fish.

When I eat this ceviche and I close my eyes, I can hear the waves crashing, smell the sea breeze and feel the dried crusty salt left behind by the water, tight on my sunburned skin. Hope you do too. (Sometimes I even smell jet fuel, but that one's probably just me.)

Ingredients
6 -7 limes or more if yours aren’t very juicy. You need about 1 cup or 240ml juice.
13 oz or 370g fresh firm white flesh fish – I used Hammour or local grouper
1 large purple onion (about 3 1/2 oz or 100g, before peeling)
1 teaspoon flakey sea salt or to taste, plus more for boiling the shrimp
1 large bunch cilantro or coriander leaves (About 1 3/4 oz or 50g)
1-2 hot red chili peppers (I used two!)
12 1/3 oz or 350g fresh shrimp, already cleaned and deveined

To serve: The traditional accompaniment to a bowl of ceviche is yucca, boiled till tender in lightly salted water. Try to get your hands on some – it’s called different things in a variety of countries: Manioc, cassava, mogo, manioc and aipim, just to name a few. Peel it and wash it well before boiling. Once boiled, split it down the middle and pull out the fibrous threads before serving. Its flavor is somewhere between a potato and a parsnip and the mild taste and starchiness counterbalances the acidic, spicy ceviche.

Method
Juice your limes and put them in a non-reactive bowl. Glass does nicely.

Remove all the bones and cut your fish up into bite-sized pieces. I use jewelry pliers to get the pin bones out.

Immerse the fish in the lime juice and stir well.

Wash the cilantro thoroughly with cold water. Sometimes it takes more than one rinse to get rid of all the dirt but it’s worth taking the time to make sure it’s completely grit free. Spin the cilantro dry in a salad spinner or tied up in a dish towel. You can discard the stems but as long as they aren’t really thick and hard, I like to mince them very finely and use them. Chop the leaves roughly and set aside.

Slice your onions as thinly as you can manage and mince your red chilies.

Add the onions and the chilies to the fish along with the sea salt. Give everything a good stir and use your spoon, preferably a wooden one, to poke the pieces of fish back into a single layer under the lime juice.

Pile your chopped cilantro on top of everything but don’t stir yet. Just let it all hang out.

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add a little salt, just as you would do for boiling pasta.

Add the shrimp to the pot and turn the heat off. Put a lid on the pot and set a timer for about three minutes. This parboils the shrimp but they will finish "cooking" in the lime juice.

When the time rings, remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon. Let them cool slightly and then add them to the bowl with the fish.

Now you can give it a good stir. Poke the bits of fish back under the lime juice.

Cover the whole bowl with cling film and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for several hours or until the fish is completely opaque and “cooked” by the lime juice. I left mine overnight because it was going sailing with us the next day. If you are traveling with ceviche, make sure to keep it on ice until you are ready to serve it.

Serve with boiled yucca for a traditional treat. (See note with the ingredients list above.)

Enjoy!

Cajun Courtbouillon or Shrimp and Fish Stew

Seafood stew or soup with a Louisiana pedigree, Cajun courtbouillon is what my grandmother always made with red fish. Delicious!

If you are an expat like I am, you vacillate between loving your time at home home (where you are from) and wishing it were longer, and appreciating some distance from family politics and dynamics when it’s time to go home (where you live.)  The happy medium here is when family comes to visit.  

First, they are on neutral turf, your turf specifically, so everyone is making nice like visitors should, and secondly, you are so busy doing touristy things and seeing sights and enjoying their company, that time passes quickly and you wish they could stay longer. And that is where I am this week. 

My mother and sister are here and we are riding camels at the pyramids at Giza and shopping at the Khan al Khalili and sipping coffee at Al Mokattam which is the highest point in Cairo and has a fabulous view of the city.  Yesterday we drove to the coast so they could dip their toes in the Red Sea. We have also been cooking deliciousness every night. (I am going to miss them when they are gone!)

One of our favorite meals is a traditional Cajun seafood soup called courtbouillon, pronounced coo-bee-yaw in southern Louisiana, made with a roux.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 cup flour
2 medium onions
1 large or 2 small bell peppers (Preferably green but yellow will do in a pinch.  Just don't tell my grandmother!)
4-5 stalks celery
1/4 cup or 60ml tomato paste
2 liters or 8 1/2 cups fish stock or water with stock cubes to create equivalent
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
Good handful of green onion tops
Good handful of flat-leaf parsley
3/4 lb or 350g shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1 1/3 lbs or 600g grouper or other white fish fillets
Cooked white rice or fresh baguette to serve.

Method
Peel and finely chop your onions, bell peppers and celery.  A food processor can be used but be sure just to pulse the vegetables and don’t puree them.  Set aside.

Put your oil and flour into a heavy bottomed pot and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or other heat-resistant stirring implement, like a silicone spatula.

Once all the flour lumps have been dissolved, turn the fire on medium and cook, stirring frequently at first and then constantly as the roux begins to dark.

  Cook and stir until your roux is about the color of an old copper penny.

Add in the chopped vegetable all at once and stir well to mix.  The mixture will be quite stiff.

Cook the vegetables for about five minutes, stirring all the time, and then add in the tomato paste.

Stir to incorporate the tomato paste and then add in the fish stock or water and stock cubes.  Stir or whisk to combine.

Bring to the boil and then simmer, covered, for at least one hour or until you are about 20 minutes from serving your courtbouillon.  Check the level periodically, and add more water if it is getting too thick for your liking.  You do want it to reduce but some people prefer courtbouillon thinner like soup or very thick like stew.  In our family we make it like a thick soup.

Meanwhile cut your fish into good-sized pieces and season with salt, black pepper and cayenne.  If your shrimp are not peeled and cleaned yet, do that now and season them with the same.  Refrigerate until needed.

Chop your onion tops and parsley.   Set aside.

Plant the white onion bottoms in some soil in your garden.  They will sprout all over again.  

When you are about 20 minutes from serving, turn up the heat on your courtbouillon until it is gently boiling again and slip the fish pieces and the shrimp into the pot.  Turn the heat down right away and stir ever so gently to distribute the fish and shrimp around the pot.  You do not want to the fish to break all apart.

Stir in the chopped parsley and green onion tops, reserving just a little for garnishing each bowl.

Check the seasoning and add more salt and cayenne as needed.  Serve over white rice, with French bread on the side for dipping.  We also add extra hot sauce to each bowl at the table.

Enjoy!

Pan-fried Asian Fish with Noodles

This pan-fried Asian fish is full of flavor from the soy sauce, Shaoxing and sesame oil marinade. Once you've marinated the fish filets, it takes very little time to cook for a quick, tasty meal!

I am going back through my files and realizing that there are many dishes that I have neglected to post.  Truth is, I cook almost every day and the photos get edited and filed and sometimes the post even gets written but then I’ve moved onto other things that somehow seem more urgent to share.  This post was written back in 2011 when I had just visited the newly renovated Isetan food market in Kuala Lumpur, and, boy, howdy, was it a beautiful shop!   

Isetan is a Japanese chain and if there is one thing food-wise we can all learn from the Japanese, it is fresh fish.  Isetan always has a great selection and you know it is the freshest available because their Japanese customers would not stand for anything less.   I miss Isetan and thought it was about time I shared this recipe.  Just reading this and looking at the photos, I am hungry for this dish again!  And homesick.

~

There is something about shopping in the Isetan food market, especially the newly renovated one in KLCC, that makes me want to put a Japanese or Asian twist on things.  Could it be the lovely samples of foreign foodstuffs with names I can’t pronounce that they are always giving out or the aroma of soy and frying and sesame seed oil from the cooking of said samples?  Regardless, I buy some fresh fish filets there and I can’t help but want to marinate them with soy and sesame oil.

This quick meal requires a little forward planning but, once you have marinated the fish filets, it requires very little time to cook – 15-20 minutes tops.

Ingredients
2 filets of threadfish or any white flakey fish
2 packages of ramen noodles – any type or flavor because you won’t use the seasoning packets
1 medium tomato
6-7 cloves of garlic
5 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese wine (Shaoxing)

1 tablespoon sesame oil plus extra for drizzling before serving
Olive oil

Method
Marinate the fish in a two tablespoons of of the soy sauce and one tablespoon of Chinese wine and one tablespoon of sesame oil - at least two or three hours, but they can be left overnight and cooked the next evening.  I find a Ziploc bag works best because you can squeeze the air out of it make sure the marinade is touching all parts of the fish.

Heat your non-stick pan quite hot and add a drizzle of olive oil.  Fry skin side up for 4-5 minutes.

Put some water on to boil for your noodles and dice the tomatoes and slice the garlic into thin pieces.

Turn over and fry another 4-5 minutes on the other side.  If the filets are thick enough, you can fry them another minute on each lateral side.

Add the tomato and garlic to the fish pan and then add the leftover marinade and the balance of the soy sauce (about three tablespoons.)  Give it a good stir then put the lid on the pot and turn the fire down a little.

Pop your ramen noodles into the boiling water and cook according to package instructions, but discard the seasoning packets or save them for another dish.

Check on your fish.  The tomatoes should have softened into a mush.  Remove the fish from the pan to allow room for mixing in the noodles.  If you are ready to eat, the fish can be put on the plates.  If not, just put them aside to return to the pan to keep warm.

Drain the ramen noodles and add them to the tomato/garlic pan.

Toss until the noodles are well-coated.

If you are not ready to serve, return the fish to the pan to keep warm.  If you are ready to serve, add half of the ramen to each plate with a filet of fish.  Drizzle lightly with olive or sesame oil.

Enjoy!