Stuffed sambal fish recipe by Hed Chef
Hedy Khoo | The New Paper | Wed Mar 21 2012
Singapore, March 18, 2012
EATS
Patience is necessary when making sambal, Madam Kalsom Jumahat, 62, informs me.
She showed me her method for making a version of sambal which she uses for making Indonesian-style ikan terutup, which translates to "stuffed sambal fish". The Malay name for the dish is ikan sumbat.
Madam Jumahat's mother taught her this recipe, which was handed down from her great-great grandmother.
Madam Jumahat's grandfather was Boyanese.
She often makes the dish using cencaru (hardtailed scad) as it reminds her of her childhood.
Madam Jumahat recalls in Malay: "I grew up in a kampung in Pasir Panjang. My grandfather and father often went fishing and caught cencaru which my mother would cook with sambal."
She keeps to the original recipe, except for the use of red sugar and one tablespoon of monosodium glutamate for seasoning.
And while in the past she would use a batu giling - a traditional grindstone which belonged to her grandmother - these days, she uses a blender.
Her son, former national team footballer Ali Imran Lomri, 35, says the batu giling makes a star appearance only once a year, at Hari Raya.
He grumbles that the taste of the sambal is different when his mother uses a blender, which requires the addition of water. He prefers it when his mother uses the batu giling to grind the ingredients.
Even with the use of a blender, it is still hard work frying the sambal over low heat for an intensive 30minutes.
The darker the colour, the more intense the final flavour - something Imran knows only too well.
Growing up, he used to help his mother fry sambal.
He says: "The sambal must be stirred constantly to prevent the bottom from burning. My mother would watch me stir the sambal and if I stopped, she would scold me."
When I tested out the recipe, I used about 50ml of water and 50ml of coconut oil instead of 150ml of water as per Madam Jumahat's recipe.
Using a food processor or grinder requires less water compared to a blender.
I also omitted the monosodium glutamate as the sambal is flavourful enough on its own.
I wasn't able to obtain cencaru from my regular fishmonger, so I tried the recipe using trevally and also stingray.
I threw eight chilli padi in with the dried chillies when I ground the sambal to pump up the heat quotient.
Madam Jumahat usually grills her cencaru over a charcoal burner, but she demonstrated her recipe by pan-grilling the fish on the stove.
She recommends wrapping the fish in banana leaf, which I did.
Other tips:
- Do oil your pan, even if you are using a non-stick one.
- Don't throw away the excess chilli oil after frying the sambal as you can use it to fry the fish.
- Keep the unused sambal in a glass jar and it should keep for two weeks if chilled.
- And if you don't like fish, Madam Jumahat recommends using the sambal to fry prawns, squid or chicken.
INGREDIENTS
3 ikan cencaru (hardtail scad)
100g dried chillies
30g unroasted belacan
12 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 red onions
2 stalks lemon grass, use about 7cm to 8cm of the white root part and slice thinly
1 thumb-sized piece of cekur (sand ginger, Indonesian name is kencur) 1 inch of lengkuas (galangal, or blueginger)
2 inches old ginger 2 slices of asam keping (sour fruit slices also known as asam gelugor)
150ml water
300ml vegetable oil
2-3 tbsp of sugar
3 tbsp red sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
METHOD
1. Slice the lemon grass, cekur, lengkuas and ginger.
2. Blend the dried chillies and water together.
3. Add garlic, onion, lemon grass, cekur, lengkuas and ginger to the chilli mixture and continue blending until the ingredients are finely ground.
4. Heat oil in wok. Over low heat, add the blended mixture into the oil.
5. Stir constantly to ensure the mixture doesn't burn at the bottom of the wok.
6. Once the paste begins to darken, add the two slices of asam keping.
7. The chilli paste is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the chilli mixture. This should take 20 to 30 minutes on low heat.
8. Place cooked sambal in container and set aside to cool.
9. Use a knife to make a slit along the dorsal side of the fish to form a pocket.
10. Stuff the fish with the cooked sambal.
11. Grill the fish or pan-fry for 30 minutes over low heat.