Jc's Otak Otak

We are delicious, eat us

Just the day before I came back with kilograms of fish meat from the catch at bedok jetty. Cooking the fish was also part of my agenda when I targeted the species and thus , to follow through with the plan , I went to the market with my mum to get the ingredients for the dish.

Summing up the ingredients

The dish I'm gonna make with the fillet is the familiar nonya snack, Otak otak. I've researched over the net looking at various recipe and decided that daz's recipe makes quite a good reference thus , using his ingredients as a guide, I came out with my own version of Otak Otak using todak fillet.

Spices galore

Since its a nonya cuisine, it has its flavour set on this few common spices you see in the picture. I ahd a hard time buying them as I only knew their 'christian' name not their chinese ones , so its more like a picture describing session at the market place this morning.


I think the most tedious part of the otak otak making process is the part where by you've gotto remove the seeds from the dried chilli. You've gotto soak them in hot water for around 10 mins for them to soften and then, use ur hands or a small tea spoon to scrape out the seeds and stalk inside . At the end of it, expect to feel your hands burning as the chilli works into your skin.

These things hurt

The lemon grass seems to play a big role in the ingredients as they some how, form the base of the whole otak otak binding the latter together after they cook. Unlike daz, I decided to dice my lemon grass before placing them into the blender so that their fibers won't be in very long strands.

Very good coconut cream and lemon grass

Another key ingredient i thought would be the laksa leaves. Woots, these fellows add alot of flavour even though in small amounts. I cook taste them exploding in my mouth when i bite down on my otak otak.

Of course, the must have compliment in a nonya dish would be the belacan . I think almost all nonya dishes use this ingredient to add flavour into their meals.

Belacan,the key ingredient

Combining all the ingredients together in the blender, add alittle water to the latter in order for the blender to work its magic. Blend till extremely smooth,my blender broke down halve way, so ay, its not as smooth as i wanted it to be but its still good.

Let it rip!

Next would be the todak fillet itself. I think the next time i do this again, i'll just pure todak fillet without bones from the stomach. I thought that the meat from the stomach would make alot of flavour to the otak and the bones were fine enough to be crushed and mixed into the mixture. It seemed alright when i was pounding the meat how ever,I felt the bones only after i eat them.

Sashimi??

Tsk, handling the otak paste and the banana leaf is yet another ordeal. Its hard to get it right at the first few otak otaks, which resulted in busted leaves and leaks, how ever, after a few more practice, I thought I'm making decent looking otak otaks already.

Put us into the oven quick!

I didn't have the luxury of a bbq pit in the house so i made use of my trusty oven and set the temperature to around 240 degrees on baking mode. The objective of cooking the otak otak would be to solidify the mixture. Once the otak otak becomes hard, its ready. How ever, you could leave it in there for a while more if you want a crispier version .

Ah.. we love sun tanning...

Well, here it is , Jc's otak otak,full of flavour, have to improve on its texture, well, I've got plenty of todak meat to experiment on since i've only used up one piece today . More to come more to come =)

Lunch for the missus