Shixcooks: Ikan Bakar Sambal Cincalok (Grilled Fish)

Ikan Bakar Sambal Cincalok 

(Grilled Fish with Fermented shrimp chili)

Don't run! It tastes nicer than it sounds! What is cincalok? It's this pungent and salty goodness that is OPTIONAL in this dish. hahaha.

But I'm not kidding. It tastes really good. My husband who HATES fish. I mean HATE! He loved this. Even asked for more after eating 2 portions.. That's how I know I can cook it again.

Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 1h

Ingredients:

1. 8 portions of fish (You can use any fish. This sambal begs you to eat it with fish.)

2. 14 cloves shallots
3. 8 cloves garlic
4. 2 inch ginger
5. Fresh tumeric or 1 tbsp tumeric powder
6. 1 inch galangal
7. Juice from1 lemon or 6 calamansi
8. 6 tbsp groud chili
9. 10 pcs lime leaf
10. 5 pcs tumeric leaf
11. A bunch of mint leaves
12. Banana leaf and foil (in a pinch, baking paper works)
13. 3 tbsp cincalok  (fermented shrimp paste - don't be deceived, this salty pungent thing is quite delicious) - optional
14. 2 fresh tomatoes
15. 2 tbsp tomato paste or 10 tbsp tomato ketchup
14. 1/2 cup oil (eyeball this)
15. Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok
2. Ground items 2-6. Spoon the paste into the wok (I counted mine as 12) and fry till fragrant
3. Add in the fresh tomatoes and ground chili (always half the amount of onion paste mixture. Less or more, depending in your tolerance level for heat) and fry till fragrant. At this point, the oil should be rising from the chili mixture.
4. Take a tumeric leaf and 2 lime leaves, cut off the middle stem and slice them thinly. Add them into the mixture.
5. Add in the sugar, cincalok or salt and ketchup.
6. Lastly, add in the juice to taste and turn off the flame.
7. While the chili is cooling, prepare the banana leaves by wiping them clean, cutting them into the right size to wrap the fish in and heat the leaves over an open flame until they become pliable. (Kinda what you do to a tortilla before you roll it up) If you don't have banana leaf, just use foil. If you don't have foil, on baking paper. If you don't have any of them, just use a casserole dish.
8. Separate and cut the mint, lime and tumeric leaves into 8 portions
9. On your banana leaf (or aluminium foil/baking paper/ casserole dish) place the tumeric leaf, 1 tbsp chili we made, fish portion, 1/2 tbsp chili, lime then mint. Then close the banana leaf (use toothpics to secure the end) and wrap it with foil. Repeat until you finish all the fish.
10. Bake it in the oven at 190degC for 30 mins