This recipe is made with cod fish. If you prefer salmon you can, although the best fish for Ikan Bali is a white fish such as cod or halibut. Ikan means fish and Bali is the famous island in Indonesia, thus his recipe originated from the island Bali. The word bumbu refers to the spicy sauce.
When making a spicy dish, depending on your guests, you can make is low to medium spicy and offer sambal on the side for those that love super spicy. In this recipe I show you the quick way to make the fish. If this is the first time you have been introduced to Ikan Bali, I would try to make it the easy way in a pan as it is done in the recipe description below.
Next I will show you the traditional way which is wrapping the fish in banana leaves and steaming it for 30 minutes or you can also bake it in the oven for 45 minutes. Since banana leaves for cooking might be hard to find, I suggest making it the easy way.
Ikan Bumbu Bali in banana leaves:
Brown the fish for a minute in a pan and than transfer the pieces to a rectangle banana leaf each. Follow the sauce recipe below cook it only for a minute. Then pour the sauce over the fish in the banana leaves.
Wrap up the packages and fold over the end to close it with a wooden skewer. Transfer to a food steamer and cook for 30 minutes.
For oven bake, put the fish packages on an oven baking tray and bake for 50 minutes. 350°F (175°C)
Ikan Bali
Equipment
- 1 frying pan
- 1 steamer pot
Ingredients
- 4 pieces cod or salmon medium filet
- 8 tbsp coconut oil
- 4 small onion diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 lemons
- 1 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 tbsp galangal (laos) powder
- 1 tbsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp lemongrass powder (sereh)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 leaf of daun salam
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rub the fish fillets with some salt, pepper, and lemon juice, and let them sit for 15 minutes.
- Heat 6 tablespoons of coconut oil in a large frying pan and fry the fish until golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
- Remove the fish from the pan and keep it warm.
- Gently sauté the finely chopped onion, the garlic cloves, the sambal, the sugar, and the salam leaf in the fat. Once it starts to color, stir in the soya sauce and warm the fish in the sauce.