One of my favourite food is this grilled ground spiced fish wrapped in banana leaves.

I am happy with the outcome of today s recipe. The delicious savoury and spicy taste is mouthwatering. I had it go along with Nasi Lemak dish and also with bread as sandwich. YUM!

Its called ‘Otak Otak’ meaning ‘brains.’ I suppose it resembles the texture of a brain. A very popular treat in South East Asia in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It can be eaten straight or as an accompaniment with steam rice.

It is usually prepared on a grill. However, variations like steaming can do too.

Authentically, this dish is made up of mackerel fish and prawn blended with spices together. Ingredients may vary and mainly consist of white fish, prawn, lemongrass, galangal, dried chilli , belachan, tumeric powder, curry powder, salt, sugar, cornflour, garlic, shallots, egg whites and kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk.

I just bought some cod fillets, any white fish can do and decided to prepare this Otak Otak. I blended all the ingredients and fish into paste like.

Today, my recipe were close to some of those ingredients with absence of prawn. I have lemongrass and kaffir leaves from the garden which are very essential in the preparation of this dish. I also had a squeeze of calamansi lime to the blended paste.

Lay a long rectangle shape piece of banana leaf and add 2 spoonfuls of Otak mix on it.

Fold the sides and secure both ends of the leaf with toothpicks.

Grill in a preheated oven 200’C for 10 mins on both sides and a final grill for another 5-10 mins. Voila!

Happy Days!