Otak-Otak

*all these pics are taken with SE K750I.
Otak -Otak is quite popular in Malaysia especially among the Malays. while only a handful of chinese knows about it. however,I am not quite sure of whether it's the traditional food for the Malays or Nyonya.If you do not know what otak-otak is , it's fish brain. hah! i'm just kiddin! it's actually , turmeric flavoured FISH cakes served on "nibong" leaves.

It has been my favourite since i taste it for the 1st time. i don't normaly do it myself tho because of the many "ma-fan" process. I usually settle with the one selling outside ,but most of the time my parents wouldn't allow me to eat the one outside coz they're not using fresh fishes. And YES, fresh fish makes a difference!

Because my dad went fishing few days back , my dad managed to catch few 1 metre long mackerelles. Yeap , one metre! im not wrong :) they're fat and long! :P

so , because i've been craving for otak-otak for sometime, and the ones outside just sucks, i decided to do otak otak . here's the process :

600 g mackerelles. minced. (be smart , use the electric chopper!



Then , you'll need "lengkuas", "kunyit", red onion , garlic, lemon grass , dried chillie and fresh chillie. Blend everything together. then pour it on the minced fish. later , add salt, sugar, and msg to taste.



After stirring everything together, they should look like this.add a bit of coconut milk .stir everything again :)


Then you'll need the "Nibong" leaves. Cut them to the size u wanted , and clean them with water. Can use "atap" leaves of coconut leaves too. But "nibong" leaves are the original one. Or if u cant find any of it , juz use aluminium foil lah!


You need two leaves to wrap the otak-otak. One of it , do like the pic below. then take another one , slip one side down the leave with the 1st one juz now , and another side above the otak -otak. then stapler it.


The not yet "panggang" otak otak! I made 50 of them!!



The "panggang" process! I did it using a bbq pit , but you can use the oven as well. I juz didn't quite like using oven coz it tend to have a lil "wap" in the otak-otak . The weather was really hot that day , and i was sweating like anything!! but , ohhh.. the goodness of the otak otak -priceless!


this is the done otak-otak!



and this is how it looks like! fat , and fresh big piece of otak otak!!!

omg ! so otak licious!!!!!!! :P

Makanlah otak -otak untuk menjadi manusia berotak!!!!