Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 20 minutes (plus 30 minutes marinating)
- Cook
- 15 minutes
- Total
- 65 minutes
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Spice
- Medium (adjust the chilli)
Allergens Contains fish. The marinade is plant-based; no dairy, gluten or coconut as written. Not vegetarian. See the halal-status field.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
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Ingredients
The fish and marinade
- 1 whole fish, about 1 1/2 lb (680 g) (snapper, mackerel or similar), scaled and cleaned, slashed on both sides
- 2 tbsp (30 g) tamarind pulp, soaked in 1/4 cup (60 ml) warm water and strained
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 shallots
- 2 to 4 red chillies, to taste
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp (3 g) ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
To serve
- Lime wedges
- Fresh chilli-lime-tomato relish (budu)
- Steamed rice or boiled corn
Equipment
- Charcoal grill or a grill pan
- Mortar and pestle or blender for the marinade
- Small bowl for the relish
Method
- Pound or blend the garlic, shallots, chillies and turmeric to a paste, then mix in the strained tamarind, oil and salt to a thick marinade.
- Rub the marinade all over the fish and into the slashes, and leave to marinate at least 30 minutes at cool room temperature (or up to a few hours refrigerated).
- Heat a charcoal grill or grill pan until hot and oil the grate. Grill the fish 6 to 8 minutes per side, brushing with any leftover marinade, until the skin is charred and blistered and the flesh is opaque and flakes at the thickest part.
- Check for doneness: the flesh at the thickest part should be just opaque and flake cleanly (an internal 145°F / 63°C).
- Rest a couple of minutes, then serve hot with lime wedges, the fresh chilli-lime-tomato relish and rice or boiled corn.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Ikan Sabuko (Tamarind Grilled Fish) sits in the Timor-Leste chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Timor-Leste chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
Available from Amazon
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