Hesti, my friend who lives in Belgium visited this weekend and we have decided to cook something that we never make before. And since I just bought a new electric grill so we decided to make something with that. After some thought we or rather her came up with an idea, Ikan Bakar or Grilled Fish, and since she really likes Ikan Bakar ala Jimbaran so that‘s what we will make or at least try 😉

Why Ikan Bakar ala Jimbaran is so popular that’s not what I’m gonna discuss any further. Anyone who has been to Bali must know what I mean and never miss the chance to go there while they are in Bali. Funny thing is eventhough I had been living in Bali for more than 20 years I have been there only once in my life…hahaha…and that was because my friend Halimah and her husband from Germany visited Bali and invited me to have dinner there. Reason why I never been there? Thing is I feel that Jimbaran place is a bit expensive for me hahaha. Other reason is because raw fishes are abundant in Bali and relatively cheap also, plus my parents love grilling fish. I remember they like to do it at least once every other week. So I don’t find the reason to go to Jimbaran at all.

First of all has to go to the Saturday market because there where the fishes are fresh and relatively cheaper than the supermarket. Besides if you want to find a whole fish, meaning a fish with its head, fin etc then the market is the right place to go since supermarket most of the time only has fillet fish. After looking at many kind of fishes at the fish stall and a bit overwhelmed since the kind of fishes are so different from the kind of fishes in Bali we decided to get Schartong since it’s not so pricey at 5.5 euro per kilo while other fishes was up to 14.50 euro per kilo (ouch that’s expensive). Got two fishes which was 1.2 kilo, also got 3 pieces of Tiger Prawn, now they are pricey at 1.75 euro per 100gr. Told the fish men to clean the fish. But since I didn’t know that cleaning fish here means get rid of the head also so my fishes were headless when I opened it at home. Hiks that’s a big loss for Indonesian since we like to eat fish head. It’s not that there are many meat there but it’s the same like when you eat chicken with bone or beef oxtail, the way of eating it is so challenging.

Back Home, after recovering from the shock that my fishes were headless (now that is a bit hyperbolic) we started to make marinade for the fish, prawn and tofu that I bought yesterday. I got this recipe from my mother back home;
– shallots
– garlic
– big chili
– turmeric
– ginger
– lime leaves
– salt
– lime juice
– oil
grind them nicely until smooth either with a pestle and mortar or with a electric food processor.
the amount of the ingredients just follow your heart 🙂
Spread them nicely over the fish, tofu, prawn or whatever you fancy (but don’t try to spread them over your shoes 😛 ) then put them in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The longer the better.

Then while you are waiting for the fish to marinade, make other stuff. We decided to make Rice, Plecing Kangkung, Sambal Matah and Sambal Kecap to accompany the grilled fish, prawn and tofu. Those condiments are also typical for Ikan Bakar Jimbaran.

Plecing Kangkung
got this recipe after trying to remember very hard about my best friend recipe in Bali 😉
– A bunch of kangkung
– Shallots
– Garlic
– Tomato
– Big chili
– Eye bird chili
– Dried Shrimp Paste
– Salt
– Sugar
–
Kaffir lime

How to make:
– Boil kangkung until tender.
– Boil other spices for 3mins except dried shrimp paste, salt, sugar and kaffir lime.
– Smooth the spices either with a pestle and mortar or with a kitchen processor.
– Add the rest of spices.
– Mixed the spices with kangkung.

Sambal Matah
This sambal is a real Balinese sambal so all Balinese should know how to make it. I got this recipe also from my best friend.
– Shallots
– Garlic
– Lemon Grass
– Kaffir lime leaves
– Bird eye chili
– Dried shrimp paste
– Kaffir lime
– Salt
– Black pepper
– Coconut oil traditionally made (but since it is not available here, I just used normal sunflower oil and surprisely the taste was just fine)

How to make:
– Chopped shallots, garlic, lemon grass, bird eye chili.
– Mixed all the ingredients together.

Sambal Kecap
– Shallots
– Bird eye chili
– Tomato
– Lime juice
– Kecap manis
– Kecap asin

How to make:
– Chopped shallots, bird eye chili, tomato.
– Mixed all the ingredients together.

All the result was just like we had hoped for, tasty Balinese meal….just some stuff were missing…the beach, coconut trees and the sunset 😀