Pepes Mackarel

Its kinda hard to find "pepes" in English term.
Pepes is a cooking method which using banana leaf as food wrapping. What make it special is the fragrant  from banana leaf that last in the food after steaming.
Some people like to grill it after steaming process taken, well including me. It make the food inside become slightly dry and has harder texture.

This method can be applied in many food variant, such fish, chicken, even tofu.
Even the technique can't be relatively simple, but the result is worth taking. 
The tips is bunch of spices. You cant be over spices in Pepes way.... :)

To make this YOU Need:

2  medium shortbody mackerel , in Indonesia knows as ikan kembung. Clean and wash them carefully.
1/2 lemon
2 plies banana leaves
4 tooth picks

Spices:
2              lemongrass, chopped
1/2 cup     lemon basil
2              Indonesian bay leaves
3              leeks , chopped
2              small green tomatoes
5              garlic
10            red shallots
1 cm        fresh turmeric
3 cm        fresh ginger
2 cm        fresh galangal
salt and sugar

* You can add chilies to spice it up

HOW TO:
1. Squeeze lemon into fish , leave them for 15 mins. wash them again. Put pinch of salt.
2. Grind garlic, shallots, tumeric, ginger , and galangal. add some salt and sugar to seasoning.
3. Mix the grinned spices with lemon grass, lemon basil, and leeks. divide into 2 parts
4. Arrange 2 banana leaves , put indonesian bay leaves in each leaf.
5. Put some spices on top of bay leaf, follow by fish, put the rest of spices on the top of it.
6. Wrapped them carefully with banana leaf, and put tooth picks to tighten them up in each end
7. Steam fish for 30 mins, and grilled after that. The grilling process allow the fish to be crispier.

Enjoy !






 




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