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What is ikan bakar colo colo ?
Ikan bakar colo-colo is a traditional Indonesian grilled fish served with a special spicy sauce known as colo-colo. This dish is originated from Maluku. The fish, typically marinated with spices, is grilled until it is charred and smoky. The colo-colo sauce, which accompanies the grilled fish, is made from a blend of chopped tomatoes, shallots, chili peppers, lime juice, and more often than not, sweet soy sauce.
Ikan Bakar Colo Colo
Ingredients
- 6 small to medium size mackerel in whole piece
- Oil for grilling
Spices:
- 6 cloves garlic grated or very finely minced
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- Juice of 1 lime
Sambal colo colo:
- 200 g red tomatoes
- 100 g green tomatoes
- 1 red onion or use 8-10 shallots
- 5 red chili peppers such as red jalapeno, Fresno or red serrano peppers
- 3 large green chili peppers such as green serrano peppers, jalapenos
- 3 piece Thai red chili or more to suit your taste
- 1 handful basil leaves
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp chicken powder
- Juice of 2 limes
- 50 g hot oil
- Kecap manis
Instructions
Marinate the fish:
- If you bought your fish frozen, let them thaw overnight in the fridge. Clean and gut the fish. Pat them dry.
- Combine all the ingredients for marinade. Rub the marinade inside the cavity of the fish. It gives more flavor. If you rub it on the outside of the fish, the spices and herbs will get burnt when you grill them
- Let it marinate for 15-30 minutes while you prepare the sambal colo colo
Prepare sambal colo colo:
- Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. The seeds will make the sambal watery. Diced the tomatoes, red onion, and also the chili peppers and basil leaves
- Alternatively, you can use a food processor to chop them if you have one
- Put them in a heat-proof bowl. Add the seasonings and toss to combine. Heat up the oil in a pan until really hot. When you start seeing smoke coming out, remove from the heat immediately
- Very carefully, pour the hot oil over the tomato mixture. The oil sizzles vigorously. So be careful about this. The hot oil scalds the tomato mixture and give it a nice aroma.
- Drizzle in some kecap manis in to the sambal if you like. You can also serve the kecap manis on the side when you serve it with the fish
Grill the fish on the pan using a stove:
- Ikan bakar is traditionally grilled over charcoal in Indonesia, but Alas, I don't have access to this. So, a large non-stick pan and a stove will have to do, but it still give good result
- Preheat your non-stick pan over medium heat. Drizzle the pan with a bit of oil. When the pan is hot enough, pat the fish dry again, sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the side you are going to grill. Place the fish, salt-side down on the pan. Grill in batches. Cover with a lid. The steam created helps to cook the fish a bit faster and more evenly.
- If you have banana leaves, cover the fish with banana leaves. This imparts some great aroma to the fish during grilling. If you don't have one, just use a lid to cover. Let them grill for about 4-6 minutes on one side, depending on the size of the fish
- Uncover the lid and flip the fish over and sprinkle with a bit of flaky sea salt and cover back to let them cook. To check whether the fish is cooked, you can easily flake the flesh with a fork. If it doesn't flake, cook a bit longer
To serve:
- Place the fish on a serving platter. Spoon some of the sambal colo colo over the fish. Drizzle with some kecap manis if you haven't already. It's optional. You can skip kecap manis if you don't like it. Serve immediately
*Nutrition facts are just estimates and calculated using online tools*
What kind of fish to use
In Indonesia, mackerel (ikan kembung) and skipjack tuna (ikan tongkol) are the two most common ones used to prepare ikan bakar colo colo. However, you can use any fish you want. The sambal colo colo works beautifully on pretty much any fish if you ask me.
Can I prepare sambal colo colo in a big batch?
Freshly made sambal colo colo can be kept in the fridge for up to one week. So I don’t recommend preparing it in a big batch. You can double or triple the recipe if you know it’s going to be consumed in about a week. I don’t recommend freezing the sambal as the texture of the tomatoes and onion/shallots change.
