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