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Gulai Kepala Ikan – Fish Head Curry with Coconut Milk
You know Gulai Kepala Ikan from Padang restaurants: fish heads steep in a yellow coconut sauce with turmeric, galangal, chile and tamarind, with okra pods added. Let the heads cook in the sauce for only 15 to 20 minutes, and the cheek meat stays juicy. Gulai kambing uses a similar paste but braises for two hours with cinnamon and cloves. Eat the curry with rice and plenty of sauce.
Gulai Kepala Ikan – Fish Head Curry with Coconut Milk
Laura Chen
4
25 minutes
40 minutes
420
Indonesian
Main course
You know Gulai Kepala Ikan from Padang restaurants: fish heads steep in a yellow coconut sauce with turmeric, galangal, chile and tamarind, with okra pods added. The cheek meat stays juicy because the fish cooks for only 15 to 20 minutes. Gulai kambing is based on a similar paste but braises for two hours with cinnamon and cloves.
Ingredients
- 2 fish heads from red snapper, redfish or salmon (about 1.2 kg total), halved
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tsp salt for rubbing
For the spice paste:
- 8 shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 8 red chiles
- 4 kemiri (candlenuts, oily nuts from an Asian grocery store)
- 3 cm ginger
- 3 cm galangal (Thai ginger)
- 4 cm fresh turmeric (or 1.5 tsp ground)
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground cumin
For the curry:
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
- 4 makrut lime leaves
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 400 ml water
- 1.5 tbsp tamarind paste (sour fruit pulp)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- 150 g okra pods
- 1 tomato, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Remove the gills and scales from the fish heads. Rub them with lime juice and salt, let them sit for 10 minutes and rinse them in cold water.
- Blend the shallots, garlic, chiles, candlenuts, ginger, galangal, turmeric, coriander and cumin into a fine paste.
- Heat the oil in a wide pot and fry the paste with the lemongrass and lime leaves over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until the oil separates out.
- Pour in the coconut milk and water and add the tamarind paste, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring, and simmer the sauce uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Put the fish heads and okra in the sauce and spoon sauce over them. Let everything steep over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheek meat turns white and comes easily off the bone. Swirl the pot instead of stirring.
- Add the tomato wedges for the last 3 minutes.
- Adjust the salt and tamarind, remove the lemongrass and serve the curry with rice.
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