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Ikan Woku – Fish in Herb and Chile Sauce
Ikan Woku comes from Manado in North Sulawesi: you braise fish in a yellow-red paste of chile, turmeric and candlenuts. The sauce has no coconut milk. Fold in the lemon basil only at the end and let it just wilt, so the aroma stays fresh. Woku differs from cakalang rica-rica from the same city in its many herbs and its sauce, in place of a dry, fried chile mass.
Ikan Woku – Fish in Herb and Chile Sauce
Laura Chen
4
30 minutes
30 minutes
280
Indonesian
Main course
Ikan Woku comes from Manado in North Sulawesi: you braise fish in a yellow-red paste of chile, turmeric and candlenuts and fold in plenty of lemon basil at the end. The sauce has no coconut milk. Woku differs from cakalang rica-rica, also from Manado, in its many fresh herbs and its sauce, in place of a dry, fried chile mass.
Ingredients
- 1 kg whole fish (such as sea bream or sea bass), cleaned, cut into 4 pieces
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tsp salt for the fish
For the spice paste:
- 8 red chiles, roughly chopped
- 4 bird's eye chiles (cabai rawit)
- 6 shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 kemiri (candlenuts, from an Asian grocery store)
- 3 cm fresh turmeric or 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 cm ginger
For the sauce:
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised and knotted
- 4 makrut lime leaves, in fine strips
- 1 pandan leaf, knotted
- 2 tomatoes, cut into eighths
- 3 scallions, cut into 3 cm pieces
- 300 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 20 g kemangi (lemon basil), leaves picked
Instructions
- Rub the fish pieces with the lime juice and 1 tsp salt and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then rinse briefly and pat dry.
- Blend the chiles, shallots, garlic, candlenuts, turmeric and ginger with 2 tbsp water into a smooth paste.
- Heat the oil in a wide pot or wok. Fry the paste with the lemongrass, lime leaves and pandan over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until it darkens, smells strong and the oil separates out.
- Pour in the water, season with salt and sugar, and simmer the sauce for 3 minutes.
- Lay the fish pieces side by side in the sauce, cover the pot and let everything steep over low heat for 10 minutes. Turn the pieces gently once after 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and scallions and cook for another 5 minutes, until the flesh comes easily off the bone and the sauce has reduced to a thick consistency.
- Take the pot off the heat, fold in the kemangi leaves and let them wilt for 1 minute. Serve the fish with rice.
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