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Pempek Palembang – Fish Cakes with Cuko Sauce
Pempek are fish cakes from Palembang on Sumatra, kneaded from fish paste and plenty of tapioca starch. You boil the rolls in water until they float, then cut them into slices and fry them crisp. Knead in the starch only briefly, or the dough turns tough. You pour cuko over them, a thin, sweet-sour and hot sauce of palm sugar, tamarind, garlic and chile.
Pempek Palembang – Fish Cakes with Cuko Sauce
Laura Chen
4
30 minutes
40 minutes
520
Indonesian
Main course
Pempek are fish cakes from Palembang on Sumatra, kneaded from fish paste and plenty of tapioca starch. You boil the rolls through first and then fry the slices crisp. You pour cuko over them, a thin, sweet-sour and hot sauce of palm sugar, tamarind, garlic and chile.
Ingredients
- 500 g firm fish fillet, skinless and boneless (king mackerel, pollock or cod), chilled
- 200 ml ice water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 300 g tapioca starch (tapioca flour)
- 2 l water for boiling
- 500 ml vegetable oil for frying
For the cuko sauce:
- 400 ml water
- 150 g palm sugar (gula merah), chopped
- 30 g tamarind pulp (from the block)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5 cabai rawit (small hot chiles)
- 1 tbsp ebi (dried shrimp), soaked for 10 minutes
- 1/2 tsp salt
To serve:
- 1 cucumber, finely diced
Instructions
- For the cuko, pound the garlic, chiles and ebi in a mortar. Bring the paste to a boil with the water, palm sugar, tamarind pulp and salt and simmer for 15 minutes, until the sauce thickens slightly. Strain it through a sieve and let it cool.
- Blend the fish with the ice water, salt, sugar and garlic in a blender for 1 minute into a smooth paste.
- Put the paste in a bowl and work in the tapioca starch by hand, a portion at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers.
- With floured hands, shape 8 rolls about 12 cm long and 3 cm thick.
- Bring the water to a boil, add the rolls and simmer over medium heat. Once they float, give them 5 more minutes, about 12 minutes in total.
- Lift out the rolls and let them drain and firm up on a rack for 10 minutes.
- Cut the rolls into slices 2 cm thick. Heat the oil to 170 °C (338 °F) and fry the slices for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown.
- Divide the pempek and cucumber among small bowls and pour the cuko over them.
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