Hometown Food | Come to know "Uda"

In the food hawker center, I watched my friend walk slowly from the hawker stall to our table with a plate of "banana leaves" in his hands, thinking what the hell did he order? Upon closer inspection, I found that it was not a plate of "banana leaves", but a bunch of "banana leaves", and I didn't know what was wrapped in it. When I asked my friend, I just said-"Otak", and then went on to say-- "What, haven't you eaten?!".

I took off the bamboo stick, opened the slightly hot banana leaf, and the heat inside accompanied by the roasted banana leaf fragrance rushed out in front of my eyes. The outer surface was light brown, and the surface was slightly burnt. Touch the soft contents, is it "Otak"? The taste of the first taste, I do not remember clearly, there is a vague smell of spices or Chinese medicine left in my mind, the taste is moist, the mouth melts, there is a feeling of eating jelly, hot jelly.

"Otak-Otak" is said to originate from the representative street food in Southeast Asia, so it can be said to be the delicacy of hometown; but I have never tasted it. It was a few years ago when I was traveling between Singapore and Malaysia. During the trip, I was able to taste this taste for the first time at the food hawker center. And in the impression after that for a period of time, it seems that there is no re-entry.

Of course, like some moments in life, there is no preparation. In the recent camping, because the host friend said "We are going to do Otak-Otak~", so we met him again after a long absence.

Compared with the finished product when we first met, I felt that this time was an opportunity to re-understand "Uda", starting from nothing, and analyzing how it was made step by step. The following are the cooking ingredients of the "unorthodox" camping version of "Otah". "Xiao Gou Gou" is a must, and the remaining seasoning ingredients are optional.

• Main material:
  1. ✅The fish is peeled and cut into pieces; according to the content of the searched recipe, the fish used is Spanish mackerel. Check the academic term of the National Education Research Institute, which is translated in Chinese as "鰆; Maca fish", and this time the actual use is snapper.
  
  2. ✅ Banana leaves; thaw after refrigeration and bake slightly on the stove.
  
  3. ✅Bamboo skewers; Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to avoid burning halfway through grilling.
• Seasoning materials:
  1. Shrimp Paste (Belacan)
  2. shallots, chopped
  3. Garlic, chopped
  4. Fresh red pepper, deseeded and sliced
  5. Dried chili, soak in hot water until soft
  6. Galangal, sliced
  7. Turmeric
  8. Lemongrass
  9. Sugar, Salt, Oil

Step 1 : After the shrimp paste is slightly heated and softened, put it in a food blender.

Step 2 : Add fish fillets, garlic, shallots and other seasoning ingredients one after another; then start the blender and blend until thick.

Step 3 : After stirring, pour it into a container, wash your hands, rub and mix well; change to a small container and let it stand.

Step 4 : After lightly roasting the banana leaves, cut them into suitable shapes, start wrapping them, and stick them on bamboo skewers to fix them; put them in the pot and start frying, and when they are ripe, open the leaves and enjoy.

"Open the pot and open the leaves to enjoy..." Well, it was originally a wishful thinking as mentioned above, but there are always small episodes in life , perhaps limited by the cooking equipment (?) The charcoal grill in the center is evenly heated and easy to cook. Cooking "Oda" in a pan always seems to be half-baked. The taste of "fish meat" has been given; the finished product will not be in strip shape, and the action of removing the banana leaves is also missing, but it is still delicious~. This original improvement, no wonder I have heard the saying that "cooking is like magic".

Note: There is a saying that "Otak" means brain in Malay. Because of the thick state after mixing and kneading fish and various materials, it is easy to associate with the brain, so it is named "Otak".