Yesterday evening we were invited by a close friend to a BBQ at his place to celebrate his birthday and he asked me to bring a dish. I thought long and hard when I was at the market earlier that morning on what is suitable to cook as I wanted to do something unusual.

After a nice chat with the seafood lady seller, she gave me the idea of Grilled Stuffed Cencaru. I quickly bought the ingredients which she advised and modified a little as well. This dish is very famous amongst the Malay community especially during lunch as they would use their hands to eat this with rice and various vegetables. If I do not have any appointments for the day I would also join them.

I decided to make 24 pcs for the event and wrapped it in banana leaf to be grilled over the BBQ pit. During the evening itself, by the time I finished chit-chatting with everyone and greeting old friends, all the fishes was gone. Luckily my better half kept one which we had to share but we had a blast of a time.


Ingredients
6 Torpedo Scad Fish (Ikan Cencaru)
Banana Leaf for wrapping

Stuffing Ingredients
5 Dried ChilliesDried Chillies
- soaked and remove seeds
5 Red ChilliesRed Chillies

2 OnionsOnions

1 GarlicGarlic

1 thumb size Tumeric
3 Candlenuts
3 Lemon GrassLemon Grass

1 piece Belacan
Generous amount of Tamarind paste mixed with water
Salt and Sugar to taste


Directions
1. Remove fish scales, clean and cut a small pocket along both sides (away from the stomach) of the fish.
2. Grind all the stuffing ingredients above till fine.
3. Stir fry until fragrant.
4. Then, add the tamarind juice, salt and sugar.
5. Keep stirring until the paste is very dry.
6. Stuff paste into the side of fish.
7. Wrap the fish body in Banana Leaf.
7. Grill the fish.
8. Serve with Steamed Rice.



Technorati Tags: recipe, malay food, fish, seafood, spicy, grill

Labels: grill, Malay, Seafood, Spicy, stuffed fish