Hello culinary lovers. Today I will share one of my family's favorite side dish recipes, namely pepes fish. The fish I want to make for pepes today is small mackerel. Oh yeah, before that, do you know what pepes fish is? Pepes fish is a typical Indonesian dish that wraps fish in banana leaves. By adding spices and herbs that have been ground, then coated with fish and then grilled until cooked and dry.
In Indonesia, there are many variants of pepes made from various raw materials, ranging from pepes fish, pepes vegetables, pepes tofu and so on. The version of the spices and herbs also varies, some are coated with a yellow base seasoning and some are red seasoned according to the tongue of each region. This time I will share with you my family's simple pepes version. Let's see the following ingredients.
Ingredients needed:
- 500 grams of small mackerel
- 1 lime
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7 young kaffir lime leaves
- Sufficient banana leaves and toothpicks for wrapping
Fine seasoning ingredients:
- 30 pieces of cayenne pepper
- 7 cloves of shallots
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 candlenuts
- 1 tbsp coriander
- 2 finger joints of turmeric
- 500 grams of Asam sunti (dried starfruit)
- 1 stalk of lemongrass
How to make:
First: Clean the stomach dirt and wash the mackerel. Squeeze lime juice and salt on the fish then spread evenly. The goal is to remove the fishy smell from the fish. Let stand for a while for the marinating process. Set aside
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Second: prepare the ingredients for the fine seasoning. Peel the shallots, garlic and turmeric, cut the lemongrass into small pieces (to make it easy to puree) and wash the other seasoning ingredients such as cayenne pepper, coriander, candlenuts and asam sunti. Wash and put in a blender, puree
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Third: finely chop the young kaffir lime leaves (if the kaffir lime leaves are old, just remove the middle stem into 2 parts)
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Fourth: pour the ground spices into a container containing the fish, add the finely chopped kaffir lime leaves and the kaffir lime leaves that are cut in half, mix well
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Fifth: prepare banana leaves to wrap. Cut the banana leaves into 1 hand span size. Place the young banana leaves on the slightly older banana leaves (The purpose of using young banana leaves is so that the fish pepes is more fragrant than the young leaves so that the smell is very distinctive. While the slightly older banana leaves are for the outside so that the pepes wrap does not easily leak / scatter when baked). Next, take 3-4 tablespoons of seasoned fish (for the measurements according to taste, friends, place it on a young banana leaf, then wrap it by rolling both layers of banana leaf together, try to make it tight. Fold a little on both ends of the leaf. Insert a skewer on each side of the bottom and top leaves to lock. Repeat the steps for all mackerel until finished.
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Sixth: prepare the grill. Arrange the pepes fish packages on top, grill over hot coals until fragrant and cooked (the color of the leaves turns black and dry) for approximately 25 minutes. The fish is ready to be enjoyed with warm rice
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The meat of this pepes fish is very soft and the spices are absorbed. In addition, this pepes mackerel is also fragrant because it is rich in spices so that it gives a distinctive aroma and of course delicious. Moreover, the cooking process does not require cooking oil so that it can maintain its nutrients. This is actually healthier to consume. It's easy enough to try at home, right!
Hope you like my recipe
See you in the next post hivers friends
All images are mine, taken by me, using Vivo Y28