Grilled Whole Fish with Sambal Matah, Watermelon and Cucumber

Name: Grilled Whole Fish with Sambal Matah, Watermelon and Cucumber
Yield: Serves 4–6 as part of a meal, depending on the size of the fish
Cuisine: Asia
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon salt; 2½ tablespoons fish sauce; 10 red Asian shallots, thinly sliced; 2 teaspoons caster (superfine) sugar; 1 Lebanese cucumber, seeded, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) cubes; vegetable oil, for brushing; 5 bird’s eye chillies, thinly sliced; 1½ tablespoons coconut oil; 5 mint leaves, thinly sliced; 5 coriander (cilantro) leaves, thinly sliced; 1 whole fish (see intro above), weighing about 750 g (1 lb 10 oz); lime wedges, to serve; 100 g (3½ oz) seedless watermelon, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) cubes; 5 small long red chillies, finely chopped; 100 ml (3½ fl oz) grapeseed oil; 5 Vietnamese mint leaves, thinly sliced; 1 teaspoon shrimp paste; juice of 2 limes; 5 kaffir lime leaves, very thinly sliced; 2 lemongrass stems, pale part only, very thinly sliced; 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4–6
as part of a meal, depending on the size of the fish

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mr Hong

By Dan Hong

Published 2014

About

Bali has a special place in my heart because my wife is Indonesian and we were married in Bali. Whenever we are there we go to Jimbaran Bay. It’s quite touristy, but we don’t care because it doesn’t get much better than eating freshly caught, grilled seafood on the beach with sand between your toes. Sambal matah is a traditional Balinese sambal that (unlike many other kinds of sambal) is uncooked. In that respect, it’s much like a salsa, but a lot more intense. It is perfect with grilled fi

Ingredients

Asia
Starter
Fish course
Pescatarian
Spicy

Ingredients

Method