Barbecue Your Fish Using Indonesian Grilling Techniques

Sunda Kelapa is one of the best restaurants in Jakarta, but you’d sure never guess it by the neighborhood.

The ride there takes you through a dilapidated section of the port of Batavia, past derelict warehouses, down trash-strewn streets lined with shanties. One glimpse at the polluted waters of the harbor would be enough to make you forswear fish forever.

Then you turn into a walled compound guarded by attendants in paramilitary garb and you begin to see why this fish house has fetched rave reviews in dozens of languages in publications all over the world.

Indonesia, a sprawling country of 17,800 islands containing the world’s fourth-largest population, is home to some of the most interesting barbecue in the world.

When most people think of Indonesian grilling, what comes to mind is a tiny kebab called sate. It’s true that sate is Indonesia’s national snack, and there are dozens if not hundreds of different types to choose from. But sate is only part of the story, as I quickly learned at Sunda Kelapa.

Sunda Kelapa is the brainchild of one Sri Rosilowati, a short, stylishly dressed woman from western Java. In 1972, she opened a fish shack adjacent to the harbor to feed the crews of the Bugis pinisis, wooden freighters from the island of Sulawesi whose brightly painted prows still bob up and down in the port.

Rosilowati’s concept was simple: Serve impeccably fresh fish from waters far enough away from urban areas to be safe, grilled simply over charcoal, in clean, unpretentious surroundings. Today, she and her daughter Suripah preside over 120 employees and two cavernous dining rooms that seat about 300.

I’m drawn to the kitchen, a warehouse-size jumble of blazing grills, stainless steel work tables, and plastic barrels filled with various seafoods. Most of the fish is so fresh, it’s still in rigor mortis. The grills are stoked with coconut shell charcoal and fanned with rattan flags to make the embers glow.

What fascinates me most are the grilling techniques used by the cooks. If you’ve ever tried to grill a whole fish, you know how it has a tendency to burn on the outside, remain raw on the inside and generally dry out. Sunda Kelapa uses three popular Southeast Asian methods to obtain perfectly cooked fish: brine marinating, double basting and grill-roasting the fish on banana leaves.

The marinade, called a “bumboo,” is a tangy mixture of lime juice, water and brine-strength quantities of salt. The fish is slashed to the bone to allow the mixture (and the cooking heat) to penetrate the flesh. The brine broth moisturizes and slightly cures the fish. Don’t be disconcerted by the large amount of salt; the marinating time is brief, and most of the bumboo drips into the coals.

To further moisturize the fish, it is generously basted with melted butter flavored with garlic and shallots and emblazoned with turmeric, which imparts a golden glow to the fish. (Fresh turmeric is difficult to find in this country, but you can approximate its flavor by combining powdered turmeric with freshly grated ginger.) The fish is basted repeatedly with alternate brushings of the butter mixture and bumboo.

To cook the fish through without burning it, the cook sears it on one side directly over the fire, then inverts it onto a rectangle of banana leaf to finish the cooking. The banana leaf shields the fish from the flames, preventing drying out and overcooking.

Often it’s hard to adapt a cooking technique from halfway around the world to the North American kitchen, but I’ve found Sunda Kelapa’s method of cooking fish to be perfect for backyard barbecues.

Grilled Fish Sunda Kelapa

This recipe is ideal for grilling whole fish, but you could certainly cook your favorite fish steak this way. Fresh tuna prepared in this manner is absolutely delicious.

Fish:

4 whole fish (about 1 pound each), 2 whole fish (1-1/2 to 2 pounds each), or 4 (6- to 8-ounce) fish steaks

4 banana leaf rectangles (each as large as the fish), or 4 Napa (Chinese cabbage) leaves, green cabbage leaves or collard greens

Bumboo (seasoning mixture):

1 cup fresh lime juice

1 cup water

1/2 cup sea salt or kosher salt

Spiced butter:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large shallot, minced

1 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon powdered turmeric or 2 teaspoons grated fresh

Wash fish well and pat dry. If using whole fish, make deep, vertical, parallel slashes, 1/2-inch apart, in each side of the fish, to the bone.

To prepare bumboo, combine lime juice, water and salt in large bowl and whisk until salt is dissolved. Marinate fish in 3/4 of bumboo in shallow dish 30 minutes, turning once or twice. (If using fish steaks, marinate 15 minutes.) Set aside remaining bumboo for basting. Preheat grill to high.

To prepare spiced butter, melt butter in small saucepan. Stir in lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, shallot, ginger and turmeric and simmer until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Brush fish on both sides with spiced butter and place on grill. Generously brush top of fish with reserved bumboo, splashing it into slits. Brush with more spiced butter and bumboo. Grill until bottoms of fish are browned, 2 to 3 minutes for small fish, 4 to 6 minutes for large.

Invert fish onto banana leaves and continue grilling until bottoms are nicely browned and fish is cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes for small fish, 4 to 6 minutes for large fish, or as needed. To test for doneness, insert slender skewer into thickest part of fish; it should come out very hot to the touch. Continue basting fish with bumboo and spiced butter. Transfer cooked fish to platter and serve at once.

Yield: 4 servings.