Otah

I remember that the common mistake for this is spelling it as 'otak', which is really 'brain' in Malay. My family loves otah and we have been consuming vast quantities of it in recent times. In addition, at one point, my mom even tried her hand at making it herself but somehow, it was never quite spicy enough, firm enough and a bit too (coconut) milky. Trust mothers to want to add the most 'leow' for the buck :P

Got this recipe from the papers, but they also made the fatal mistake of spelling it as 'otak'! Alamak! :O

Ingredients (makes 20 packets)
500g fish meat (horse mackerel, pound or blend 2/3 of it and slice the remaining 1/3 for more bite)
500ml water
1 1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients A
120g shallots
2 slices galangal
5 slices tumeric
6 buah keras
2 lemongrass stalks
1 small piece balacan
32g dried chilli (boil briefly and leave to cool)
8 fresh chillies

Ingredients B
200ml coconut milk (fresh tastes better than the processed version)
1 tbs sugar
2 eggs
2 limau purut (lime) leaves, finely diced
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tbs corn flour
8 tbs oil for frying
several banana leaves, 18 * 20 cm, washed, scalded in boiling water briefly to make pliable and wiped dry
Toothpicks

Method
1) Dissolve salt in water.
2) Scrape fish using a spoon and pound meat in a mortar, adding salt water gradually. Use ice water to blend fish meat if desired. Mix meat well till it becomes sticky and firm.
3) Blend Ingredients A. Heat oil in a wok and fry ground ingredients over low heat til it exudes out. Leave it to cool and put into fish meat. Mix well.
4) Add coconut milk, eggs and restg of ingredients B. Mix well.
5) Scoop 2 tbs of fish paste onto a banana leaf, fold leaf and secure with tooth picks.
6) Grill for 10 - 12 mins at about 200 deg C till cooked.