otah-otah

In my post on otah and egg casserole, I mentioned how about versatile otah-otah is.

My mother’s side of the family hails from Muar, Malaysia. My grandmother (bless her kind soul) sailed to Malaysia from China as a young girl of approximately 6 years of age. My grandparents settled down in Malacca for several years before making Muar their final destination.

Muar is renowned for their otah. No visit to Muar would be complete without buying the otah in bulk.

After I posted my recipe for the otah and egg casserole, I caught the “otah bug”. I decided to try and make my own otah.

Below is my recipe for otah. It smells like Muar otah but taste-wise, I think something is missing, although I have not figured it out yet. As usual, Da is very supportive and he has no complaints about the otah made by me!

Ingredients

500g mackerel fish
6 tbsp corn flour
6 tbsp sambal chilli
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 2 small limes
salt
pepper
ground chilli / chilli flakes

Method

1. Debone the fish and scrape out the fish meat.
2. Place the fish meat on a chopping board and use a knife / chopper to mince the fish meat.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the fish meat with all the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
4. Press the mixture in a baking pan and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

Tips

1. If you are unable to buy mackerel fish, you can use batang fish. However the otah will be more flavourful if you were to use mackerel fish.
2. For the sambal chilli, I use Prima sambal chilli (80g per packet). 6 tbsp of sambal chilli is equivalent to 3 packets of Prima sambal chilli.
3. If you do not have olive oil, you can use any vegetable oil.
4. The mixture would fit nicely into a 8” x 8” square baking pan or two 4” x 8” loaf pans.
5. Instead of baking the otah, you can also grill or steam it.

The otah is a lovely "orangey" colour. As the otah is baking in the oven, you can smell the aroma of the sambal chilli.

The otah goes well with bread (as in the photograph below) as a sandwich. Alternatively, it can be eaten with rice. If you are adventurous enough, re-invent the otah into another dish (eg. otah and egg casserole). Bon appetit!

Do try this recipe. I look forward to your feedback.

To my Malaysian relatives - I need your expert taste buds to let me know what is missing from my recipe to make the otah taste exactly like the ones we buy from Muar. Thanks! Love you lots!