Balinese Minced Seafood Satay

(Sate Lilit Bali)

Sate lilit Bali (Balinese Minced Seafood Satay) is probably one of the most popular authentic Balinese Dishes apart from Suckling Pig (Babi Guling) and Bebek Betutu. Even sometimes Sate lilit is served as accompaniment for Suckling Pig and other Balinese Dishes. It is made either from pork, beef, chicken and seafood.  This is the first time I tried to make it. I used fish fillet instead. The delicate flavour of fish is greatly improved if you can find spears of fresh lemongrass to use as skewers, and if you can cook them over a fire ofcoconut husks rather than charcoal. Since it's difficult to find lemongrass here, I used wooden skewer instead. Nonetheless, even with wooden skewers and a standard charcoal grill, you will get a marvellous taste.  If you want to cook it at home, here is the recipe for you.

Category: Seafood

Difficulty: Medium

Cooking time: 45 - 60 minutes

Ingredients

- 500 g fish fillet, minced (you can use boneless snapper fillet)

- 200 g grated coconut (I used dry grated coconut in package)

- Lemon grass or satay skewers

Spice Paste

- 10 shallots, peeled and sliced

- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

- 3 red chillies, seeded and sliced

- 3-5 bird's eye chillies (you can skip this one if you want it less spicy)

- 2 cm galangal (Laos), peeled and sliced

- 2 cm kencur, peeled and sliced

- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

- 1 tablespoon coriander

- 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorn

- 3 candlenuts

- A pinch of granted nutmeg

- salt to taste

- 2 tablespoons oil

Directions

1. Grind or blend all spice paste ingredients except oil.

2. Heat oil and sauté spice paste for about 5 minutes. Cool it off

3. Then combine the spice with the fish, granted coconut and oil. I used food processor to blend them well.

4. Mould about 2 tablespoons on lemon grass or skewers and grill over hot charcoal until cooked and golden brown.

5. Best serve with warm plain rice (nasi putih) and cooked vegetables with spiced grated coconut (urap-urap sayur)