Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 49, The Monopoly, the Monsoon Line and a Border Still Drawn

Ikan bakar colo-colo

Name: Ikan bakar colo-colo
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Maluku, Nusa Tenggara and Timor-Leste
Ingredients: 1 whole (about 750 g) skipjack tuna or similar firm fish; 1 tbsp tamarind, dissolved in 50 ml water; 2 tsp salt; 100 g green tomato, diced; 10 red bird's eye chillies, sliced; 5 shallots, sliced; 5 tbsp lemon cui or lime juice; 1 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy), optional, per the later, more common version

Ambon

Ikan bakar colo-colo, a whole grilled fish served with a raw chilli, lime and tomato sambal: a whole grilled fish, its skin deeply charred and blistered, resting on a dark plate beside a small mound of glistening diced green tomato.

An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.

Time: 1 hour

Researched: No outside sources linked
Reviewed: Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
Cooked: Not yet cooked and reported

Ambon. Grilled fish and the raw chilli-lime sauce that, per Maluku's own elders, did not always contain the soy sauce most versions carry today.

As tradition built it

Serves 4. Marinate 1 hour, grill 15 minutes.

Ingredients

1 whole (about 750 g) skipjack tuna or similar firm fish
1 tbsp tamarind, dissolved in 50 ml water
2 tsp salt
100 g green tomato, diced
10 red bird's eye chillies, sliced
5 shallots, sliced
5 tbsp lemon cui or lime juice
1 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy), optional, per the later, more common version

Method

Rub the skipjack tuna with the tamarind-salt marinade and rest, covered, in the fridge for around 1 hour.
Grill over coals, turning, until cooked through on both sides and the skin has taken real char.
For the sambal: combine the green tomato, chilli, shallot and lemon cui or lime juice. Add kecap manis if using the later, more common version, or leave it out for the version Maluku elders describe as the original.
Serve the grilled fish with the raw sambal spooned alongside, not over, so its crunch and acid stay distinct from the fish's char.

What a modern chef changes

The grill and the acid, both taken further.

Rung 1, Rung 3.

Method

Run the grill on a Big Green Egg direct at high heat for a fast, intense char on the fish's skin, then move it briefly to the indirect side to finish the interior gently without over-firing the surface.
Char the green tomato itself before dicing it into the sambal, applying Rung 1's logic to a vegetable most versions leave raw, deepening the sambal's own flavour to match the fish's smoke.
Dehydrate a portion of the sliced shallot until crisp and scatter it over the finished plate, a textural counterpoint to the sambal's own soft, wet shallot.

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