All Food Recipes

Ingredients:
1 Kg  (2.25 lb) fish

For the marinade:
1/2 cup tamarind water
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp chilli powder
Salt and pepper

And thereafter:
2 cloves garlic
6 shallots
1/2 tsp chilli powder
120 g (4 oz) freshly grated or desiccaated coconut
1 slice terasi (optinoal)
1 tsp brown sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Olive oil, or clarified butter
2 springs fresh mint-apple mint if possible (we use a kind called kemangi in Indonesia)
Chives

If you are using a large section or steak of fish, such as turbot, cut into 4 pieces. Mix together the ingredients of the marinade and pour this over the fish. Cover, and leave for about half an hour, turning the fish from time to time.
Then lay fish side by side in a casserole, and pour over them the marinade plus the clarified butter or olive oil. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at gas mark 4 (about 350 F).
While waiting, chop the shallots and garlic. fry in a little olive oil until slightly browned, and add the chilli powder, sugar, lemon juice and salt. Mix well, then add the water and coconut. Taste. Bring the whole lot to the boil and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes; then pour it over the fish in the casserole to whish you have added the springs of mint. This mint must be taken out of the casserole before serving. Continue cooking-uncovered-in the oven, at the same temperature as befire, for 30 minutes. Altenatively, put it under slow grill untill the fish brown on top. Sprinkle with chopped chives just before serving.
This is how I make Pepes Ikan in England. In Indonesia we cook it wrapped up in banana leaf and supported on a metal tray over a charcoal stove. Cooking takes about 50-60 minutes.