Summer Grilled Fish Recipes
It’s summer and let’s fire up the grill. This is a classic dish found in Malaysia.
Grilled fish is very popular in Malaysia. It’s called ikan panggang or ikan bakar and sold by street vendors or in restaurants.
This fish grill is usually wrapped with layers of banana leaves, marinated with spice-laden marinade called sambal (spice paste) and grilled over charcoal fire.
This is probably one of the best grilled fish recipes ever, with juicy, tender, moist fish with complex flavors. The banana leaves impart intense aroma and earthy fragrance to the fish.
Grilled Fish Marinade
Fresh fish is marinated with sambal or spice paste; it lends the fish grill with layers upon layers of complex and delicious flavors.
The sambal consist of ingredients below:
- Fresh red chilies
- Shallots
- Lemongrass
- Belacan or Malaysian shrimp paste
- Sugar and salt as seasoning
How to Grill Fish on Gas Grill
- Heat up the grill. When the heat hits 300 degrees Fahrenheit, place the fish and banana leaves on the rack or the side with no direct heat.
- Cover the lid to barbeque the fish with the circumventing hot air for about 5 minutes.
- Open the lid and flip the fish over to cook the other side. Add more sambal marinade or seasoning on the fish.
- Cover the lid to bbq the fish again until it is cooked through.
- Place the fish and the banana leaves on direct heat for 1 minute, or until the banana leaves start to burn. Remove the fish from heat and serve immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Type of Fish is Best to Grill??
Stingray wings or skate wings are the best fish to grill.
You can also use white fish fillet such as sole fillet, Swai (Basa) or any flat fish.
Can I Grill Whole Fish
You can use whole fish. If you have fresh whole fish such as red snapper, you can use the same marinade and seasoning to grill it.
How Many Calories Per Serving?
This fish grill recipe is only 388 calories per serving.
What to Serve with this Recipe?
In Malaysia, this recipe is usually served with a condiment of sambal belacan with sliced shallots. I love the condiment as it adds an extra kick to this wonderful street food, found throughout Malaysia.
This Recipe Goes Well with:
Other Summer Grilling Recipes You Might Like
Spicy Grilled Fish Recipe
Spicy Grilled Fish - grilled fish wrapped with banana leaves with spice marinade and seasoning. The fish is so tender, moist, with intense aroma and flavors.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 lb fish fillet or whole fish (for example: red snapper)
Grilled Fish Sambal:
- 6 oz fresh red chilies, seeded and cut into small pieces
- 4 oz shallots
- 1 tablespoon toasted belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste)
- 2 lemongrass, cut into thin slices
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce to taste
- 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
- 1/2 lime or 1 calamansi lime, extract the juice
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 4 tablespoons oil
Sambal Belacan and Sliced Shallots Condiment:
- tamarind pulp (ping pong ball size)
- 8 tablespoons water
- 3 fresh red chilies, seeded
- 2 bird's eye chilies, seeded
- 1 teaspoon toasted belacan
- sugar to taste
- salt to taste
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
Instructions
Grilled Fish Sambal:
-
Prepare the sambal by grinding chilies, shallots, belacan and lemongrass in a food processor. Make sure the sambal paste is well blended and smooth.
-
Heat up a wok and “tumis” (stir-fry) the sambal paste until aromatic or when the oil separates from the sambal paste. Add the seasonings: salt, fish sauce and sugar and do a quick stirs, dish out and set aside.
Sambal Belacan and Sliced Shallots Condiment:
-
Soak the tamarind pulp with the water for 15 minutes and extract the juice. In a mortar and pestle or food processor, pound/blend the red chilies, bird’s eye chilies and toasted belacan. Add tamarind juice, sugar, salt, and sliced shallots to the sambal. Stir well and set aside.
Grilling the Fish:
-
Lay a few sheets of banana leaves and grease the surface of the banana leaves with some oil. Lay the fish fillet on top of the banana leaves and add about 2 - 3 tablespoons of sambal on top of the fish. Spread the sambal evenly. Place the fish on top of the grill (upper rack with indirect heat) and cover the grill. Wait for 8 minutes or so (depending on the heat) and flip the fish over to the other side. Add 2 - 3 more tablespoons of sambal on the other side of the fish. Cook for another 8 minutes or until the fish is cooked. Transfer the fish and the banana leaves to the lower rack and grill for a couple of minutes with direct heat, or when you smell the sweet aroma of burnt banana leaves. Transfer out and serve immediately with sambal belacan and sliced shallots condiment.
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Kiva
Yummy grilled fish. I love it the spicy sambal.
veronica
Thanks for the assam laksa recipe, i tried out, superb then recipe. thanks
Shidah
Oh my. This grilled fish in banana leaves looks delicious. My family dont eat bone-in fish but with your grilled fish in banana leaves recipe, they will.
shantihhh
I have been searching for this recipe for a friend who lived in Malaysia years ago and she loved the “curried” skate wing in banana leaf that was grilled.
When we were in Penang and KL last year I tried to find the recipe for her without success-so I know she is going to be excited to see this!
I kept finding recipes for Otak Otak which is a bit like Amok in Cambodia and Haw Mok in Thailand-but each uses a varying group of spices.
Love this type of food and I a delighted to have found your site.
Just returned from our first trip to Cambodia and my 32 or so trip to Thailand. Love learning of these cultures via cuisines. BTW I m the Thai Food Editor on Bellaonline.com-so if you ever need help on things Thai-let me know!
hanks again for potingthis recipe.
Mary-Anne
San Francisco Bay Area
Anne
OMG! looks delicious! thanks for the tips!
Rasa Malaysia
Wie, here is the picture of Malaysian belacan
Rasa Malaysia
Wie – correct, good luck finding it. I do not like Vietnamese or Thai shrimp paste…they are overly pungent for my taste plus they come in this gooey wet form…Malaysian one is dried and in block and wrapped with paper and plastic.
wie
Thanks for the info….
Okay.. what does Malaysian belacan looks like the in the store? For what I know, they comes in blocks and usually wrapped with paper and maybe plastic too.
Are we talking about the same thing?
Rasa Malaysia
Wie – for the toasted belacan, I just bought Malaysian belacan at Asian store, and then pan roast it. For the banana leaves, I got them from the Asian store too, in the frozen food section.
Rasa Malaysia
Wie, I used this, you can buy it from my Store.
wie
It looks soooOooo good.
Two questions:
1. Which indoor grill do you have?
2. Where do you get toasted belacan and the banana leaf?
TIA
Rasa Malaysia
OK taukeh Jackson, ikan bakar satu tambah pedas, mo mun tai!
Jackson
aiyoyoyo..tak boleh tahan! ikan bakar satu! tambah pedas!
Rasa Malaysia
Precious Pea – :)
Budding Cook – Are you going to make it?
PabloPabla – Mine is still not as good as those found at home!
Tiga – aiya tell me lah…izzit something very geli? I think it looks like 1 slab of fish eggs.
Karen – cool. Can you share your mom’s recipes with me? ;)
Team BSG – Not as tempting as Melting Wok I must say. :P
Rosa’s Yummy Yum – I like your name. Very cute. Hehe. :)
Lucia – You’re spot on. If the sambal is good, even the fish is not marinated well, it will still taste good.
Vero – I like mine grilled…steamed is good, but it won’t get rid of the fishy smell sometimes. :P
Vero
Oh gosh…..
I usually steam my banana wraps, I’ve never tried to put it on a barbecue… I’ll try this as soon as it stops raining over here…
That ikan panggang looks gorgeous,as usual…
lucia
i love ikan panggang – chinese style or malay style. the sambal condiment should be nice… then the fish will be nice!
Karen
Yum! Thanks for posting this… we obviously grew up eating the same type of food. Every time you post something, I get a craving and have to call my mum to make it. She’s always asking where these cravings are coming from all of a sudden…
Rosa's Yummy Yums
That fish looks fabulous! I’m sure that it also tastes wonderful…
team BSG
Looks as tempting ( as you ). Issit ah ?
tigerfish
RM, you really wan to know? Look again and think hard. :O
No wan to say lah…you will know it when you know it! ;p
pablopabla
You keep cooking like this, then no need to come back Malaysia liao. Applause! Applause!
BuddingCook
looks lovely! nice pictures.
Precious Pea
WAH WAH WAH….DROOLZZZ!!!
Rasa Malaysia
Sue – I love anything grilled over charcoal or BBQ…it’s just the best…the burned taste and smell…mmm.
Tummythoz – I wonder if the new Windows Vista will be able to do that. :P
Claude – thanks! I hope you will try this out…I think this is one of the must-try in Malaysia. I once took some American friends to try this dish and they almost ate everything, including the banana leaves!
Dr. Ve Thru – correct, I bought a pack of frozen banana leaves for my nasi lemak dish so I used them for this dish. They are almost like fresh. Smells good!
Pip – thanks and welcome. Recipe is up. :)
Tricia Lee-Chin – exactly, a must have.
Malaygrill – yeah, I cheated with an indoor grill…shhh, don’t tell. :P
Tiga – Smell-friendly food is good, but tak puas hati after eating…have to eat stinky food again…well, can’t help it. What does that picture look like? Tell me tell me?
Simcooks – Sure, but I don’t like Tilapia, it has that fresh water muddy taste. You should be able to get frozen sole in 99 Ranch or you can also use red snapper fillet.
PE – thanks and yes, I didn’t learn everything by observing my mother and my aunt in the kitchen, it takes a lot of practices and dedication. I will write a post about how I learn cooking soon! :)
Flower – correct, and dollops of sambal belacan…best sekali!
FBB – no need to cook lah, just go out at hawker center can get oredi, what for make at home? Hehe.
Unka – First you drool, now you gnawl, perhaps you are going to jilat your LCD next…I kesian your monitor! LOL!
Chris – welcome back and congrats about the new job. Do pop in soon okay? :)
Chris
Hi Bee, long time no see, just an out-of-topic comment, I’m terribly busy with work lately, just joined a new company, a BIG company. I’ve missed so many delicious posts by your good self. Lemme settle down 1st and I’ll be back soon.
UnkaLeong
tummythoz : Wait till you see the ‘gnaw’ marks on my monitor. It’s a flat screen, but you r right, still hard to swallow.
Bee : *closes eyes, breathes deeply* Know what? I can almost smell it..almost.
fatboybakes
wow, i would never do this myself, seems like too much work. guess when its readily available in shops, there’s more tendency toward laziness. looks fantastic as always.
Flower
Wow sedapnye. For me this and hot rice will do. No need for other thing.
Passionate Eater
I can’t believe that you weren’t a “natural” cook when you first got started! Well, it is clear that you are a fast learner, the fish looks wonderful.
You definitely have skills!
simcooks
Can use tilapia fillet or not? They are easily found.
tigerfish
yummy yummy :p~~~~~~(u know what are ~~~~~ hor?)
after u “air-freshened” your kitchen with smell-friendly hors’doeurves, you are inviting this aroma back again! Prefer this kind of food lah, the peng kang(grilled) fish in banana leaves…MmmMmmmMmmmMmmmMmmm
(the top-right corner of 5th pix…may invite imaginative wildest thoughts that it look like something though…just like how the omelet look like brain thingy…heh heh)
malaykid
i miss the ikan panggang place behind istana negara.
btw, did u grill them inside ur house? charcoal is the way to grill! ;)
Tricia Lee-Chin
Wow! Looks sooooo delicious! This is one of my favourite! A must have when I’m back in KL! Still prefer it with Stingray!
Yummy!!!
pip
ok, where is that recipe already?! not sure my keyboard can cope with my salivating much longer ;) great blog btw, and tummy growling food …
Dr ve Thru
RM, it looks scrumptious. Banana leaves must be easily available near you. Can’t wait for the recipe.
Claude-Olivier
Salut ;-)
Wouaw, it looks great !!! I have not tested that during my journey in malaysia…too bad. But I will try to do that by myself ! Yours pictures are like always so nice !!! you’re an artist ;-)
Cheers
Claude
Tummythoz
Almost wish monitor enable scratch&sniff. Almost because it’ll b dangerous. Dun think monitors digest well.
sue
The pictures are gorgeous! Although I barely understood the ingredients you mentioned. It looks so tasty and I love food that is cooked on charcoal.