Recipe: Masak Ikan dan Pisang dalam Buluh

The recipe that I will be sharing on the blog today is a national food heritage in my country, Malaysia. This dish can also be found in other parts of the world such as our neighboring country, Indonesia. This dish is called “masak ikan dan pisang dalam buluh” in its native language, which is also cooked fish with banana leaf in a bamboo when translated to the English language.  This dish is mainly cooked by the Orang Asli people in Malaysia who are known as the native Malaysians and also served at certain restaurants in Malaysia including restaurants that serve Indonesian cuisine. It is a very simple dish that is served with rice usually but it does take a bit more time to cook as it is cooked in bamboo.

Last week, I visited the kitchen of a restaurant here in Petaling Jaya that is owned and run by a native Malaysian and cooks Malaysian delights. The owner is also the head chef of the restaurant and his name is Mr. Fariz. He told me that there are many different variations as to how people cook this, as they like to make it their own recipe and put a new twist to how it is cooked. Different people use different techniques when cooking the fish in the bamboo as well as how the stuff the bamboo.

This restaurant stays true to the origins of this dish as Mr. Fariz is of native decent, the recipe of this dish was passed down from generations before him in his family.

The ingredients needed for this dish are very simple and easy to find at your local grocery store or wet market. The list of ingredients is short and only consists of a handful of things.

Ingredients:-

- 1 catfish/any other freshwater fish

- 1 section of bamboo (eg: bamboo used to cook glutinous rice)

- Banana leaves

- 2 teaspoons of salt

- turmeric powder

- seasoning powder

- kesom leaves (laksa leaf)

- 3-5 red chili

- ginger

Here is a breakdown of the recipe step-by-step as cooked by Mr. Fariz:-

Step 1: Clean the fish well and if you like it fillet, you may go ahead and slice your fish into smaller pieced before we marinate it.

Step 2: Cut up and prep the ingredients needed for the marination and other ingredients that needs to be sliced for plating or to stuff into the bamboo along with the fish.

Step 3: Marinade the fish with all necessary ingredients such as salt, turmeric powder, seasoning powder, kesom leaves and ginger.

 Step 4: Wrap marinated fish in banana leaf.

Step 5: Stuff the marinated fish that has been wrapped into the bamboo.

Step 6: Cook the whole bamboo which has been stuffed with the marinated fish that has been wrapped with the banana leaf over fire.

Step 7: Serve the finish dish with rice or on its own. Up to your own personal preference.

There are not many differences between the recipe used and given to me by Mr. fariz as the ones on the internet. As he told me, the recipe varies from different people, families or restaurants.  His recipe is very close to the original way of cooking it as it has been passed down from generations and I found one on the internet that is also a native recipe and they are basically the same that shows that there are not much differences. Though there are some recipes with less ingredients and not as much flavor that can be found online.