CookingTimor-Leste

Recipe: Fish baked in palm leaves
Viqueque style
Ikan saboko, or fish baked in palm leaves,
is a favourite seafood dish of coastal
communities around Timor-Leste –
including in Uatucarbau in Viqueque,
where it is called dotuwai hamudara in
Nauoti language.
Making ikan saboko requires some time
and patience, but just wait until you
unwrap the charred leaf parcels and taste
the steaming, spicy, smoky fish!
The best time to make this dish is in the
afternoon when the temperature starts
to cool down. From my experience, this
recipe works well with small fish like
mullet and sardines.
Makes 4 saboko parcels
(enough to serve 5)
Ingredients
20 small–medium
(approximately 90 g
per fish)
mullet (or any small fish)
24 green chillies (mild to
medium heat)
2 finger-length pieces
(approx. 12 cm)
ginger
6 bulbs garlic (small variety)
6 small red onions
1 handful basil leaves
1 large handful kata leaves (or substitute
leaves from the
ambarella tree)
1 lemon (for juice)
1½ tablespoons
salt
4 fan-shaped fronds from
the sago palm (to wrap
the fish)
Method
1. While preparing the ingredients, start a
fire to create hot coals for cooking the
saboko parcels.
2. Scale, gut and wash the fish.
3. Wash/peel the chillies, ginger, garlic and
onion and roughly crush together. Wash
and roughly chop the basil leaves and
kata leaves.
4. In a large bowl, add the fish, chilli
mixture, basil and kata leaves, lemon
juice and salt, toss together with
clean hands and leave to marinate for
5–10 minutes.
5. Wrap the fish and seasoning ingredients
in the palm leaves (5 fish per leaf) and
tightly tie each end of the parcel.
6. Place on a metal grid or wooden frame
above red-hot coals and bake for 1 hour,
regularly turning the parcels.
7. Once cooled slightly, untie or cut off both
ends, unwrap the leaf and serve with rice.
100
Te’in ikan no hahán tasi iha Timor - Leste