Ground Report

This is a delicious and ready to eat dish from Semarang, Capital City of Central Java, Bandeng (Milk Fish) Presto. Bandeng Presto is a smoked milk fish which cooked with pressure cooker. The cooking method is similar to steaming. This process make the fish become literally tender to the bones and those bones can be eaten.

This Bandeng, a large toothless silver fish that lives in warm parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans and related to the herring and the salmon, is commonly used in Indonesian cuisine. Presto is come from Italian language "quickly", but in this case, it refer to the pressure cooker brand "presto" – the first pressure cooker penetrated the market in Indonesia.

It is readily prepared by deep frying or bake it in the oven and serve hot/warm. There is no additional ingredients needed. A vacuum packed smoked milk fish can be kept for 6 months – 1 year in the cool place without reducing the freshness and nutrition.

Bandeng Presto How-To

Ingredients

• 1 kg (or 3) fresh milkfishes, remove gills and stomach part
• 1 tablespoon tapai yeast (read below), grounded
• 2 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoon tamarind water
• 10 bay leaves
• 10 cm galangal (see: opor ayam), sliced and pounded
• 2 1/2 litre water

Grounded spices

• 14 cloves red onion
• 7 cloves garlic
• 4 cm ginger
• 4 cm turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt

Grounded spices

• 150 g big red chili peppers, boiled
• 10 small green chili peppers, boiled
• 8 cloves red onion, boiled
• 4 cloves garlic, boiled
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon terasi (shrimp paste), fried

Other ingredients

• Banana leaves for wrapping as needed
• Egg’s white or flavoured flour as needed

Method

1. Slice the stomach part of the fishes. Clean them up using water and let them dry.
2. Smear the fishes with tapai yeast, salt, and tamarind water. Leave them for about 1 hour.
3. Smear the fishes with grounded spices evenly.
4. Put bay leaves and slices of galangal on top of the fishes.
5. Wrap with banana leaves so that the fishes are easy to lift from the pressure cooker.
6. Pour 1 litre water into the pressure cooker. Put a sieve on top of the cooker
7. Arrange the wrapped fishes ontop of the sieve.
8. Cook until the cooker hissed, 30-50 minutes depending on the type of pressure cooker you use.
9. Let the cooker cool with open lid.
10. Pour water again and cook until the water is no more.
11. Take out the fishes and let them dry.

Method for chili sauce

1. Heat vegetable oil.
2. Sautee grounded spices until the sauce smells good.
3. Put into plate and let it cool.

Serving

1. Smear the fishes with egg’s white or flavoured flour.
2. Fry until brown.
3. Serve with chili sauce.