Pecel Lele (Fried Catfish with Chilli Sauce)

 

Lele is a “walking catfish” that mostly found in Southeast Asia, includes in Indonesia. One popular simple dish made of walking catfish in Java is Pecel Lele or Penyet Lele. It is usually served with lalapan (raw vegetables/ salad), poured with sambal (chilli sauce), and warm steamed-rice

In Java culture, some people love eating such dishes (fish, lalapan, and sambal) like Pecel Lele by lesehan (sitting on a traditional floor mat), together with all family members with no cutlery set. They eat it with right-hand after washing it with a bowl of water with lemon slices.

Ingredients:

 
For Fish:

• 5 walking catfishes, clean the internal organs as clean as possible
• 1 egg, beat it
• 500 ml of oil

Spice paste :

• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 cm of turmeric
• 1 tsp of ketumbar/ coriander
• salt

For Sambal/ Chilli Sauce:

• 10 ceyenne peppers
• 2 red chillies
• 1 tomato
• sugar
• salt
• 1 tsp of terasi (shrimp paste)
• 1 lime

For Lalapan:

 cucumber, kemangi leaves, long beans, cabbage. All of them are cleaned and cut into medium slices.

How to cook:

1. Mix the lele with spice paste in a food compartent. Let the seasonings are absorbed about 10 minutes.
2. Put one by one of fishes into the blended egg.
3. Heat the oil and fry lele until the colour turning to golden and crispy. Drain.
4. For sambal : grind the ceyenne peppers, red chillies, tomato, sugar, salt, and terasi on pestle with stone mortar.
5. Add lime juice, stir it.

Special tips:

To reduce the fishy smell, you may soak the fishes with lime juice for some time, before adding spice paste.

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