Grilled Mackerel Stuffed with Spicy Chili Paste

One of my favorite ways to enjoy fish while growing up in Georgetown on the tropical island of Penang in Malaysia was to have it grilled with some spicy sambal. The spice mixture is cooked first and then cooled before it is stuffed into side pockets cut into the fish. The fish of choice for this dish is fresh mackerel and luckily for me, frozen and thawed Norwegian mackerel is available in Asian grocery stores in Los Angeles.

This dish has roots in Malay and Chinese cuisine called Nonya cooking which was created when Chinese immigrants settled in Malaysia and inter-married with local Malays. They developed a unique fusion cuisine which combined elements of Chinese cooking with spicy Malay cooking. This Nonya cuisine was further influenced by Thai cooking in northern part of Peninsular Malaysia and influenced by Indonesian cooking in the southern part. Of course, I’m not able to get all the authentic ingredients such as candle nuts, torch ginger buds, or fermented shrimp condiment to make this dish but I’ve substituted ingredients which are readily available in US such as lemongrass, tamarind pulp, and bottled sambal olek. My US version of this Nonya recipe for grilled mackerel with spicy chili paste is aromatic, spicy, sweet, sour, and salty and will wake up your taste buds. It goes very well with steamed turmeric rice. If you ever visit Penang, this is a must try dish.