Ota Ika (raw fish) recipe
Growing up in the South Pacific, ota ika or in English raw fish was always my favorite dish. The fresh taste of raw fish, coated with coconut milk and fresh vegetables is what I craved every time I was abroad studying. It was if though I had to say goodbye to no more ota ika for one year, till I came back for Christmas and New Years, only to repeat the process for the next 4 years. Fast-forward to now, I have finally perfected it and can now enjoy eating ota ika whenever I crave it. When I first made it, I was in tears because it tasted exactly like dad’s ota ika and just the taste had me thinking of home. Without further delay, here is the recipe for Ota Ika! Enjoy.
To begin making the dish, you would want to have:
3lbs of codfish (defrosted/fresh)
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of white vinegar
1 1/2 cup of water
3 tomatoes
3 green capsicum
5-6 spring green onions
1 cucumber
1 lemon
1 tablespoon of salt (to taste)
1. You can use frozen codfish or fresh. When you live in a different country and cannot get the fresh fish you would normally use to make ota (sword fish), codfish makes a great substitute and it's definitely affordable.
-With a sharp knife, we want to cut our cod fish into tiny bite size pieces. After cutting the cod fish, we want to put it in a medium sized bowl.
2. Getting our 1/2 cup of white vinegar, we want to go ahead and pour into our bowl of fish.
-Use a spoon to mix the fish and vinegar. Mix for 1-2 minute.
3. Place the bowl into the fridge, for about 10-15 minutes.
4. Moving onto our vegetables. We want to cut our tomatoes, capsicum, spring green onions and cucumber into tiny pieces.
-Place into separate medium sized bowl.
5. 15 minutes has passed, we want to take out our bowl of fish and vinegar out. At this point we'll need our hands to do the job (make sure you have washed your hands). Grabbing a handful of cod fish pieces, we want to press it against both palm of our hands, to squeeze out all the vinegar. Setting it aside in a new bowl/ plate.
- Continue doing this till you have drained all the vinegar from the fish.
6. Placing our drained codfish in a bowl, we want to add in our chopped vegetables and mix it all together.
7. Pour in our 1 can of coconut milk and just stir everything together, also adding our cup of water or more coconut milk (depending on what you prefer, but water works just fine).
-It is important to note, that when making ota we would want a lot of liquid, so just make sure.
8. Squeeze in our 1 lemon and tablespoon of salt and stir it all together.
9. You can either let it sit in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, or you can simply dish out a bowl and eat.
Hope you guys enjoyed this scrumptious Tongan dish and tell me what you think! Malo!