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Authentic Pempek Recipe
Palembang, Indonesia
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We strongly advise you to read the cooking tips before jumping to the recipe though
Introduction & history
Pempek, also known as empek-empek, is a cherished Indonesian fish cake from Palembang, South Sumatra. It is made with a blend of fish, typically mackerel, sago flour, and simple seasonings. The preparation of pempek starts with grinding the fish into a fine paste, which is then mixed with sago flour and occasionally egg, depending on the recipe, along with seasonings like salt and sugar to enhance its taste. Sometimes, oil is added to make the dough less chewy. This mixture is kneaded into a dough and shaped into various forms, each representing a different variation of pempek. Once shaped, the pempek is boiled until it floats, signifying it is cooked through, and then usually further deep-fried to achieve a crispy exterior. Pempek is typically served cut into bite-sized pieces and topped with cuko, a tangy and sweet sauce made from palm sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt. This sauce adds flavor to the fish cakes with its sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. Apart from ... Read more
Serve With
Cooking tips
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fish
The traditional choice of fish for pempek was balida, also known as giant featherback and chitala. However, since the fish is rare pempek with balida is very pricey. Various kinds of snakehead and featherback fish are also used. Regarding sea fish, the preferred choices are mackerel, red snapper, herring, and yellowtail. The meat must be cleaned from bones and ground into a paste with a grinder. -
flour
Traditionally, sago flour, which is sourced from the pith of the sago palm, is used. Tapioca, which comes from the cassava root, is often used instead. Nowadays, the two are used interchangeably. -
method
Typically, pempek is cooked and then fried, but other ways of preparation exist as well, such as only cooked, steamed (in the case of pempek wrapped in banana leaves), fried, and grilled.
Authentic Pempek
PREP 1h
COOK 1h 40min
READY IN 2h 40min
The following is the authentic recipe for pempek fish cake. The ingredients are only the basic ones: ground mackerel fish, sago or tapioca flour, salt, and water. You can shape the resulting dough however you prefer, and the recipe gives some ideas on what traditional shapes you can do. It also includes instructions and a list of ingredients for the traditional cuko sauce that traditionally accompanies pempek.
Ingredients
1 part ground mackerel fish
1 part water
salt to taste
2 tbsp cooking oil, plus more if needed
tapioca (sago) as needed
FOR KUAH CUKO SAUCE
1 kg (2.2 lbs) good palm sugar, cut into pieces
5 bird's eye chili, or to taste
200g (7 oz) garlic
3 tbsp white vinegar/air asam/lime juice
salt to taste
2 L (8 cups + 2 tbsp) water
FOR SERVING
kuah cuko sauce, yellow noodles or rice vermicelli, cubes of cucumber, and mashed ebi
Preparation
Step 1/10
Combine ground fish with water and salt, mixing until the salt is fully dissolved and the mixture is free of lumps and tastes quite salty.
Step 2/10
Gradually add tapioca to the mixture until you achieve a kneadable consistency. Add more starch if you prefer a chewier texture.
Step 3/10
Once the dough is ready, shape it as desired. You can opt for balls, small rolls, or filled pempek. There's also the option of making curled pempek — pipe the fish dough into curls shaped into a ball using a piping bag with a small tip. For a filled pempek (submarine), form a small bowl from the dough, fill it with a raw chicken egg, and then seal it to prevent leaks.
Step 4/10
Boil the shaped pempek in water over medium heat until they float to the surface, then remove and place in cold water.
Step 5/10
Once cooked, fry in hot oil over low heat until they float.
Step 6/10
To make the kuah cuko sauce, first, dissolve palm sugar in water by heating it until it is fully melted.
Step 7/10
Crush garlic and bird's eye chili peppers and add them to the boiling sugar water.
Step 8/10
Stir in vinegar and salt, then simmer on low heat for an hour until the sauce thickens slightly.
Step 9/10
Strain the sauce afterward.
Step 10/10
Serve the pempek with kuah cuko sauce, yellow noodles or rice vermicelli, cubes of cucumber, and a sprinkling of mashed ebi.
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