Another staple on the marae table is raw fish, a dish commonly found throughout the Pacific with its own variations. The best ika mata I ever tried was in Fiji, where our friends literally climbed a coconut tree to get the freshest, sweetest coconuts, and we scraped and squeezed the coconut flesh to produce the creamiest coconut cream I’ve ever had in my life. I was in coconut cream heaven! Unfortunately, this is something we can’t do here in Aotearoa, but choosing quality coconut cream from the Pacific Islands is your next best bet for the creamiest, most delectable ika mata.
Serves 4 as a side
Ingredients
- 500g boneless, skinless white fish, e.g. tarakihi, trevally, snapper, kahawai, blue cod
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (or use all lemon juice)
- ½ red onion
- 1 medium capsicum, any colour
- 1 tomato, or ½ punnet cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cucumber
- 2 spring onions
- ½ cup coconut cream
- 1 tsp salt, to taste
- small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Method
Dice the fish into 1–2cm cubes, and place in a non-metal bowl. Mix in the lemon and lime juice thoroughly, cover, and leave to chill and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour, or until the fish turns an opaque white colour.
Finely chop the red onion, capsicum, tomato, cucumber and spring onions.
Once the fish has marinated, drain any excess juice away, mix in the chopped vegetables and coconut cream, and season with salt to taste.
Keep chilled until serving.
Mix the coriander through just before serving.
Kai Feast: Food stories and recipes from the maunga to the moana by Christall Lowe, photography by Christall Lowe. Published by Bateman Books, RRP $59.99.
