Kokoda (Fish marinated with coconut)

                                                                         Receta en Español

This is the most popular dish at Fiji Islands, it is a fish marinated  in lime or lemon.

When you look in a map, you can see that other countries at the Pacific ocean have similar dishes; from Alaska to Peru with its famous 'ceviche'.

At Fiji Islands they use a fish called Mahi-Mahi, it is ideal to marinate, it is a white fish without thorns.
Mahi-mahi can also be found in Spain!, We name it lampuga, it is typical from  islas Baleares, Valencia and Alicante , it is a seasonal fish (summer-autumm) very limited.
If you come from those regions of Spain try to make this dish using that fish.
Otherwise you can use cod or mackerel.

The dish can be eaten as a starter or a main dish. 

Ingredients (4 people):

• 1 mackerel or cod.
• Juice of 4 or 5 lemons or limes.
• 240 ml coconut cream.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped shallots.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped red pepper.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped green pepper.
• 8 tablespoon of a cucumber cut into chunks.
• 8 teaspoons of finely cut chilies.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped onion.
• 8 teaspoons coriander.
• 8 tablespoon of a tomato cut into chunks.
• salt and pepper.

Method:

1. Freeze fish to prevent any problem with anisakis.
2. Days after the freezing you can use the fish, defrost it , remove the skin and the thorns.
3. Cut fish into little pieces.
4. Put the fish in a non-plastic container, cover the fish with the lime juice. Cover with cling film and let cool in the fridge overnight. This way the fish will be cooked in lime.
5. Look at the pictures to see the difference before and after:

          

Before marinated

Marinated

     6.  Take 1/4 of the fish and place it in a bowl, mix it with 1/4 of the coconut cream.

     7.  Add 1/4 of each ingredient and stir.

     8.  Do the same with 3 other bowls.

     9.  Refrigerate until you are going to serve it.

Where to find the ingredients:

Coconut cream is a kind of thick coconut milk, you can buy it liquid or powder, I bought powder to make the cream as thick as I wanted.
I bought coconut cream at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).

You can also buy it on the internet:

coconut cream



Fidji Islands