Pepes Udang (Spicy Prawns Grilled in Banana Leaves)

Pepes is an Indonesian food usually wrapped in banana leaves. There are a number of different pepes, depending on the ingredients and spices used. "Udang" means prawns in Indonesian. So, pepes udang is spicy prawns grilled in banana leaves. I used foil wraps and my pepes still tastes as good as those I had in my hometown.

I remember the times when our family enjoyed a variety of pepes served with veggies and steamed rice. It was so delicious and our tongues were crazily burnt because of the chillies. I recently made pepes using my mum's recipe. Surprise surprise... my hands were burning since it took me a while to wrap the prawns. Oh boy!! It wasn't comfortable to have burning hands for several hours.

I made two recipes for pepes sauce and kept some in the freezer.  This would save me so much time to prepare pepes next time. As long as the sauce is kept in an airtight container, your pepes will taste as good as the first batch.

Ingredients (for 6 pepes):

• 42 raw prawns (peel and de-vein)
• 16 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 tomatoes
• 8 big red chillies
• 10 small red chillies
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 big red onion
• 5 candle nuts (fried first)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tbs sugar
• a pinch of white pepper

Preparations:
Fry candle nuts with some oil until they turn golden brown.

Chop chillies, tomatoes, red onions and garlic into smaller pieces.

Process chopped ingredients, fried candle nuts and 4 kaffir lime leaves using a juicer. They should turn to a smooth pepes sauce.

Pan-fry the sauce until it turns to a thick sauce. Add salt, sugar and a pinch of white pepper.

Combine the prawns with pepes sauce well. Add 7 prawns + 2 kaffir lime leaves in each wrap.

Steam each wrap for 20 mins and put in the oven for 15 mins. Pepes is now ready to serve.
If pepes is still a bit wet, remove the foil wrap and put in the oven for another 5-15 mins.