COPPEROta ika recipe
Tonga's national dish: raw fish first cured in citrus juice until opaque, then folded into coconut cream with crisp diced vegetables.
Ingredients
- 500 g fresh tuna
- 120 ml lime juice
- 240 ml coconut cream
- 1 tomato
- 1 cucumber
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pinch pepper
How to make Ota ika
- Cut 500 g very fresh tuna into 1 to 2 cm cubes and put them in a glass bowl.
- Pour over the juice of 4 limes (about 120 ml), stir, cover and refrigerate about 1 hour, until the surface of the fish turns opaque.
- Meanwhile dice 1 tomato, 1 peeled and seeded cucumber and 1 onion, and keep them cold.
- Stir 240 ml coconut cream into the marinated fish.
- Add the vegetables, season with 1 tsp salt and a pinch of pepper and mix gently.
- Serve cold straight away.
What is Ota ika?
Ota ika is a traditional dish from Tonga, and takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. It is built around fresh tuna, coconut cream and lime juice. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Ota ika take?
At 75 minutes it is quicker than 70% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 3 dishes built on fresh tuna. The method runs to 6 steps.
Any tips for making Ota ika?
Let the fish sit alone in the lime juice until its surface turns opaque before adding the coconut cream.
How Ota ika compares
Fresh tuna appears in only 2 other dishes in the atlas.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on tuna, from other countries.
- Pastel com diabo dentro 🇨🇻 Cabo Verde
- Kokoda 🇳🇷 Nauru
- Brik 🇹🇳 Tunisia
- Tuna kokoda 🇻🇺 Vanuatu
Copper documents Tonga alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.