Ingredients
- 1 mukeke (or other large lake fish), 1.2–1.5 kg, gutted and butterflied
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp grated ginger, optional
- Salt, pepper, pili-pili
- A few sprigs of parsley or coriander, optional
Method
- 01 Rinse and dry the fish. Score the flesh without cutting through the skin.
- 02 Mix lemon, garlic, onion, oil, ginger, salt, pepper and chili. Coat inside and out. Marinate 30 minutes.
- 03 Prepare coals or an oven at 200 °C.
- 04 Grill 15–20 minutes per side (or 30–35 minutes in the oven), basting with marinade.
- 05 Check that the flesh flakes easily. Scatter herbs if you have them.
- 06 Serve with bugali, bukari, plantain or rice, and tomato or pili-pili sauce on the side.
Mukeke, on many markets, means a large **Lake Tanganyika** fish—a feast piece when the port lands it. The gesture stays simple: lemon, garlic, fire. Smaller fish from the same lake are [sambaza](/en/recettes/sambaza/) or [kapenta](/en/recettes/kapenta-tomates/). In Kivu, the grilled cousin: [Kivu fish](/en/recettes/poisson-kivu-grille/).
In the same spirit
Other recipes close by territory or by gesture.
-
Sambaza with tomatoes
Sambaza recipe: small Lake Tanganyika fish pan-fried then simmered in a tomato-onion sauce — eastern DRC classic, cousin to kapenta.
20 min prep · 25 min cook
-
Grilled Lake Kivu fish
Grilled Lake Kivu fish recipe: whole lake fish marinated with aromatics then grilled until the skin is smoky — Eastern grillade, distinct from Kinkole river braise.
25 min + 1 h marinade prep · 30 min cook
-
Grilled capitaine
Grilled capitaine recipe: whole Nile perch marinated with aromatics and grilled until the skin is smoky — river grillade, distinct from generic Kinkole braised fish.
30 min + 1 h marinade prep · 35 min cook