← Nouns Cooking · Malaysian & Singaporean

Ingredients

• 600 g whole squid, cleaned, ink sacs kept, bodies cut into rings
• 1 sachet squid ink (if your squid have no ink sacs) (optional)
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp dried chilli paste (cili boh)
• 1 Onion, sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 cm piece Ginger, grated
• 1 Lemongrass, bruised
• 3 Makrut (kaffir) lime leaves (optional)
• 2 tbsp kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 120 ml Water
• ½ tsp Salt, or to taste
• 1 tsp Sugar, or to taste

Method

1. Squeeze the ink from the sacs into the water (or stir in the sachet ink) and set aside. Pat the squid rings and tentacles dry.
2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Fry the onion for 2–3 min until soft, then add the garlic, ginger and lemongrass and fry for 1 min until fragrant.
3. Stir in the chilli paste and fry for 5 min, stirring often, until it darkens and the oil starts to separate.
4. Add the inky water, kicap manis, tamarind, lime leaves, salt and sugar and bring to a simmer. Taste: it should be spicy, a little sweet and gently sour.
5. Turn the heat up to high, add the squid and toss for 2–3 min, just until it turns opaque and curls. Take it off the heat straight away and serve with hot rice.

Tips

• Squid turns rubbery between about 3 and 30 min of cooking, so either cook it very briefly as here or simmer it for a long time; nothing in between.
• Cleaning squid is messy work: pull the head away from the body and you will find the silvery ink sac sitting along the innards.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Nomadette The Meatmen