Dinner 29/11/2012 : Sambal Squid with Rice

As you all might have guessed by now, i love spicy food. So here's what we had for dinner yesterday.

SAMBAL SOTONG (SQUID) SERVED WITH RICE


INGREDIENTS

- Squid (about 200g), sliced and clean with the backbone removed as well as the ink.

- Rice (about 1 cup)

SAUCE
- 1 large red onion (yellow onion is better), finely chopped.
- Chilli paste (1½  tablespoon). For me, I like to add extra. (about 2½ tablespoon) :)
- Tamarind juice (30ml)
- Shrimp paste (1 teaspoon - mixed in about 30ml of water)
- Sugar (about 2 tablespoon)'

GARNISH (Optional)
- Chinese salary, finely chopped (about 1 stalk)
- Onion leaves, finely chopped (about 1 stalk)

METHOD
1) Heat up pan at medium heat, pour cooking oil (any would do, but preferred would be sunflower oil)
2) Once the pan is hot, throw in the onions. Be sure to be careful as the onion is wet and might cause a bit of a stir with the hot cooking oil.
3) Stir well until yellowish brown and you get a good aroma from the onions.
4) Put in the chilli paste and mix well. Keep stirring until the paste thickens and you see the oil above the chilli paste. We normally call this until breaking oil (Pecah minyak). The reason behind is to ensure that the chilli is well cooked, else you'll be in a bad time with stomach upset. At this point, the sambal colour will be dark gloomy red. Be sure not to burn it.
5) Next, put in the sugar. This will turn the chilli colour to bright red as well as balance out the heat from the chilli.
6) Next, mix in the shrimp paste.and give it a good stir.
7) Keep stirring until it thickens again. Then add the squids. Cook for about 3-5 minutes. You don't want to overcook the squids else you might end up with a rubbery texture.
8) Now add in the tamarind juice. This will add the sour taste, again to balance out the heat from the chilli. You can use tomato paste as substitute.
9) Keep cooking for another 1 minute until the sauce thickens a bit more.
10) Turn off the heat, put in a serving bowl. Add chopped Chinese salary and chopped onion leaves for garnish.

For the rice
1) Add rice to pot
2) Double the water amount to the rice amount. We are using 1 cup, so you should add 2 cups of water.
3) Boil it until its cooked under medium heat. Or just use a rice  cooker if you have one :)

Put all on a serving plate, and you are DONE!

P/s: You may notice i did not add any salt, that is because the shrimp paste is already salty. Always taste what you are cooking and add the seasoning as needed. :)

Enjoy!


TOTAL COST : RM12.00 (servers 2)