The marriage of spices like chillies and lemon grass with the creamy flavour of coconut milk is what makes Malay food so attractive to the palate. Here, this winning combination is served with squid.
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
500g medium-sized squid
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
300g grated coconut, squeezed for thick cream —about ¼-2/3 cup. Or use coconut milk from packets or cans.
½ teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon assam pulp (tamarind)
¼ cup water
Spice mixture:
5 buah keras (candlenuts)
10 fresh red chillies
1 stalk serai (lemon grass), use only the bottom 2 cm at the root end
½ teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste)
10 shallots, peeled
Method:
1. Pound or grind all the spice ingredients except for the shallots. When the paste is semi fine, add the shallots and grind to make a fine paste. You add shallots last as they are the softest ingredient and if mixed with the hard ingredients, will prevent the harder ingredients from being ground to a fine paste.
2. Clean squid, peel off skin and cut into 1 ½ cm rings. Cut off the ink sac and cut the head into 2 pieces.
3. Mix assam pulp with water, knead and strain through a sieve to remove seeds. Retain assam water.
4. Heat a wok or saucepan, add the oil and when it is hot, add the spice mixture and stir fry for 3-4 minutes till fragrant and the oil has exuded.
5. Add squid, salt and sugar; stir fry till the colour changes.
6. Add coconut milk and tamarind water, mix well continue to stir fry for 1-2 minutes till the sauce thickens.
7. Serve with steaming hot rice as part of a meal.
One of Singapore’s leading food gurus, Violet Oon is considered a leading authority on Asian cuisine and her own speciality is the Nonya cuisine of Singapore. She has published three cookbooks of her own and they are Peranakan Cooking; Violet Oon Cooks; A Singapore Family Cookbook. She often represents Singapore as a food Ambassador abroad.
