How to make Sambal Sotong, a Malay-style squid cooked in an easy spicy sambal sauce.
Sambal Sotong or Spicy Squid Sambal is one of my favourite Malay stir fries ever! Squid in a spicy, rich sambal gravy… this is so good with some cooked rice especially.
How to Prepare Squid for Sambal Sotong
Preparing the squid is easy enough.
- Gently remove the head from the body. The entrails should follow along. If there is an ink sac, cut it off and save it for Sotong Masak Hitam!
- Remove the transparent cartilage in the squid.
- Cut the squid into rings.
- Cut the tentacles off the head. If there is a little bony squid beak, squeeze it out and cut it off. It’s not pleasant to bite into this!
- Clean the squid and it is now ready for use.
I prefer to clean the squid after I slice it into rings rather than before. That way I make sure I really get all of the inner grossness out of the squid.
I don’t bother removing the skin off the squid, but feel free to carve it off if you prefer a skinless squid.
As always, if you want to see this in action in greater detail, watch the YouTube video.
Salt-Cleaning the Squid
I like to take the extra step of salting the squid before cooking it. It helps to remove any sort of fishiness from the squid. This is an optional step though. If my squids are catches of the day, I would skip this.
This method is known as “buang air sotong”, or “removing squid water”, and is a traditional Malay cooking process that frankly is not that widely implemented these days.
To salt-clean your squid:
- To the squid, simply add salt. I recommend using either sea salt or himalayan pink salt. The coarser the salt the better.
2. Combine the salt with the squid. As you gently work the squid, it will start to foam.
3. Once it achieves maximum foaminess (lol), wash the squid to remove the salt and the “squid water” and the squid is ready for use.
The Perfect Sambal Paste for Sambal Sotong
If you’re familiar with Singapore/Malaysian cuisine, you will know sambal is a base ingredient of a lot of beloved local dishes. Sambal is basically the dried chilli paste mixture cooked right at the beginning.
In this recipe, I used ready made dried chilli paste. You can use ready-made dried chilli paste, or make it yourself. No surprises that I prefer to make my own – the store-bought versions often have either added salt or vinegar as preservatives so seasoning is slightly trickier.
I always make a huge batch of dried chilli paste and keep it in the fridge so it’s ready-to-go for times like these. I have a recipe and a dedicated post on how to make your own dried chilli paste here.
If you are making dried chilli paste from scratch for this recipe, you can blend the dried chillies with onions and garlic to form one paste instead.
Since I’m adding the onions with the dried chilli paste separately, I chopped half of the onion, and the other half I sliced it and added it at the end. This is optional, I like having that extra layer of crisp onion flavour, but you can chop the onions and add it right at the beginning of the cooking process.
How to Properly Cook Sambal
The key to good sambal sotong is in the sambal. In this recipe, I emphasised on properly cooking the dried chilli paste. Most recipes would just say to stir fry until fragrant, but to get the full developed flavour of sambal, you have to cook it thoroughly.
This is achieved when you stir fry the dried chilli paste over low to medium heat until it deepens in colour. It will also emulsify – this is when it dries down slightly and becomes a thicker paste, and the surrounding oil floats above it. This can take a while, depending on how much dried chilli paste you used. This step is also known as “pecah minyak” or “oil splitting”.
For even greater detail on this, I recommend that you check out my post here.
How to Level up your Sambal Sotong
The sambal recipe here is a basic one. While I think this is delicious enough, if you want to level up the Sambal Sotong, add belachan or fermented dried shrimp paste. The belachan adds an extra layer of seafood umami that compliments the Sambal Sotong. If adding belachan, make sure you lessen the amount of salt added since belachan has salt in it already.
Instead of salt, try adding fish sauce to season! The fish sauce salts while also adding umami.
If you want an even simpler, yet tasty, version of Sambal Sotong, you can omit the lemongrass, tamarind and turmeric powder. Yes – you can most definitely make Sambal Sotong with just the basic ingredients of dried chilli paste, onions and garlic! In fact, when I first explored Malay cuisine, I stuck to these basics and built confidence from there!
Dry Sambal Sotong Stir Fry
This Sambal Sotong has sauce in it, which I prefer. If you want a drier version of Sambal Sotong, which is some versions that you find in hawker stalls, simply do not add water.
Adversely, if you want more gravy in your Sambal Sotong, add more water. I would not recommend you add too much water, which would dilute the flavours.
More recipes like this:
If you enjoyed this Sambal Sotong recipe, make sure to check out these seafood Malay dishes too:
- Sambal Prawns | The easiest sambal stir fry that will impress!
- Asam Pedas| Spicy and Sour Tamarind Fish Curry
- Sotong Masak Hitam | Squid Ink Calamari Stir Fry
- Sambal Sardines | Canned Tomato Sardines in Sambal
Sambal Sotong
4
servings15
minutes15
minutesIngredients
- 400g or 2-3 Large Squid
1/2 tbsp Salt to salt-cleanse squid (optional)
2-3 tbsps Cooking Oil
2-3 tbsps Dried Chilli Paste (adjust according to spice tolerance)
1/2 a large Onion or Shallot, chopped
1/2 a large Onion or Shallot, sliced (as garnish)
2-3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Lemongrass, bruised
1 tsp Tamarind Paste
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
2 tsp Salt, or to taste
2 tsps Sugar, or to taste
1/4 cup Water
Directions
Preparing the Squid- Remove the squid head and discard the entrails and cartilage bone. Cut the tentacles off the head, and the squid body into rings. Rinse and keep to one side.
- Option to give squids a salt-rinse by adding salt and working the salt in with the squid till foamy. Wash squid to remove the salt and bubbles.
- Making Sambal Sotong
- To a pan, add plenty of oil and let heat over low to medium heat. Add the dried chilli paste, chopped onions, garlic and bruised lemongrass.
- Stir fry over low-medium heat until the dried chilli paste has cooked through and emulsified. See “How to cook dried chilli paste properly”.
- Add tamarind paste, turmeric powder, water and season with salt and sugar to taste. Stir to combine, and allow this to come to a boil.
- Once the sauce boils, add the squid and the rest of the sliced onions. Stir to combine with the sambal sauce and allow the squid to cook.
- Once the squid cooks – which should be quick – the Sambal Sotong is ready to serve!
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @nomadetteats on Instagram
Leave a Reply