Seafood with salted egg yolk is served in Chinese restaurants throughout Malaysia. Of the varieties available, salted egg yolk squid is a particularly popular option.
This tantalising seafood dish is so easy to make, it’s surprising it is not whipped up at home more often. Try this easy recipe to impress your friends and family.
Ingredients
- 4kg squid, cleaned and sliced 1-1.5cm wide
- 1 cup potato starch
- 1 cup rice flour
- 6 stalks curry leaves
- 6 cooked salted duck egg yolks, chilled
- 125g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups cooking oil
Method
- Combine the potato starch and rice flour into a dry batter.
- Heat and season your wok by wiping a thin layer of oil with a paper towel. It is hot enough when the layer of oil has dried up and the wok seems to glow.
- Add the cooking oil. If the wok is hot enough, the oil too will be sufficiently hot in a few seconds.
- Working in batches, place one or two handfuls of squid in the batter and cover them thoroughly with a thick, even coating. Don’t forget to coat the inner rings.
- Put the battered squid into the wok and fry until a light golden yellow, about 1-2 minutes.
- Once the squid is cooked, remove and place in a colander to drain. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the leftover fried batter from the oil.
- Continue cooking the squid in batches until done.
- Now for the sauce. Turn off the heat and remove all contents from the wok. Add butter until it melts.
- When the butter is almost melted, turn the heat back up and quickly add in the curry leaves to flash fry.
- When the curry leaves are crisp, grate the salted egg yolks into the wok.
- Stir to melt the yolks into the sauce. Use a whisk to help the yolks disintegrate if necessary. Add salt.
- Once the sauce is golden brown, add the fried squid back into the wok and give it a good mix. Toss to thoroughly coat the squid. You can also add in some of the fried batter for a little extra crunch.
- And that’s it! Transfer the cooked squid to a serving dish. Serve hot with a plate of fragrant steamed rice.
Tips
- Don’t place all the squid into the dry batter at once, otherwise it will get soggy with the squid juices.
- Make sure to remove the bits of fried batter that have dropped off the squid in between batches. Otherwise, the batter will continue to fry and burn, giving the dish a burnt taste.
- Avoid using salted butter as the yolk and salt will be enough. Skip the salt if you don’t want it too salty.
- Chilled egg yolks are easier to grate and result in finer pieces.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar if a sweeter sauce is preferred.
- Don’t pour all the sauce into the serving dish or the squid will become soggy too quickly. Just coat the squid with the sauce or serve it separately. Leftover sauce can be used for pasta, for dipping a freshly steamed bunor just over hot rice.
This article first appeared in butterkicap.com, a food and culture platform and community that enables anyone to experience Malaysia through stories of her people, food and places. Get more recipes here.