Black Bean Zucchini Squid (豆豉意大利青魷魚, Dau6 Si6 Ji3 Daai6 Lei6 Ceng1 Gwaa1 Jau4 Jyu4)

My previous squid (only) recipes: Chili Lemongrass Squid (辣椒檸檬葉魷魚, Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Ning⁴ Mung⁴ Jip⁶ Jau⁴ Jyu⁴) and Squid In Salty Shrimp Sauce (蝦醬鮮魷, Haa¹ Zoeng³ Sin¹ Jau⁴), used frozen squid. Frozen squid is convenient to use since they’re already cleaned and ready for cooking after being thawed, and is always available (from the freezer). My local farmer’s market had fresh squid (caught that morning in California’s Monterey Bay according to the vendor), so I decided on the spot to buy and make a dish with them. Fresh squid is available at my local Asian markets, but many times they’ve been frozen (whole) and then thawed for sale. So, this squid was truly fresh!

Cleaning fresh squid is simple. Grasp the squid’s head and pull the tentacles and head, together with the quill and innards out in one motion. The quill is the only hard part of the squid and is inedible. Cut the tentacles away from the head, just below the eyes, and discard the head and innards. The tentacles are my favorite part of the squid to eat (I guess because of their texture). The squid’s body is in the shape of a cylinder, so open the cylinder with a long cut the length of the cylinder. Remove the outer skin from the squid’s body, score the outer part of the body with diagonal cuts, and then cut into edible pieces.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lb.	1 kg.	Fresh squid (魷魚, jau4 jyu4), cleaned, scored, and cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
1 lb.	500 g.	Zucchini (意大利青瓜, ji3 daai6 lei6 ceng1 gwaa1), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) diagonal pieces
8	8	Dried Shiitake mushrooms (冬菇, dung1 gu1), rehydrated and cut into quarters
8 oz.	227 g.	One package fried tofu (油炸豆腐, jau4 zaa3 dau6 fu6)
8 oz.	227 g.	One 15 oz. (425 gm.) can baby corn (玉米尖, juk6 mai5 zim1), drained and cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces
		Oil for cooking

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Salted black beans (豆豉, dau6 si6)
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
2 tsp.	10 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
4 tsp.	20 ml.	Water

Equipment

		Garlic press
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

Preparation Instructions

Squid Tentacles and Head, Quill, and Body

Cleaned Squid Tentacles and Body

1. Cleaning fresh squid is simple. Grasp the squid’s head and pull the tentacles and head, together with the quill and innards out in one motion. The quill is the only hard part of the squid and is inedible. Cut the tentacles away from the head, just below the eyes, and discard the head and innards. The squid’s body is in the shape of a cylinder, so open the cylinder with a long cut the length of the cylinder. Remove the outer skin from the squid’s body, score the outer part of the body with diagonal cuts, and then cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces.
2. Pour boiling water over the small dried whole Shiitake mushrooms in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the mushrooms for at least one hour. Remove the Shiitake mushrooms from the rehydration liquid and remove the stems. Cut the Shiitake mushrooms into quarter pieces. Reserve the rehydration liquid for later use in the cooking process. If you need to rehydrate the Shiitake mushrooms quickly, use the method described here: Technique: How to Quickly Rehydrate Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (冬菇, Dung¹ Gu¹).
3. Wash and cut the zucchini into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) quarter-cut pieces. Cut the zucchini on the diagonal and turn the zucchini a quarter-turn. Repeat the diagonal cut and quarter-turn steps until the entire zucchini is cut into pieces.
4. Open the fried tofu package and discard any liquid.
5. Open the can of baby corn and discard any liquid. Cut the baby corn into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces.
6. Wash and cut the green onions into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces.
7. Wash and lightly crush the salted black beans in a small bowl. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press, put into the bowl with the salted black beans, and mix the ingredients together.
8. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. In another small bowl, prepare the corn starch slurry by mixing the corn starch and water together.

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil. Add the squid to the wok in a single layer on the bottom and brown the outside. You may have to cook the squid in batches, so be sure to reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Transfer the squid to a bowl.
2. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the Shiitake mushrooms. Stir fry the mushrooms and then transfer to the bowl with the squid.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the fried tofu. Stir fry the fried tofu and then transfer to the bowl with the squid.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the baby corn. Stir fry the baby corn and then transfer to the bowl with the squid.
5. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the bowl with the salted black bean mixture. Quickly stir fry the salted black bean mixture until it becomes fragrant. Add the zucchini to the wok and stir fry until browned. Add the contents of the bowl with the squid back into the wok, and stir fry all the ingredients together.
6. Add the green onions and the sauce ingredients to the wok and stir fry the ingredients together. If more sauce is desired, add some of the mushroom rehydration liquid to the wok. Add the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce and mix all the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish, and serve with Clay Pot Rice (煲仔飯, Bou¹ Zai² Faan⁶) or steamed rice.

Black Bean Chili Oil Lamb with Squid (黑豆辣椒油魷魚羊肉, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Jau4 Jau4 Jyu4 Joeng4 Juk6)

Here’s another lamb stir fry dish using meat from the lamb loin chop. This recipe uses black bean chili oil and cooked squid. Cooked squid is occasionally available at my local Asian market, so I buy it whenever I see it. Fresh or frozen squid can be substituted (you’ll have to clean the fresh squid yourself) if cooked squid is not available. The pairing of meat and seafood is a classic Chinese dish combination.

More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a lamb T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Japanese Curry Pork and Squid (咖哩魷魚豬腩肉, Gaa3 Lei1 Jau4 Jyu4 Zyu1 Naam5 Juk6)

The combination of pork belly and squid in a Japanese curry sauce is surprisingly tasty. S&B brand Japanese curry mix is used and is a really easy way to make a curry sauce. The mix comes already prepared in cubes, and one-half a package or four cubes are used to make the sauce by just adding water. Since pork belly is used, the cooking time is longer than the usual Japanese curry dish. If pork belly is not available, boneless country style pork ribs can be substituted.

 

My local Asian market occasionally has cooked squid available. I use it whenever I can, but frozen or fresh squid can be used instead. The squid gets added at the end of cooking, so if it’s not already cooked, it will be when the dish is ready. The quill has to be removed from the squid, since it’s inedible, and the only tricky part to removing the quill is keeping the already cooked squid body and tentacles intact when you do this – sometimes it’s impossible.

Enjoy!

Chili Lemongrass Squid (辣椒檸檬葉魷魚, Laat6 Ziu1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Jau4 Jyu4)

This recipe was updated on 29 Apr 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

I bought lemongrass at my local Farmer’s market, which adds a mild lemon flavor to this dish, with dried red chilies adding heat. You have to remove the tough outer layers of the lemongrass and finely slice the tender white portions before cooking. Carving squid, also called pineapple cut squid due to the cross cuts on one surface, can be purchased already cut into pieces at your local Asian market and curl into cylinders when cooked.

Enjoy!

Squid In Salty Shrimp Sauce (蝦醬鮮魷, Haa1 Zoeng3 Sin1 Jau4)

 

This recipe was updated on 11 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Calamari is usually used when naming or titling a dish with squid in it. It seems rather odd that people are more likely to eat a dish with calamari in the title than squid, given that they’re the same ingredient. So why does this dish title have squid in the name? The main reasons are that the name of this classic dish is the literal translation from Chinese and that’s the name this dish is known by.

This is not the traditional preparation for this dish, which usually consists just of squid stir fried in shrimp sauce, since I’ve added some vegetables to the recipe. Carved squid pieces and squid tentacles are available in the frozen section of your local Asian supermarket. You can of course use fresh squid if it’s available. I happen to like eating squid tentacles, so I include them in dishes when I can, but some are not fans, so feel free to not use them in the dish.

My local farmer’s market had purple long beans, which are usually green in color. I’ve never eaten before this type of long beans before, so I couldn’t resist buying and using the purple long beans in this dish. If you can’t get long beans (whatever the color), substitute regular green beans.

The most important ingredient in this dish is the shrimp sauce, which is an odd purple color. Shrimp sauce is, to say the least, a pungent mixture of ground fermented shrimp and salt, and for some, pungent is just a nice way to say it smells. No matter what someone thinks about the smell of this sauce, you can’t make this dish without it. Shrimp sauce and squid just naturally taste good together.

Enjoy!