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Stuffed Sotong Soup

Friday, March 23, 2007

I've been wanting to make this old Nyonya favourite for the longest time. However, I was missing one key ingredient - the sotong (Malay for squid). In it's entire unmolested form. I don't know why Dutch supermarkets have this penchant for cleaning, precooking and chopping up their seafood into neat little packages. Some of us like it as is you know.

So, no sotong, no soup. I mean, come on, it's like an American hamburger without the beef patty or a hotdog without the sausage.

Anyway, all was not lost when on my last trip to the asian store, I chanced upon frozen raw sotong. In its virginal state, ie, head, tentacles and ink sac. Heavens to Murgatroyd, even the skin was still on. Phoawrrr! Never mind the price, in went the 1kg box. Yup, thinking with my tummy as usual. *blush*

I only got the opportunity to use them yesterday. You see, I made Sar Po Fan (Claypot Rice) on Monday and finally finished the lot on Wednesday. After 3 days of intense carbo, I was itching for something soupy.

I made a modified version for my son. He didn't want to have anything to do with the tung hoon (mung bean noodles) because "Yuck, mommy! You're eating plastic!". He got put off by the sotong too (he's more comfortable with them in the form of calamari rings) so his portion consisted of meatballs and fresh egg noodles.

We both enjoyed our broth so much I'm doing an encore tonight. Can hardly wait. I feel hungry already. *patting tummy*

Here is the recipe:

Stuffed Sotong Soup

You need:

500g medium sized sotong (squid)
2 cloves garlic, minced
oil for frying
100g tung hoon (mung bean noodles) or as desired
800ml water
1.5 cube chicken stock
pinch of pepper

Stuffing

200g minced pork
3 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp corn flour
pinch of salt
dash of pepper

Garnishing

1 spring onion, dice
1 sprig coriander (Chinese parsley)

Preparation:

Remove the head, tentacles, quill, inc sac and intestines from the sotong. Discard everything but save heads and tentacles.
Pull off reddish-brown skin from the squid and discard. Rinse and set aside.
Soak tung hoon in water until soft. Drain well.

How To:

Heat oil in a pot, add the garlic. Stir fry until golden brown. Remove fried garlic, leaving oil in the pot.
Prepare the stuffing. In a small bowl, add fried garlic to the rest of the stuffing ingredients. Knead well until thoroughly mixed.
Fill the squid with stuffing.
Form small meatballs with remaining stuffing.
Add water to the pot with garlic oil.
Bring to the boil, then add stuffed sotong, meatballs and tentacles saved earlier on. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
Add the glass noodles. Simmer for another 3 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Turn off flame, garnish with diced spring onion and coriander. Serve hot with a side of soya sauce and sliced fresh chilli.

Note:

You may re-attach the sotong heads after stuffing it with pork and boil it as a whole.
When stuffing the sotong tubes, make sure it's only about 2/3 full. Any more than that, you risk having the stuffing ooze out during boiling, resembling certain bodily functions (sotong contracts when cooked, you do the math) Not a pretty sight I assure you. Consider yourself warned. *wink*

Labels: asian food, seafood, she cooks, soups

The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 7:53 am

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