A few weeks ago, I discovered a Malay food blog, Selera Malaysia. I love Malay food as much as I love my Penang hawker food (street food), Chinese, and Nyonya food.
One of the signature Malay recipes is sambal tumis or sauteed sambal, which is the building block for many mouthwatering and appetizing Malay and Nyonya dishes. Please welcome Selera Malaysia to Rasa Malaysia as he shares his sambal tumis sotong (squid sambal) recipe with us.
Being a food blogger and talking about Malaysian foods, I am glad when Rasa Malaysia offers me to write a post here. It’s a Sambal Tumis Sotong or squid sambal first suggested by her when she approach me to write on Rasa Malaysia as a guest writer.
For those who are familiar with Malaysian cuisine, there will be no further introduction needed on sambal but for those who aren’t, sambal is a chili based sauce, prepared mainly from mixed paste of dried chillies, shallots and garlic.
It easy to cook but need a lot of practice to make a good sambal. The secret tips of making a delicious sambal is to sauté the chili paste until the paste separated from oil or in Malay until ‘pecah minyak’. People always been advised to sauté until fragrant, however this is just to general…
Sambal tumis sotong is simply delicious dish and easy to prepare. It can be served with boiled rice together with selections of Chinese Greens such as bok choy, kailan/gailan and others.
Sambal Tumis Sotong (Squid Sambal) Recipe
Sambal Tumis Sotong (Squid Sambal) recipe - Sambal tumis sotong is a simply delicious dish, and it's easy to prepare. It can be served with boiled rice and selections of Chinese Greens such as bok choy, kailan/gailan and others.
Ingredients
- 200-300 g fresh squid
- 3 cloves shallot *
- 1 clove garlic *
- ½ inch ginger *
- 5-10 dried chillies *
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 teaspoon belacan
- Tamarind juice, soak a teaspoon of tamarind paste in a cup of warm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- salt, to taste
- oil
Directions
-
1First blend the asterisk (*) ingredients. Heat oils in a frying pan and sauté the blended ingredients until the paste separated from the oil. Add belacan (prawn paste). Then add in squid and stir well until cook (estimate for a minute). Put in the slices onion until it about to soft. And finally, add tamarind juice, sugar and salt to taste. Simmer on low heat until the sambal thickens.
Emily Williams
Oh wow I saw this recipe and I just had to try it. But I had to make some substitutions because I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I used 2tbs of fish sauce instead of belacan and lime juice and brown sugar because I didn’t have tamarind. Oh wow it was lovely although my fiancée and I are currently fighting the burning sensation hehe
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Emily, sounds great! :)
Bali Tour
woow… look very nice
thank you for the recipe :)
jt
is this an authentic recipe of squid sambal?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, a Malay recipe.
jt
i saw few more recipes of squid sambal and most of its sauces looks thick unlike this one. may i know which one of these really came from Malaysia? i’m doing some paper works for my class’ requirements
Natasya Sallahuddin
Ive tried the recipe!! Simple but very delicious! Add more belacan it will be superb, thank you for the recipe!!
carui
One tablespoon sugar is far too much. Tamarind puree Ayam brand is not bad. Very convenient. Yes, tamarind can darken the sauce but you can use
2 fresh red chillies to lift up the reddish colour. We love tumis any time but just have to watch the sugar, just a touch is enough. I find
the food is getting sweeter and sweeter over the years in Singapore and
Malaysia. Also, the belachan. We dont toast anymore. When you live overseas, the smell of toasted belachan lingers on for days in the home. You can get away without toasting. In our home, every Nonya meal is a welcomed delight.
John
I usually add lemon grass( serai ) ( abit to grind for the paste ) and 2 stalks chopped and added with the sambal. Tastes and smells awesome
Amelia Chee
Hi AJ,
I cooked this last night for dinner. It’s delish! The colour of the gravy is similar to the one of cincaluk not as red as yours and I added some starch solution to thicken the consistency. I added shrimp, green and red pepper. The gravy is spicy enough for me but will add more dried chillies to make it spicer to suit my daughter’s taste bud, the tamarind juice makes it very appetizing. Looking at the recipe, I thought I should double the quantity of the blended ingredients and keep the rest in the fridge for next use. I’m glad I did! Thank you for sharing!
Jade
Look yummy…make me feel hungry…
I want this sambal right now!!!
Selera Malaysia
Jake: Please use a medium heat, when frying/’tumis’ the chilli paste. This will help to prevent the paste from scorched/singed(might be the reason why yours turning black. If this not the case, please use small amount of tamarind(probably half of tablespoons and soak in a cup of warm water). Hope this will help.
J2Kfm: Yes, this is a killer if adding up ‘Petai’ or Sator. But not many people like the smell.
Thanks
AJ
J2Kfm
I am loving this. Sambal sotong, if together with PETAI (the crunchy stinkbeans!), is heavenly to the max!
Jake
I don’t know what I did wrong, but when I made this it didn’t have that nice red color, instead it was nearly black. Is tamarind concentrate the same as the paste? The tamarind conc. I’m using is practically black; I’m sure that’s what gave the dish the black color. Any tips?
Vonny Groose
I had the same problem with Jake, mine also wasn’t red and I also think it was because of the tamarind concentrate. I think a cup of water is too much, the tamarind taste is barely there. Either reduce the water or add more tamarind concentrate. I also think 1 tablespoon of sugar is too much, it made it too sweet. I had to adjust the tamarind and put a lot of salt to make it right. I also think the onion slices should be put in first after sambal tumis and the squids should be the last thing to put in. That’s just my five cents.
Fadhli Jaffar
For us malays, we usually add the sugar just before we take the dish off the stove or flame. If you add the sugar in early, it will caramelise and darken the sambal slightly.
Also, we would boil the dried chillies until the chillies soften up. This also brings out the bright red colour when you blend the chillies and other spices together.
For the belachan or shrimp paste, it’s best to dry toast it in a pan until it’s crumbly,almost powder like. The smell will be overpowering but it will enhance the flavour and add a bit of “smokiness”.
These small little things makes a distinction between a normal sambal and a really good sambal.
On a personal preference, I would add one or two kaffir lime leaves for seafood sambal tumis. It adds a hint of citrus note and fragrance to the dish.
The base sauce tastes great with lobsters,clams and other shellfish too.
Happy cooking.
-Fadhli
Delishhh
I have never tried to cook with Squid but this look so good i will have to try it out.
DailyChef
Wow, thanks for sharing this! Love the spicy squid.
DocChuck
Looks pleasing, but I don’t eat squid.
the lacquer spoon
Love this simple and spicy dish! Bee and AJ, thanks for sharing the beautiful recipe with us all!!
[email protected]
This squid dish looks divine. Thanks for sharing
Ben
Oooh, time to make nasi lemak this weekend, with some sambal sotong and ikan bilis. Sedap!
heguiberto
yumm my mouth is already watering it is lunch time in San Francisco! It looks fiery with all the chili peppers. I am going to make it and reproduce the results on my blog, if that is okay with you :)
One think i wanted to ask, how much oil did you use for this dish? Also shall I add the onion rings earlier even before the squid? The calamari cook in no time and the blog pic suggests the onion cooked for longer.
cheers,
Heguiberto
Selera Malaysia
I am using around 200-300 ml of oil. Don’t worry about the oil, just add oil enough to cover your paste as later you can reduce it once paste separated from the oil.
You can either add onion rings before or after the squids.
AJ
Selera Malaysia
Sorry, it is 20-30ml of oil..
hegguiberto
Thanks for the clarification on the amount of oil. The recipe came out delicious. I am replying to your comment almost 2 years late lol
I did publish the recipe on my blog too:
http://weirdcombinations.com/2010/10/calamari-and-tiger-prawns-in-sambal-sauce/
Cheers,
Heguiberto
Selera Malaysia
Hi Bee,
Thanks again. Hope all you readers like the recipe.
AJ
Kiran
Sedapnya! I miss my mom’s sambal here in Orlando :( I want my Mummy here with me :(
Thanks for this simple recipe AJ :)
petite nyonya
I can never resist a good sambal sotong like this!!
hcpen
omg, all ur sambal tumis recipes such as the sotong and stingray one is making me so hungryyyyy…haha..
Kate
I love Malay sambal, it doesn’t matter what: squid, prawn, or anything sambal tumis is great.