Thursday, May 29, 2008

Cuttlefish Rice


Came across this recipe in a chinese blog, ikumichan. I am not very sure whether it is Japanese but by the look of most of the ingredients used I assumed that's what it is. It is such an elegant and unusual way to serve rice  and yet so easy to prepare. Next time I do this I am going to add some dried mushroom and cilantro for more flavor as I find the filling a little too bland. So the recipe given here is what I would do when I cook this dish again. 

10 whole small to medium cuttlefish, heads and hard spines removed, guts cleaned, towel dried
1 cup short grain rice (Calrose, Japanese or our Bario hill rice) soaked for 3 hours
1 1/2 cup minced pork
3 T finely chopped dried mushroom (soaked and drained)
3 T chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

Combine seasoned meat, rice, mushroom and cilantro together well. Fill each cuttlefish with the rice mixture to about 80% full (as the rice will expand when cooked). Secure the opening with a toothpick. 

Sauce:
2-3 cups water
2-3 T kikoman soy sauce
2 T cooking sake
2 T mirin
1-2 T sugar

Mix all ingredients together and bring to boil. Drop stuffed cuttlefish into the sauce. Bring to the boil again and simmer in medium heat for 40-50 minutes.
Adjust taste and thickness of sauce at the end of cooking.

Serve with some lettuce.

6 comments:

New Kid on the Blog said...

Will the squid be a bit tender after boiling for so long???

a feast, everyday said...

Nice n soft but not quite melt-in-the-mouth texture. I guess the long cooking time is also for the rice n meat to cook through.

Moodie Foodie said...

Oh wow, u are definitely making me drool!! It is a Japanese dish, i think because i bought some in a can awhile ago (not opened yet - but might just be doing that after reading ur post!) I suppose it would go quite well with congee...mmmm

It's too bad that i'm so lazy to make this, otherwise i'd probably have this everyday >_> I love seafood, esp. squid & octopus ;P~~~

Denise ^ ChickyEGG said...

hA! I made this b4 ! yes, a very Slurp-lish dish.
I stuffed with fried rice & pan fried the squid.

Hey I love ur Kung Pou chicken, must try that !!

a feast, everyday said...

moodie, they have them in cans? and i thought i stumbled on a new dish :-(

Denise, see! d whole world knows bout this dish except me!
yeah, d kung bao is good. make sure u fry d dried chilies till wangi

Anonymous said...

I loooove squids. And this dish is like - wow. Gotta try this, but I guess I have to do it myself as Iris won't let me get away from cleaning and gutting it.

Nevertheless, what an amazing find.
Cheers//