Spicy Stuffed Squids

200 gm glutinous rice (soak in water for 4 hrs with ½ tsp turmeric powder)
400gms squids (4 to 5 large ones)
200gms boneless chicken(minced)
1 medium onion
1 nip garlic
1 cup coconut milk
Salt and sugar to taste
2 screwpine leaves,knotted
1 turmeric leaf
Tooth picks to intact the head and body of squids

To be pounded/grind
5 red chillies
4 shallots
2 nips garlic
1 cm ginger
5-6 peppercorns
½ in fresh turmeric
½ in shrimp paste/belacan (optional)

Drain rice and steam it with 4 tbsp of water and screwpine leaves for about 20mins.Stir with a fork. Heat oil, saute chopped garlic and onions until aromatic. Add in minced chicken and saute further.Add in salt to taste. Immediately add in the hot glutinous rice to the chicken mixture. Stir fry until all the ingredients are well combined. You will have difficulty to stir fry if the rice has cooled down. Once well combined close fire. Add in finely shredded turmeric leaves . Leave the filling to cool.

Next stage is to fill in the rice into the squids. I have bought 4 large squids weighing about 400gms . You can either use small squids or bigger ones. The small ones can be served as it is while the bigger ones can be cut into a few parts. To clean squid , grip the head in one hand and the body in the other. Gently pull the head away from the body. The entrails should come right along with it. The ink sac will be in the innards. It is thin and silvery. You won't get much ink per squid, but a little goes a very long way. Very small deposits of ink can also be found just behind the eyes.Wash it. The tentacles are perfectly edible. Sever them from the head just below the eyes. Remove and discard the beak from the center of the tentacles. It can be used later to close the top part . Inside the body, you will feel a long, thin sliver of cuttlebone which must be removed and discarded. The outer colored skin can be scraped or rubbed from the body tube under running water, leaving the white meat. On smaller, more tender squid, it is not necessary to remove the outer skin, but on larger squid, the skin tends to toughen with cooking.

Rinse meat and tentacles inside and out under cold running water and set aside to drain. Fill into the squid the glutinous rice. Press with your index finger so that the filling is compact inside the squid. Fill in ¾ way of each squid. Close the top part with the tentacles and attached it with the use of toothpicks. You can discard the tooth picks later once its cooked.Do the same way until all the squids are used up. In a wok, heat about 3 tbsp of oil. Saute the pounded ingredients until aromatic . Add in coconut milk ,salt to taste and sugar (abt 3 tsp )and let simmer. Add in the squids and cook it in low heat ,turning the squids every few seconds.Cooking squids at high heat might let the filling come out and the squids breaking apart.Once the squids are firm and cooked , close fire.leave to cool before discarding the toothpicks with the help of a fork.

This recipe is heading to Priya easy n tasty recipes for the event Healing Foods-Onions ,started by Siri of Siri's Corner. Cooking with Seeds-Pepper Event hosted by Padma's recipes and started by Priya.