Recipe: Squid with Sweet Potato

Squid with Sweet Potato

Ingredients (4 servings):

1 whole squid
8 small Japanese sweet potatoes (sato-imo)
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
15 fresh snowpeas
1 tsp. garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp. ginger, finely chopped

Base Sauce:
1 tsp. Chinese chilli paste (toban-jan)
1 tsp. Korean chilli paste (kochi-jan)
500cc water
Shiitake mushroom stock (in which mushrooms were reconstituted)
1 Tbsp. sake rice wine
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. powdered starch thickener, dissolved in water

Recipe:
1) Separate the squid tube from the tentacles. Fillet the tube and place the innards to one side, then cut the tube into generous
sized rings. Separate the tentacles from the eye and mouth area, chop roughly and place to one side.
2) Peel and wash the sweet potatoes and remove the sliminess. Reconstitute the shiitake and cut in halves. String the snowpeas.
Finely chop the garlic and ginger separately.
3) Heat some oil in a wok and quickly stir-fry the shiitake and snowpeas.
4) Clean the wok and heat enough oil to stir-fry the garlic, ginger and chilli pastes. When fragrant, add the water, sweet
potatoes, squid innards, tentacles and shiitake, followed by the sake, soy sauce, sugar and stock from reconstituting the
shiitake. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
5) When the potatoes are soft, mix in the snowpeas, then thicken with the starch mixture. Sprinkle with sesame oil and transfer
to a serving dish.