Taiwanese Squid: 3 Cup Squid

This is a stir-fry that really is more about the seasonings used in preparation and that are used more commonly for chicken, although squid is popular too. The "3 Cup" name is not to be taken literally as "a cup as a measurement," because it simply refers to the 3 liquid parts: sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce."

You can buy squid cut into rings, or you can buy the cleaned "tubes" and cut them into rings or pieces yourself, and yes, you can buy some tentacles too, although I didn't buy any tentacles when I made the dish for the pictures in this article, even though I have used them in the past, and I used "tentacle" for the "Word History," see below.

 

If you choose to use "kecap (aka, ketjap) manis," it is a thick Indonesian soy sauce that is syrupy and sweet compared to the more commonly found soy sauces. Some supermarkets have it, but many Asian markets have it. My experience has been that it comes in taller bottles than what I'll call "regular" soy sauces. (Note: If you don't want to use kecap manis, you can mix regular soy sauce with sugar, which is what I did, even though I keep kecap manis on hand; see in the recipe). Shaoxing wine is a type of fermented rice wine made with yeast, and it is in some supermarkets and Asian grocery stores, but you can use other rice wine, like sake or mirin, but NOT rice vinegar. (Note: Mirin can be pretty sweet, so if you use mirin, skip using kecap manis, and use 2 1/2 tablespoons regular soy sauce with just 1 teaspoon, not tablespoon, of sugar mixed with it.) 

Serve with rice ...

 

Ingredients:  

12 to 16 ounces cut up squid

2 inch piece ginger, peeled and very thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic,chopped

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar (or just use kecap manis and no sugar for this)

2 tablespoons rice wine (shaoxing, sake or mirin, but see note above about using mirin)

1 red or green chili, chopped (seeded if you prefer less heat)

1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with same amount of water

1/4 cup basil leaves (preferably Thai)

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil for frying

 

Have your ingredients ready to go before you start, as this dish doesn't take long to cook. Heat the vegetable or peanut oil in a skillet (or wok) over medium high heat, add the ginger and garlic, saute for 30 seconds, add the sesame oil and then, about 30 seconds later, the squid. Keep stirring the ingredients as they cook. After 1 minute, add the soy sauce, rice wine and the chopped chili, stirring continuously for another 1 minute. Add the cornstarch and water mixture, stir well, then add the basil and stir everything thoroughly for about 30 seconds, remove from heat and serve.

 

WORD HISTORY:

Tentacle-This word is related to "tender" (the verb form meaning "to hold out something to someone;" thus also, "to offer, to present to someone"), to "tend" (verb with the original meaning "to tilt toward a particular direction;" thus figuratively, "to have a preference toward something;" as in, "In winter, I tend to eat a lot of soup"), both Latin-derived words borrowed by English via French, and to the other verb "tend" (actually a shortened form of "attend," and meaning, "to give care or attention to someone or something"), another Latin-derived word, borrowed from French, but with Latin reinforcement, and to "tendon" (sinew, or connective band of tissue) a word borrowed from Latin (likely with some French reinforcement), which had it from Greek. "Tentacle" goes back to Indo European "ten," which had the notion "to stretch, to extend out, to draw out." This gave Latin "tendare," meaning, "to stretch out, to extend;" thus also, "to strive," "to go in a particular direction." This later gave Latin the noun "tentaculum," meaning "feeler, tentacle, hair-like fibers on some plants (carnivorous) that detect insects for consumption." English formed "tentacle" from the Latin word in the mid 1700s meaning, "long, highly flexible limb of some creatures, especially applied to squid and octopus."