Butter-Oat Squid / 麦香奶油苏东(墨鱼)/ オーツ・バターイカ

Butter-oat squid (奶油麦片苏东) is one of the must order dishes whenever we patronise a seafood restaurant in my hometown. Crispy deep fried squid is topped with heap of crispy and buttery oatmeal. It is so flavourful, oat-y, buttery plus a hint of curry aroma from curry leaves. It is a dish to die for, the taste is simply heavenly!

Non-Malaysian Chinese probably confused by many Malaysian-Chinese dishes name written in Chinese on the menu list. I noticed that many restaurants use direct translation of Malay language, sotong means squid in Malay and for some reasons it is directly translated as 苏东 (read as su-dong) instead of using the actual name 墨鱼 (read as mo-yu). Even as a Malaysian, I get confused sometimes.

I used two medium size squids and ended up with a pretty large plate for two. T loved the oat very much, perhaps I should add more oat next time. Well, as usual I felt guilty only AFTER I ate it. Stay away from this dish if you are on diet!

Ingredients:
2 no. medium squid, clean and cut into rings
½ cup oatmeal (instant type)
1 prig curry leaf
3 tbsp butter or magerine
1 tsp of sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp all-purpose flour, for coating
Oil for deep-fry

Batter:
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup rice flour
¼ cup corn flour
Iced water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of white pepper

Methods:

1. In a wok or pan, toast oatmeal until brown lightly and set aside. This step can be prepared in advance.
2. To prepare batter, put all ingredients for batter in a mixing bowl and mix until just blended. Keep in the fridge until needed.
3. Pat dry squid rings with paper towel, coat each piece lightly with all-purpose flour. To do this, put squid rings and a tablespoon of all-purpose flour in a plastic bag and shake well.
4. Dip a squid ring into batter then drop into hot oil one by one. Deep-fry until golden brown, strain excess oil and set aside.
5. Remove all oil in the wok. Add in butter, curry leaves and sugar. Cook until sugar is melted then add in fried squid rings into the wok and stir to coat with butter. Add salt to taste.
6. Lastly add in oatmeal, mix well then transfer to serving plate. Best serve warm.

Cook's Notes:

1. Add some chopped bird-eye chillies in step 5 above for extra kick if desired.
2. Squid can be substituted with sea mantis using exactly same recipe.
3. If cooking with prawn, omit the batter part just deep-fry prawn with some corn flour.