Milky Stuffed Squids

or Ketupat Sotong!

the Ingredients:

3 sliced red onions

10 spoon of glutinous rice for 10 squids

a pinch of salt, to taste

2 inches of sliced ginger for 10 squids

1 spoon of halba seeds (also known as fenugreek seeds)

10 fat squids, with heads removed, cleaned and deskinned to reveal white skin

1 litre of coconut milk

sharp toothpicks

2 glass of water

how to Cook it:

1. remove the squids' heads and clean it. its skin is also removed to reveal smooth white skin.
2. mix glutinous rice with coconut milk just so the milk covers the rice evenly. cook the mixture with slow fire. add a bit of salt and stir until it is cooked.
3. stuff the rice into the squids. as the squids tend to shrink when cooked, the rice is stuffed at most half of the length. secure the squids opening with sharp toothpicks.
4. heat a pan with 2 glass of water and mix with a glass of coconut milk (around 250ml). add the squids with salt, to taste.
5. as the milky water evaporated, add around 500ml of coconut milk. add sliced red onions, sliced ginger and a spoonful of halba. stir.
6. to ensure the gravy thickens, add the remaining glutinous rice from the stuffing into the pan. done!

Notes:
this is my fave ever! it is so easy to cook that i've decided to prepare it for today's iftar. bon apetit! oh ya, please make sure the skin is totally removed to avoid the gravy becomes too purplish.

Update:

I tried doing the dish solo and found out that theory is much easier than the actual works.

for instance, my pulut doesn't turn out like my mum's drier version. perhaps because i use cold coconut milk. so it doesn't gel well with the glutinous rice. i had to keep pouring water into the mix so that the pulut is almost cooked before i stuff it inside the squids.

and i now understand that pouring too much water for step 4, though it ensures the pulut to be properly cooke, still i have to wait for a long time for it to evaporate before i can mix with the thick coconut milk. i got impatient and just pour the coconut milk when the water lessened by half. it presents a problem, the gravy is not thick enough. so i add the leftover pulut into the gravy and voila! jadi la jugak macam my mom's cooking :)

my first solo attempt