Thai Squid With Chilies and Basil

Submitted by fluffernutter

"The first time I fixed this, my husband and I were so astonished by the deliciousness of it that I got up from the table and made another batch! We use small whole squid, but you could cut them into rings. Don't take too many shortcuts -- it's okay to use brown sugar, but try to find Thai basil. Definitely use plenty of fresh chilies for their flavor, cut out the seeds and ribs to keep the heat level down."

 

• Ready In: 25mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 3 -10 small green chilies
• 2 fresh long red chilies, seeds removed
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 fresh cilantro stems or 4 cilantro stems
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 6 squid, cleans and skinned
• 3 banana chilies, cut into halves and seeds removed
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, torn
• 20 -25 fresh Thai basil

directions

1. Pound of grind the red and green chilies, the garlic, the cilantro, and salt to a paste.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and fry the paste over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant. Add the squid and banana peppers and stir-fry for about 3 minutes until squid is cooked.
3. Add fish sauce, sugar, lime leaves and basil. The mixture should taste hot, salty and sweet, so adjust seasonings if necessary.

Reviews

[narobbins]

This recipe has potential and good ingredients, but needs a few changes. The sauce, which makes the whole dish, should only be cooked briefly, perhaps one minute. Frying these ingredients for 2-3 minutes over high heat completely burnt the paste and we had to throw it out - a shame, because all the work was in making the paste. No one at my green grocer knew what a banana chili was, so I chose the most banana shaped one I could find, which was the anaheim chili. The second problem in the recipe is the instructions for adding the squid (we used frozen, uncooked squid rings) and additional chilies. While the chilies take about 3 minutes to cook, the squid should be cooked between 30 seconds to one minute at most - otherwise it turns to inedible rubber. Fortunately I knew this, and our squid was mouthwateringly tender. Finally, the amount of oil for the sauce needed to be at least doubled to be sufficient for frying the paste ingredients and creating a sufficient amount of sauce for the squid. We served it over jasmine rice, with a sprinkle of crushed peanuts. With these changes I'd give this recipe 4 stars. Everyone enjoyed it and cleaned their plates.