Fried Squid with Chinese Leek, carrots, Onions and Bell Pepper

Hello everyone! I published a post about cooking squid with green string beans, carrots and bell pepper before and in this post, the most important ingredient is still the squid but with Chinese leeks. Actually I cooked the one with Chinese leeks first but I was worried whether you’re gonna like it or not so I didn’t post it. Now I think you should have the option of whether you wanna try it or not. However, I have to warn you that the Chinese leeks have a quite strong smell and taste and even many Chinese people don’t like it. Chinese leeks are also called Garlic chives, Chinese chives. If you are interested you should probably go to a Chinese supermarket to smell it first and then decide to buy it or not. Again, smell it first! What’s more, I have to mention that the Chinese leeks they sell in the Asian supermarkets abroad are not the young ones as they are transported from afar. If they are like the young tender ones we eat in China, they are much better. However, they also go bad very quickly and that’s why you can rarely see the them abroad especially in the countries far from China. However, I do love Chinese leeks especially ad filling in the dumplings or pancakes. After spending so much time warning you I think let’s get started preparing this dish.

Ingredients

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  1. Chinese leek (200-250g)
  2. Squid rings or strips (300-400g)
  3. Carrots (2)
  4. Onions (4)
  5. Bell pepper (1)
  6. Ginger (5g) (cut into small pieces if you want eat them, cut into bigger pieces if you wanna pick them throw them away later)
  7. Garlic (5 cloves) (cut into half)
  8. Chili pepper (5g, depending on how spicy you want it to be)
  9. Cooking wine (15g)
  10. Sunflower oil (25-30g)
  11. Salt (20g)
  12. Soy sauce (15g) (if you use 15g soy sauce you should only use 5g of salt for frying, but if you use soy sauce the taste of Chinese leeks might be partially covered and the dish looks dark)

Preparation of the dish

  1. Cut the onions and carrots into small pieces
  2. Wash the Chinese leeks and cut the end (roots) and bit of the front part. (The roots are very old so it’s difficult to cook and the front part of the leeks has normally gone bad because they are very tender, so with the transportation, they normally have already gone bad. Sometimes you can use your nail to cut the leeks to try out. If it’s juicy and easy to cut it means it tastes good. If it takes some effort to cut it by nail and it’s not crunchy or juicy inside, it means this is the old part and it’s not that nice to chew it.
  3. Cut the leaves into small lines and when it comes to the root part, cut them into even smaller ones so they are east to cook.

Squid

  1. If you bought squid rings, I suggest it’s better to cut them into halves or even smaller pieces so it’s easier to eat when the dish is finished.
  2. If the squid you bought is raw, do the following procedure, otherwise you just need to defrost the frozen cooked squid. Boil a pot of water, put 5g salt and pour the cut squid in when the water is boiling and boil them for 3 mins. Take them out and use a filter to filter out the hot water. Put the boiled squid into cold water so they stay tender. Dry them after they cool down.

Cooking!

First of all, pour the sunflower in and when you feel the oil is hot enough, put the chili pepper, ginger and garlic in.

Before the ginger or garlic turn brown, put in the carrots and onions and fry them till they turn soft.

When you see that the onions and carrots turn golden yellow, put in the Chinese leeks and pre-boiled or pre-cooked squid. Add in the cooking wine at this moment and salt (if you want to add soy sauce you should add it now but then remember to add less salt)

Fry all the ingredients for around 5 mins till the Chinese leeks get soft and the sauce gets a little bit thick.

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Remember to leave some sauce by the end so you can pour the dish together with some sauce on rice.

 

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Bon Appetite!

Fried Squid with Chinese Leek, carrots, Onions and Bell Pepper was last modified: October 20th, 2016 by Dong

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