Ikameshi (Squid Stuffed with Glutinous Rice)

 乌贼饭

Ikameshi is a dish we tried in one of our trips to Japan. So, when we caught a lot of squids from our offshore fishing trip recently, I tried to cook ikameshi. This is my adaptation of stuffed squid (sotong) recipes from Cookism, Cooking with Dog and Cooking With Mama Betsy

Ingredients

6 medium squids (sotong) around 600g

100g Japanese glutinous rice, Mochigome (substitute: Japanese short grain rice)

500ml water

2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sake (substitute: shao xing wine)

satay sticks (cut into two) or toothpicks

Method

1. Rinse the glutinous rice until the water runs clear. Soak the rice for at least 2 hours and drain.

2. Clean and remove the insides of the squids using a spoon. Dab the squids dry. Cut up the squid heads (beak and eyes removed) into small pieces and set aside.

3. Fill each squid belly with glutinous rice and the pieces of squid head until 60% full. Gently shake the squid so that the rice can fill the bottom of the squid. Then use satay stick or toothpick to close up the squid.

4. Prepare the braising liquid: put water, soy sauce, sugar and sake into a pot. Add the squids and bring to boil over medium heat. Once boiling, skim off the foam and scum. Then, lower the heat to low-medium and cover with an otoshibuta (drop lid) to limit evaporation. Boil for 40minutes. At the 20th minute mark, flip the squids. After 30minutes, remove the squids from the pot. Boil the sauce to reduce it.

5. Once the squids have cooled down a little, slice the squids to bite size. Drizzle with the sauce and serve warm.