Today my mom decided to make this dish that I haven't ate for a long time. Techincally I really did not miss it, but I think that it kinda nice to get to eat this once in a while. Well, I thought that I should post this dish up to share with everyone. I could not really give you guys the recipe because my mom never cook with recipe and me too. We mostly try it so that it fit our tastebuds and it really become a habit that we never measure anything. So I guess I'll kinda give you guys a guideline.
Ingredients: Yam or sweet potato, shirmp or squid,any frying batter that you like or batter mix that you can find in Asian market, lettuce, fresh herb, salt, pepper, sugar, oil, fish sauce, vinegar, red asian pepper or chili sauce, garlics and shallots.
Sorry for the very random and ugly pics. I could not take any good one because my parents think it is crazy to post up pictures like this. hahaha. I have to secretly take these
Alright here is how you can do this dish called "Frying Yam with Squid". Usually this dish is made with shrimp, but today my mom has squid at home so she substitutes it for shrimp.
1. Prep squid. We always wash our meat, so make sure it is clean.
2. Marinate squid (about 1 pound). Chop 3-6 cloves of garlic and 1-3 shallots,add about 2 tsp of sugar; if the squid is already salty then don't add salt, if not add about 1-3 tsp of salt. Then add black pepper and about 1 Tsp of oil. Mix it all together with the squid. Let it sit for about 5 min. You can do this step the same with shrimp.
3. Prep 1-2 M size yams, thinly slice it as shown below.
4. Prep the batter as shown on the package, or use your favorite frying batter from online. I also add one egg into the batter even though it is not required.
5. Since we are frying there should be plenty of oil, but do not fill it as deep fry,just about 1/3 of the pan.
6. When the batter is finish, dump the squid into the batter (make sure you get a big bowl to mix the batter in)then you may slowly add your thinly sliced yam in also. Usually you should make extra batter for this dish to make sure that you have enough to coat everything and to make it like a pancake. Mix the whole thing together and make sure everything should be coated with batter.
7. Set your stove at medium heat. Wait until the oil is hot (to test, use a chopstick and dip it in the oil, if bubble forming around the chopstick, it means the oil is hot enough).
8. Use a big spoon, scoop up the batter and use chopstick to pick up 3 pieces of squid, a bunch of yam into the spoon. Slowly place this spoon into the hot oil while removing the content out the the spoon. This will look like you are making pancake in a differnet way. Each side should take about 2-3 min. (see the image below to get the idea). The frying will take a while, and be warn, oil will splatter around.
9. While waiting to let this fry, make the sauce, you can either eat them with ketchup, sweet and sour sauce, or any sauce you have. I prefer to make dipping fish sauce. Use 1 part of fish sauce, 1 part of sugar, 1 part of vinegar, and 2 part of water to mix all together.However,first chop about 3 cloves of garlic, then add the 1part sugar in. Mix it all together first with may be red hot chili pepper, or chili sauce. Then add the rest of the ingredient together. Mix together and it will taste amazing.
here is the thinly slice yam
While frying this
Here is the finish products. They look a little bit burn, but they are sure taste great.
I love these vegetable and herbs.
When you are finish frying, eat it with lettuce and herb, or rice noddle (vermicelli). Use the lettuce like seaweed. Break off the piece of frying squid and roll it with the herbs inside the lettuce. Dip it in the sauce and voila, you got this Vietnamese dish to eat.
Yumm Yumm Yum!! Love it. Hope you guys can recreate this.
Chuc Ban an ngon mieng!! Good Luck. Have a nice meal.
