Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple | Wok Wednesdays

This Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple dish was created by a chef who grew up with the plain Chinese Hakka style cooking but later learned to love the more spicy and tropical Malaysian style of cuisine. The creator of this recipe, Mei Chau, grew up in Malaysia after her family emigrated from China. She was in charge of making meals for her siblings. While she cooked in the plain Hakka style, she learned to love the spicy Malaysian style food when the family would go out to eat. She eventually moved to New York, where she started her own restaurant, blending the flavors of China, Malaysia, and France.

This dish is another amazing illustration of the Chinese diaspora from Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge.

The most difficult part of this recipe for this western girl was figuring out what squid to buy. I hit a Korean market first, and saw an amazing array of squid... huge squids... way bigger than called for in the recipe. I was ready to hit my Chinese market, but then decided to stop by a local fish restaurant that has an attached fish market. The price might have been higher, but they cleaned it, chopped it, and answered all of my questions.

The ingredients for this dish include squid, garlic, shallots, pineapple, tomatoes, hot sauce, sugar, salt, and scallions. That's it!

The recipe calls for just 8 ounces of squid, because more than that would cause it to create too much liquid and create a braise. I placed the pieces of squid between paper towels and refrigerated them to make sure they were dry enough for the stir-fry.

The other question mark is the hot sauce. Mei Chau likes to use Lingham's Chilli Sauce, which was not readily available to me. The book suggests Tabasco and sugar as a substitute. I subbed Sriracha sauce and was really happy with the results.

I am participating in Wok Wednesdays. We are stir-frying our way through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young. As participants, we don't post the recipe, but encourage you to get the book and support the author. It's worth it. I promise.