Squid Ink Rice at Hujan Locale

Chef Will Meyrick lives, breathes and eats street food and there is no better chef to bring Indonesia’s diverse cultures together through cuisine. We begged The Street Food Chef for the recipe of his scrumptious squid ink rice from his latest culinary baby Hujan Locale.
 

Recipe: Portuguese squid ink rice with crispy calamari and gremolata aioli

Main ingredients:
2 cups Balinese rice
8 shallots, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ cup white cooking wine
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of thyme
3 tablespoons squid ink
1 litre chicken stock
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
¼ cup unsweetened condensed milk
1 small squid, cut into rings
 
Parsley mayonnaise
Ingredients:
½ bunch parsley
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
8 cloves garlic, grated
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg yolk
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup salad oil
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
 
Gremolata
Ingredients:
Lemon zest, chopped*
Garlic, chopped*
Parsley, chopped*
(*equal parts)
 
Garnish:
Lemon wedges
 

Method:
To make the squid ink rice, sweat off the shallots and garlic until soft. Add in the rice and cook until translucent. Deglaze with white cooking wine, add thyme sprig and bay leaves and reduce. Add in chicken stock, squid ink and unsweetened condensed milk. Bring to a boil, cover with foil and steam until the rice is cooked. Stir-fry the black rice with extra garlic, shallots, Tabasco sauce and unsweetened condensed milk. Dust squid in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Fry it until crispy.

To make the parsley mayonnaise, in a blender, blend egg yolk, mustard, grated garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper until combined. Slowly pour in the oils until a thick mayonnaise is formed. Add chopped parsley and blend until combined into mayonnaise. It should be green in colour. Check to season and adjust to taste.

To assemble the dish, place squid ink rice in the bottom of the bowl and the crispy squid on the top. Garnish with gremolata, lemon wedges and dollops of parsley mayonnaise.

Hujan Locale
Jalan Sri Wedari 5, Ubud
Bali, Indonesia
T: (+62) 361 849 3092
E: reservations@hujanlocale.com
www.hujanlocale.com

Notes:
Read my gastronomic experience at Hujan Locale: Come Rain or Shine.
Get to know Chef Will Meyrick: What’s Eating Will Meyrick.
This article was first published in Asia Dreams, March-April 2015.
Photos courtesy of Will Meyrick & Hujan Locale.