Squirrel is a cute animal. Squirrels are not protected animals. In fact they are considered pests, infesting cocoa farms, fruit orchards and vegetable farms, leaving poor farmers crying over their destroyed crops. A cheap method to control their menace is actually to eat them. It’s actually a delicious exotic dish that you can savour in variety of styles. Squirrel herbal soup, squirrel stew, squirrel porridge, roasted squirrel, BBQ squirrel or stir-fried squirrel. I’m already salivating by just imagining these extra-ordinary Bidayuh delicacies.

headsteadi’s Exotic Kitchen ^TM this time around would like to spill out to you the secret recipe of a stir-fried squirrel^TM dish . Again, as I’ve mentioned probably over a hundred times, Bidayuh cooking style is simple and quite straight forward. There are no fancy herbs or spices added. We Bidayuhs like to savour the authentic taste of every wild animals that we savaged hence the minimal ingredients.

Ingredient:

1. Squirrel, 2-3 adults
2. Ginger, thumbsize – sliced thinly
3. Red onion, sliced 2-3 cloves
4. Garlic, sliced 2-3 cloves
5. Lemongrass, smashed 3 stalks
6. Chinese cooking wine, 2 tablespoon … ooops … this is not of Bidayuh origin. Tuak or langkau are preferred, but since I already have Chinese wine in the kitchen, gua belasah ajer beb (oh well, what the heck)!
   

Firstly, clean the squirrel. Wait a minute, that’s a catfish. Wrong script! mistakenly uploaded with rest of piccies Next piccie please …

The squirrel’s fur is flamed till burnt and scrapped. That’s the difference between a Dayak style vs Chinese style of cleaning furry meat. In a Chinese kitchen, they would normally skin the beast, leaving only the meat to savour. The skin, still intact with fur is normally wasted. In a Dayak kitchen (both Bidayuh and Iban natives), we flamed the fur because the skin is actually the one that keeps the original taste and aroma of a particular beast.

Chop the the meat into bite size pieces.

Pre-marinate it with salt for about 30 minutes prior to stir frying.

Meanwhile, pan-fry ginger, lemongrass, onion and garlic until they turn golden brown. Leave it aside.

Heat a quarter cup of cooking oil. Stir fry the meat for about 15 minutes. Dash 2 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix it well and let it cook for another 10 minutes or until tender.

The stir-fried squirrel^TM is now ready to be served. You can enjoy it with rice or snack over a pint of Tsingtao beer. Sidi bohhhhh …. (It’s finger lickin’ good!)

As the Malay proverb says, “Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya nya jatuh ke tanah jua” (Read: As wittily a squirrel jumps, eventually it will fall down to the ground).

Now, the Bidayuh people wouldn’t agree at all with this proverb because we know, “Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya ke kuali jua” (Read: As wittily a squirrel jumps, eventually it will end up in the wok)

Bon appetit!