This Salted Egg Yolk Calamari is a local Singapore dish. Crispy calamari coated in the richest and creamiest sauce, with buttery, sweet, salty flavours, hints of curry leaves and a kick of chili. Your first mouthful will transport you to the middle of a Singapore hawker center.

A plate of rice with some crispy calamari coated in salted egg yolk sauce. Garnished with curry leaves and chili.

Salted egg yolk dishes are beloved Singapore and Malaysian zi char dishes. Some common dishes are made with this sauce. Instead of calamari, you will be able to find salted egg yolk chicken, prawn, and even crab in any hawker centres in Singapore.

I have always loved salted egg yolk sauce. On trips back to Singapore, I would order any dish with this sauce whenever I had the opportunity. I just love its creamy, sweet, and salty flavours. Before making this recipe, I always assumed that this salted egg yolk sauce was really difficult to make. Turns out, this sauce is soooooo easy to make! I am so pleased that I am now able to make this dish in my home. No more waiting more months (or years – thanks to Covid) to travel back to Singapore to satisfy my salted egg yolk cravings!

With my new found skill, stay tuned for more salted egg yolk recipes!

What is Salted Egg?

Salted eggs are traditionally cured duck eggs. They can either be cured in a brine solution or in dried salt. Salted egg yolks are in mooncakes, steamed buns (bao), and sauces. You should be able to find salted eggs in your local Asian supermarkets. But if you would like to make it at home, stay tuned for our homemade salted egg recipe coming soon!

How to cook the calamari?

Firstly, you will need 2 tubes of calamari (about 200g), some cornflour, and oil for deep frying.

A bowl of pieces of raw calamari in a bowl at the bottom right of the image. In the top left corner, a bowl filled with some cornflour.

To prepare the calamari, cut them into short rectangle pieces. Minimise the risk of over cooking by cutting them at least 2-3 cm wide.

To coat the calamari, place some cornflour (about 30g) into a bowl and coat each piece of calamari with a thin layer of the flour. Dust off any excess cornflour by lightly tapping the squid on the side of the bowl.

To achieve the crispiest calamari, we will be double frying them. Fill a medium saucepan with some oil (about half fill), and heat the oil up. To test to see if the oil is hot enough, stick a wooden chopstick on the bottom of the pan. If bubbles are forming around the tip of the chopstick, your oil is hot enough. Alternatively, drop a piece of squid into the oil. If it starts sizzling immediately after being placed in the oil, your oil is hot enough.

Two plates of deep fried calamari. The plate in the back of the image has calamari that is very slightly brown from the first fry. The plate in the front has calamari that is golden brown from the second fry.

Once the oil is heated sufficiently, in small batches, deep fry the squid for about 2 minutes. Take the squid out onto a plate lined with kitchen towels. At this point, the squid should be a very pale brown. Set aside to cool for a couple of minutes. Then, in small batches again, add the lightly fried squid back into the hot oil. Fry for about 3 minutes and transfer the squid to another plate lined with kitchen towel. Set aside.

How to make the Salted Egg Yolk Sauce?

Ingredients for the sauce

Butter This will add a buttery creamy flavour that salted egg yolk sauce is so famously known for.

Garlic If you are a garlic fan, add a little more for a more intense garlic flavour! Add a little less if you don’t want the garlic flavour to be strong. However, I highly recommend adding at least a little garlic, it really does go well in this sauce.

Curry leaves A must for this dish! Salted egg yolk sauces is known to have a hint of curry leave flavour. I am lucky enough to have a friend with a huge curry leaf plant. However, if you do not have it readily available, you should be able to buy it at your local Asian supermarket or even online.

Bird’s eye chili (chili padi) Chilies give this sauce a nice kick. They also add some colour to the dish. However, if you do not like spicy foods, you may omit this ingredient. Add more if you do like spicy food. Unfortunately, I did not have any chilies on me when I made this dish. So, I resorted to adding some homemade ground chili (that I had in my fridge) after plating up.

Salted egg yolks Obviously, I mean, it’s a salted egg yolk sauce!

Evaporated milk I used canned Carnation evaporated milk, as this is what the hawkers use in Singapore, but you can use any brand of evaporated milk. Alternatively, you may try this recipe with regular milk instead. It will taste slightly different, but will still be absolutely delicious!

To make the sauce

Although this Salted Egg Yolk Sauce may seem very foreign and daunting to make at first, this sauce is actually very simple to make!

butter, garlic, and curry leaves frying in a frying pan — Start off by heating a frying pan or wok on high heat. Once heated, bring the heat down to low and add in the butter, garlic, curry leaves, and chili. Stir the ingredients around until the butter has melted and you can smell the fragrance of the garlic and curry leaves.

butter, garlic, curry leaves and mashed up salted egg yolks frying in a frying pan, looking like a foamy mixture — Add in the salted egg yolks. Fry the ingredients until they combine and become foamy in appearance.

the addition of evaporated milk into the butter, garlic, curry leaves and mashed up salted egg yolks frying in a frying pan — Add in the evaporated milk and stir for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat.

the sauce simmering in the frying pan — Once your sauce looks like this, it is time to plate up. Place the squid on a serving plate and pour the salted egg yolk sauce over the top. Serve immediately.

salted egg yolk calamari on top of a bed of rice on a plate

What other dishes can I make with this Salted Egg Yolk Sauce?

Apart from this Salted Egg Yolk Calamari, you may make a few other variations of this dish! This sauce is very versatile. So, this is perfect for this recipe as you will have some leftover sauce.

This time, I made a seafood noodle stir-fry with my leftover sauce. Here is how I made it:

In a medium saucepan, boil some noodles. Once cooked, drain the water and set the noodles aside in a bowl. (I used Japanese ramen noodles, but you can use any kind of noodles you’d like. Some other options can be: instant noodles, pasta, udon, rice noodles.)
In the same saucepan, stir fry a few prawns and calamari pieces until they are just cooked.
Add in the leftover salted egg yolk sauce and stir until evenly distributed.
Add in the noodles and stir again until the sauce is evenly distributed. Add some evaporated milk or water if you need to loosen the sauce a little.

a bowl of noodles tossed in salted egg yolk sauce, topped with pieces of squid, 2 prawns, and curry leaves.

If you do not feel like a noodle dish, why not pair your leftover salted egg yolk sauce with another protein? Here are some ideas:

Salted Egg Chicken Cut chicken thighs into small bite size pieces, coat them in cornflour, and deep fry. Then, pour over the sauce.
Salted Egg Prawn In a wok, stir fry some prawns (either with or without shell) until they are just cooked. Then, pour the sauce over the prawns and stir until they are evenly coated.
Salted Egg Tofu Cut some tofu into cubes, dry them out, coat in cornflour and deep fry. Plate the tofu onto a serving plate and pour over the salted egg yolk sauce.

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