Recipe: Stuffed Squid/Calamari

Squid/Calamari  is one of our favourite sea food items. For the last few years, I have only been able to buy it already chopped into rings. So when I saw fresh squid at the INA market, I jumped at the chance to stuff them.

The fish market guys cleaned the calamari for me, so that saved me a lot of hassle and messing around with the squid ink. (not something we use in Manglorean cooking, but some European countries do need the ink specifically in their recipes). If you have to clean it yourself, About.com has accurate instructions on How to Clean Squid.

I bought 1 kilo of squid but this was the weight pre-cleaning. It turned out to be 12 tubes of squid after cleaning (I forgot to ask them to give me the tentacles too, so they discarded them, while I was purchasing other fish at the shop)

Ingredients:
6-8 calamari.squids
3 medium onions finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes finely chopped

3-4 green chillies finely chopped
15-20 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped
2 tsps meet mirsang
a few tbsps chopped corriander
oil to fry
3-6 tbsps of rawa/semolina/semid
salt to taste

Method:
Clean Squid.
I always marinate my sea food in a salt, turmeric powder (haldi) vinegar mix for at least 15 minutes to eliminate the stronger smells.
Turn the squid inside out. This accomplishes 2 things - you can remove all the extra tissue from the inside & the opening of the squid tends to rollup outwards when cooking, if its inside out, it will turn inwards and your stuffing will be safe. I use a technique similar to turning socks inside out.
Keep squid aside until stuffing is ready.

 All the cuttings should be chopped really fine.
Saute the onions in a bit of oil, until they sweat.
Add tomatoes, saute till they start to dry up.
Add chopped garlic, chillies and ginger.
Add meet mirsang and mix well.
Fry till the stuffing is almost dry.
Add chopped tentacles, (I used 2-3 squid tubes which had torn, were too thin and in danger of bursting when stuffing, you can also use baby shrimp or chopped shrimp)

Fry till almost dry. You want just a hint of moisture, else liquid will come oozing out when you fry the stuffed squid.

Add the chopped corriander and give it a quick stir.
Turn off the gas and let the stuffing cool a little before assembling.
Add salt to taste (the meet mirsang already has salt)
You can add a little lime juice, if you like the stuffing sour.


Stuff the squid tubes with the mixture.
Pin it shut with a toothpick (I soak my toothpicks in water for a short while (same principle as bamboo skewers)

Roll the stuffed squid in rawa and shallow fry, turning once

Serve hot.
Garnish with chopped corriander if you like.

Husbands verdict: The taste is awesome, but can you do anything about the look?
Response: I'm sorry dear, squid only come in one shape. LOL