Calamari ripiene e fornato Calamari stuffed & oven baked

[moikel]

If theres interest  I  will post this recipe.Normally I  would bake them in the oven in a tomato/fish stock sauce,but I figure I can put them in the MES. I stuff them with rice fried with chorizo,green onions,garlic,saffron,chilli ,red pepper,parsley.Put the tentacles back in toothpick them together then a slow bake. I  havent seen much calamari on the forum it might not be of interest. 

Theres a Vietnamese version that uses chicken mince lemon grass,mint etc but I  prefer the Italian style.

 

[teeznuts]

I love calamari! howbout some pics of it too?

 

[africanmeat]

OK i will be waiting

 

[moikel]

 Give me a couple of days.Im on it but I need to get the right type of calamari from fish market. As usual the label nazi's have got new names for it all not sure how it compares with Northern Hemisphere varieties. I will cook it with Qview. The calamari is best if its about 3 per kg.The big guys,Goulds Squid,Arrow Squid are better for ragu's or poached then served as a salad.

I have couple of octopus dish,s Im pretty proud of too. Slow cooked stuff,red wine,black olives,bay leaf, or as a Greek stifado with whole shallots,lemon ,white wine ,fennel tops. 

Let me know if that sort of stuff interests you.

 

[moikel]

OK got these guys 6 per kg. Put a tray of tomato's in MES for 3 hrs at 80c over maple. Sprinkled them with salt,brown sugar,gbp. They will be my sauce base.Onion red wine vinegar,oregano,fish stock.

 

[moikel]

This little guy a welcome guest The big guy no, pain in the.. back to squid cleaning

 

[moikel]

 OK I had to vary things a bit. These squid a bit small for rice based stuffing so went with breadcrumbs. Fry 1xgreen onion,1/2 red pepper,1/2 yellow pepper,2x cloves garlic,2/3 chorizo (spanish not mexican) in olive oil,then add chopped parsley grated zest of 1 lemon,gbp.Then add  breadcrumbs combine add more oil if needed. I eye balled all this so theres no measurements.

 

[moikel]

Squid cleaning 101. Lay flat,grab behind eyeballs pull gently in one motion most of insides should come as well.Remove "quill" hard clear plastic looking bit,rinse well.Cut off just below eyes,remove beak from centre off tentacles.Cut off bit of squid hood at open end its way tough ,about 1/2 inch.Put some coarse salt on your hands & pull off 2 fins at pointy end that are shaped like an arrow head.KEEP. Rub off fine coloured skin. Stuff mix into hoods push it all the way to end dont over fill.Toothpick tentacles back in open end close off as best you can. 

 

[moikel]

I will make sauce later,I wont post photos of that stage.I will use smoked tomato ,onion,garlic,wine vinegar,oregano,chilli.fish stock,put the saves squid fins in for flavour. Then add to tray to 1/2 up squid ,bake for an hour or so. 

All these critters(squid ,octopus,cuttlefish) have 2 cooking methods. Fast & furious, wokfry,deepfry, charcoal grill or low & slow,ragu,poach,bake. Theres no middle. They toughen up & go rubbery if you dont listen to that message.

Here a lot of our octopus is tenderised by throwing it in cement mixers with a couple of shovels of stones. No joke. Bits the hell out of pounding it on it on the rocks at the beach for 20 minutes.

 

[teeznuts]

Wow! That's pretty hi speed. I love fried squid and tentacles.

 

[moikel]

OK finished . Baked them for an hour.Turned out really special. You could play with the mix, pancetta instead of chorizo,rice instead of breadcrumbs but you get the vibe.

Putting squid offcuts into sauce  was a good idea.Sauce had a lot of depth. 2 squid was a meal.

 

[moikel]

I could have put these in MES at 140c for 2hours but chose oven at 180c for an hour.I was hungry! Smoked tomato gave it a lovely sweetness, splash of red wine vinegar balanced it. Yes they look a bit unusual but they were soft & the combination of chorizo,peppers & smokey tomato etc was just spot on the the money.

Theres no reason to stick to the mix if you have a better idea.The starch could be rice or cous cous. Its about the contrast between the squid & filling. If you are using bigger squid you should make sure the sauce come up 1/2 way the side.It helps the mix set.

The Vietnamese version uses minced pork,garlic,lemon grass,ginger cilantro,chilli,green onion.Baked in a light broth,young coconut juice ,lime,chicken stock.

Hope you liked it ,I havent cooked it for years it was a great plate of food.

 

[africanmeat]

O M G it looks amazing .i love the idea of the smoke tomato thanks for this one.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks delicious. I've never had whole squid before.

 

[moikel]

You can play with the mix .It can be seafood based if that suits,rice instead of breadcrumbs etc. We get a lot of squid already processed & frozen from Asia just as the hoods. As long as you slow bake them they turn out fine. Fresh is obviously better but theres lots of places that serve you stuff that comes deepfrozen ,cut into rings,& crumbed or more reecently done as salt/pepper cantonese style. All goes straight into the deep fryer!

 

[Bearcarver]

Awesome Thread---Great tutorial !!!

Thanks for the heads up on this one---Would never want to miss one this good!!!!

Nice BearViews Too!!!

The only Calamari I ever had was in restaurants & bars in my area, and that was fried & tough, not unlike the rawhide laces in my works boots !!!!

Thanks,

Bear

 

[rivet]

That is one outstandingly delicious looking recipe! Around here we can get frozen squid from Calfornia, which work very well and look to be maybe slightly smaller than yours. Still fine for making that recipe~ which you know I will.

Good deal reminding members about cooking squid, too; there's no middle ground....years back I learned the good 20-20 rule for squid and octopus. You either flash cook them for 20 seconds, or slowly for 20 minutes......anything in between will result in rubbery meat.

I can't get over how tasty your dish looks, thanks for sharing. It's definitely on my short list!

  

 

  

 

 

[chef jimmyj]

I have had my Students make a version of that dish when we did Spanish Cuisine...But never thought of smoking them, looks Great!...JJ

 

[moikel]

Thanks to everybody that liked it. I didnt put the whole dish in the MES because I was running out of time . Smoked tomato in the sauce was really nice. Theres a few different mediteranean versions of it .I described it in Italian then wandered in the direction of Spain but thats the way I cook.I had chorizo in fridge, didnt have pancetta meant to use saffron rice but then figured bread crumbs would save 20 minutes & I wanted to eat it & watch Deadliest Catch on TV.

Might do the Vietnamese version somewhere down the line.