Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Stuffed Adriatic Squid



This post is dedicated to my very dear friend Maja, who lives in Brooklyn. Maja is real nomad, she lived all around Europe and America. We met working on some film production and we developed one great friendship.

In fact, Maja was one of the two person to who I firstly "discovered" my blog. From the moment she discovered I have a food blog she is tampering me to write about my "stuffed squids".

Well, this recipe that I use is certainly not mine. It is traditional dalmatian recipe and according to great tradition of Dalmatian Cuisine it very simple, healthy and tasty!


Few days ago my brother visited Zagreb and I decide to prepare Stuffed Squids for lunch. Off course, since my brother is great gourmet and great cook he jointed me in kitchen and we prepared lunch together.



Stuffed Adriatic Squid

Ingredients:

9 mid size Adriatic Squids*
3 large potatoes
1 carrot
1 spoon of breadcrumbs
olive oil
1 cup red or white wine
1 onion
garlic
parsley
bay leafs
salt
pepper



Separate the tentacles from the body of the squids. Clean the body cavity and carefully remove the backbone without damaging the body of the squid. Wash the squids and the tentacles. Drain and set aside.


Finely chop the tentacles.


Mix chopped tentacles with chopped garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs. Add salt and pepper according to your personal taste. Add some olive oil to make the mixture moist.

You can get creative with this staffing and you can add different ingredients like Parmesan or ricotta cheese, various herbs and spices, pine nuts or even raisins...


I must admit I prefer the simplest combination: only tentacles, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and superb Dalmatian Olive Oli.



Stuff the squid sacs with the mixture using...


... a very small spoon...


... or your fingers


Seal opening with skewers or toothpicks. Be aware that the stuffing will "grow" so do not overload the sacs or it will break.


Place the stuffed sacs in a baking-serving dish over the already seasoned vegetables: potato, carrot, onion...


Add few bey leafs. If any of the stuffing has been left, just sprinkle it over the vegetables.


Pour over some good quality red or white wine, according to taste.


Cover the dish and cook for about 1 hour, then uncover it and cook for additional 15 minutes.


Stuffed squids cooked in traditional way, "ispod peke" are especially delicious but oven baked squid are quite tasty too.

* NOTE: Adriatic squid (lat. Loligo vulgaris; hr. Lignja) is belonging to the family Loliginidae, and it is preferred in Dalmatian cuisine. Since I couldn't fined any squids in fish market that day I bought Totani or Flaying Squid (lat. Illex coindeti; hr. Totanj or Lignjuni) which resemble to common squid but it's less appreciated since its meet is more rigid. Nevertheless some people prefer Totani over Squids.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maja is a very happy and greatful friend! If she could only find some nice (yum!) Adriatic squid now ..... maybe this summer. In the meantime, I should try it with some tough Brooklyn squid.
The other day I bought some artichokes. Now you know what that's leading to .... I have to find the artichoke recipe you sent me a long time ago. If you post it, I can always read it on your blog. Thank God for such demanding friends! And the Vladovic Adriatic fish kitchen! Zivio Split! luv you, Maja

Anonymous said...

Hello again from Milan!
My husband makes this but he is from Sardinia and sometimes adds anchovies to the stuffing. Interesting that you use red wine - I would never have thought of that and it looks beautiful!
Love
Joan

Peter M said...

Hi there, I saw your blog link at Laurie's Alaskan Mediterranean food.

This stuff squid method is wonderful using the tentacles!

I'm considering visiting the Dalmatian coast sometime during my holidays in Greece.

Anonymous said...

very nice! even i'm tempted and i'm not a huge fan of squid (unless we+re talking about brudet or risotto!).

hey. I have a competition on my blog. giving away 5 copies of marcus wareing.s new book. do check it out!

Sretan Uskrs!

Hanna Takala said...

This food sounds fantastic, too bad they don't usually sell squid like that in here..

Mallow said...

My search for pudding recipes lead me to your blog. I really like it, and will definitely keep checking in! Great squid photos....

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Unknown said...

This looks good going to try and make it this with loligo duvauceli which is what my local frozen fishmarket stocks...will add a little bacon and leek