Calamares en su tinta i (squid in their own ink)

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2½ pounds Small squid, clean and skin, reserve ink sacs
1 cup Red wine
3 tablespoons Olive oil
1 Garlic clove, crushed lighty
3 Medium onions, chopped
⅔ cup Almonds, blanch and peel
½ cup Fish stock or water
Salt/pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse squid in cold water. Draw back the rim of the body pouch to locate the top end of the quill-shaped pen, grasp the pin, pull it free from the squid body and discard the pen.

Hold the body in one hand; with the other grasp the head just below the eyes. Gently pull the two sections apart. The viscera, including the ink sac should come away with the head and tentacles, if not scrape out the viscera. Rinse the pouch in cold water and pull away the mucous membrane that lines it.

Translucent skin covers the creamy white flesh of the squids pouch.

Slip a finger under the skin and peel it off. Carefully pull the edible triangular fins from either side of the pouch; skin the fins.

Using a sharp knife, cut the tentacles from the rest of the head, just below the eyes. The tentacles should come away together, connected by a narrow rim of edible flesh.

*** If you plan to cook the squid in it's own ink, separate the silvery gray ink sac from the viscera, discard head and viscera. *** Within the edible flesh that connects the tentacles lies a bony, beaklike mouth. With your fingers, squeeze the beak out of the fleshy rim, then discard the beak.

Pour the ink into a bowl. Discard sacs and intestines (viscrea ?) Wash squid throughly, turn inside out and wash again... return pouch to its normal state. Chop tentacles into small pieces, slice the body into rings.

In a non-reactive bowl mix squid ink with 3 tablespoons of the wine and reserve it. Cover the remaining squid flesh with the remaining wine and let it marinate a few hours in a non-reactive bowl.

(Non-metallic I suppose, so that acids don't react with metals).

Heat the oil; fry garlic until brown and then discard garlic. Fry the onions in the oil until soft, remove and set aside.

Drain the squid flesh but keep the liquid in which it was marinated.

Fry the squid in the oil 2 or 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add onions and the ink mixed with wine, the liquid that the squid marinated in, almonds, fish stock/water, and salt/pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for one hour or until the flesh is easily pierced with a small sharp knife. Serve with plain boiled rice.

Submitted By ART BARRON On 12-30-94

Related recipes