This is the
other recipe in the Marie Claire cookbook
Drinks & Nibbles
which first caught my eye for its recipe for
fried green olives
but I've had their stuffed squid in my mind for quite some time now.
The picture looked great, but ever so slightly anaemic,
and seemed to be crying out for delicious sauces.
So when I found some
ink and saffron sauce
ideas
I figured I'd found the perfect foil.
The beautiful colours in the squid and two sauces seemed a perfect opportunity for us to try out Rachel's fancy new camera,
which arrived mysteriously in her life today as if to make up for all the other horrors of the past few weeks.
I also found some
handy instructions
for extracting the squid ink sacs.
Lemon Risotto-Stuffed Squid With Ink And Saffron Sauce
main side sauce fish
Serves 2½
3 medium squids
juice ½ lemon
leftover fish stock or white wine
1 portion
lemon risotto from ½ cup rice, plus the leftover prawn parts.
4 shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
6 shallots, sliced
few thyme sprigs
glass white wine
single cream
saffron
squid ink
fish stock
2 heads pak choy
2 cloves garlic
8 Shitake mushrooms, sliced
soy sauce to dress
from the cleaned, more wholesome squid and prawn parts...
Pull the squid innards and cuttle bones from their body, squeeze out and reserve the ink, discard the squid guts.
The black vein-like ink sac is located in the intestines, and there is also squid ink behind the eyes.
Peel the skin and wings from the body tubes.
Peel the prawns to be used in the risotto.
Wash and dry the squid tubes. and set aside.
Thoroughly wash the leftover squid bits (skin, head, tentacles, fins) to remove any trace of squid ink,
and place in the stock pan. Add the prawn bits.
Add a chopped onion, garlic, carrots, peppercorns, fennels seeds, juniper berries
thyme, tarragon, bit of sage, few basil leaves, glass of white wine
Bring to a simmer, skim. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Strain the stock through muslin or paper towel.
Keep warm.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
Season the inside of the squid bodies,
Stuff the squid bodies
with risotto, close the ends with a cocktail stick to stop the risotto escaping and place in a baking dish.
Surround with ½ cup of baking liquid consisting of the other lemon half and the rest of fish stock.
Season. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove, allow to cool slightly, then slice in rounds 2 cm thick.
Heat a tablespoon or two of butter until foaming,
then gently fry the chopped shitaki mushrooms until they start to shrivel.
Add sliced garlic and shallots and a few thyme leaves.
Fry gently until they just start to colour, add a glass of white wine or two and reduce.
Add the remaining stock, bring to a gentle simmer. Skim. Strain through a sieve.
Reduce until on the point of thickening.
Divide.
To one half add the squid ink, return to simmer.
Reduce further if necessary then gradually add a small amount of cream
(don't thin the colour too much - a dark grey colour will be OK).
Keep warm or reheat gently.
To the other half, add a (generous) pinch of saffron.
Simmer, reducing slightly if necessary.
Add cream until you have enough sauce and it's not too thin. Keep warm or reheat gently.
Enthusiastically heat a large frying pan. Add a coating of olive oil.
Add sliced garlic, and sear until just beginning to colour, then add sliced shitaki mushrooms.
Fry vigorously until the mushrooms are beginning to reduce,
then throw in the pak choy, shake on the heat until they begin to wilt, then cover and turn off the heat.
You can throw in any leftover lemon juice or peel at this stage.
Serve with a drizzle of soy sauce (if you can be bothered).
The sauces should be thick enough to coat, but runny enough to pour into a plate.
Cover the base of a small plate with the two sauces so they cover a half each and divide down the middle.
Pile a small heap of the Pak Choy at one end of this joining line, top with a few of the mushrooms.
Lay a line of the squid rounds down the sauce join, so they lie on each other at an attractive angle.
Present to guests.
The resulting risotto was just gorgeous.