Monday, December 16, 2013

grilled stuffed squid

I rarely buy squids because unfortunately, I am the only one at home who likes them. Apart from fried calamari, the LAM is not too impressed with squid.

The other day, my mom came over with 8 squids. Not knowing what I wanted to do with them then, I kept them in the freezer. Today, I had the sudden inspiration to grill the squids. I also recall how my mom would stuff squids with meat and all when we were kids and steamed them. So I thought, why not stuff the squids and grill them?


I started by making the stuffing. I used minced pork, chopped prawns and water chestnuts, as well as chopped spring onion.


I seasoned the stuffing lightly with some light soy and ground white pepper.


I also added some corn flour to help to bind the mixture.


I cleaned the squids and removed the skins. If the squids had come with the head and tentacles, I would have chopped them and added them to the stuffing but in this case, the heads had been removed.


Using my fingers, I stuffed the mixture into the squids, taking care not to overfill. Apparently the squids can explode while cooking if they are overfilled.



Using a toothpick, I secured the openings.


I was going to grill my squids on the barbeque but it started to rain (curse the monsoon) so I cooked them on the stove instead.

I heated a skillet and added some extra virgin olive oil. I used a skillet with grill lines because I was hoping to emulate the grill marks that the barbeque would impart on the squids but a normal skillet would do the trick as well.

Then I placed the squids on the skillet and cooked them.



I was concerned that the stuffing may not have been completely cooked through, so I placed the squids on a baking tray and baked them for 10 minutes at 180C to be sure.


Once done, I cut one squid and JL and I finished it pretty quickly.


T'was delicious!!

RECIPE
Grilled Stuffed Squid (Makes 4)

Ingredients:
4 medium squids, cleaned and skin removed
200g minced pork
5 water chestnuts, peeled and chopped finely
5 prawns, shells removed and chopped finely
1 sprig spring onion, chopped
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon corn starch

Method:
1. Combine minced meat, prawns, water chestnut and spring onion. Add light soy, pepper and corn starch. Mix well.
2. Carefully, stuff the mixture into the squid, taking care not to overfill. Secure the openings with toothpicks.
3. If using the barbeque to grill the squids, coat the squids with some olive oil before grilling. Make sure to roll the squids regularly to ensure even cooking. Otherwise, you can also do the same on a skillet. If you have quite a lot of stuffing in the squid, you may want to finish the cooking process in the oven to be sure that the stuffing had been cooked through.
4. Serve immediately.

2 comments:

  1. Great idea, thanks for posting! I'm hesitant to use squid because it turned out really tough once. Did that happen with yours? Do you know any ways to prevent this? Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi there! I guess squid has to be cooked pretty quickly or very slowly. In this case, I did not cook my squid for very long, and I was able to prevent it from becoming tough! :)

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