Here we have to go much further back to the years of Alexander the Great and make a small cultural trip to various parts of the Middle East before reaching our city.
Our stuffed recipes appeared parallel to the campaigns of Alexander the Great, from Persia, where they had this cooking method in their kitchen. They passed it to the Asia Minor as the closest people with a common love for rice and reached us through Byzantium. Now the “marriage” of flavors and ingredients can have many varieties, that is, there are many types of stuffed. In our city, stuffed calamari is one of our favorites.
Equipment
- 1 blue cutting surface
- 1 green cutting surface green
- 1 vegetable cutting knife
- 1 small general purpose knife
- 1 pot shallow and wide
- 1 wooden spatula
- Spoons
- Toothpicks
- 1 strainer
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg. of medium fresh squid
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finelychopped
- ½ cup of carolina rice washed and soaked for 15΄
- ½ cup pine nuts, slightly roasted
- ½ cup black raisin
- 1 cup dry white wine
- Salt
- Pepper
- Sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- ½ cup Chopped dill
- ½ cup chopped mint
- 5 tomatoes grated on a grater
Instructions
- We clean the calamari fromthe membrane and the entrails.
- We remove the tentacles and the wings, but we donot throw them away.
- Make a slit in the bottom of the calamari with asmall knife.
- The lower part of the tentacles is eatable, exceptfor a small cartilage, so we throw the cartilage and chop the rest part keepingthe tentacles intact.
- Finely chop the wings andput them aside.
- To make it easier to fillthem, put a saucepan with salt water and vinegar to boil and pour them in for5΄΄ to boil and swell.
- In a wide saucepan pour 2/3of the olive oil and let it burn. Add the onion and garlic to fry and add thechopped calamari.
- Then slowly add the herbs tobring out their aromas, pine nuts, raisins and rice. Lower the heat and stirconstantly until the rice is shiny.
- Add half of the tomato,salt, pepper and sugar.
- Stir until the rice absorbs most of its liquids andremove from the heat.
- Fill the calamari withoutpressing it too much, put the tentacles in the opening and nail them with atoothpick.
- Put the remaining olive oil and the tomato in awide saucepan.
- Season with salt and pepper,add the sugar and put the stuffed calamari in order.
- Add 2 cups of water coverand boil the calamari for about 40΄.