Vietnamese Stuffed Calamari

Ingredients

Calamari and squid tubes are perfect for stuffing and variations exist wherever they are caught. In the Mediterranean, they might be filled with bread, herbs, nuts and olives and baked in tomato sauce. This recipe smacks of Vietnam.

4 whole calamari
100g cellophane rice noodles
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbs vegetable oil
2 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
200g minced (ground) pork
60mL fish sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped coriander (cilantro)

Dressing:

2 Tbs fish sauce
100mL lime juice
2 tsp raw (demerara)sugar
1 birdseye chilli, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 Tbs roughly chopped coriander (cilantro)

Method

Preparing:

Preheat a BBQ hotplate.

To clean the calamari, remove the heads.

Cut off the tentacles and set aside.

Discard the skin and guts from the tubes, taking care to keep the tubes intact.

Finely chop the tentacles.

Soak the noodles in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes. Rinse in cold water, drain, cut into 3cm lengths using kitchen scissors and set aside.

Soak the mushrooms in hot water until soft. Remove, drain, discard stems and finely chop the caps.

Stuffing:

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok over high heat.

Add spring onions, chilli and garlic and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the pork and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes. Add the tentacles and stir fry for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix in the fish sauce, coriander and noodles. Set aside to cool.

Using a spoon, stuff the calamari tubes until three-quarters full and quite tightly packed. Close the ends with bamboo skewers.

Dressing:

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl until well combined.

Cooking:

BBQ the calamari for 6-8 minutes, turning regularly until the tubes are golden all over and the stuffing is warm through.

Remove and slice into 2cm thick slices. Arrange the slices on a platter, drizzle with the dressing and serve.

Credits: ‘Recipes and Images from The Gourmet Farmer Goes Fishing by Matthew Evans, Nick Haddow and Ross O’Meara, published by Murdoch Books’

Photo Credits: ‘Recipes and Images from The Gourmet Farmer Goes Fishing by Matthew Evans, Nick Haddow and Ross O’Meara, published by Murdoch Books’