Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [196]
Should you be housekeeping in the Mediterranean, look out for tiny supions or soupions, squat and minuscule cuttlefish that need little preparation beyond removing the small cuttle and rinsing – but check with the fishmonger in case he has already done this. They taste particularly good when cooked with rice (see Arroz nero), or deep fried, in which case, half-cover and stand back to avoid the splutters.
The great areas for squid cookery are southern Europe and the Far East. In both its sweetness is underlined, inevitably by tomato in Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean. The Japanese use mirin and sugar with soy sauce, depending on whether they marinade and grill little pieces on wooden skewers, or slice it into translucent water-lilies to decorate a dish of sashimi with its sweet and fiery sauce. Chinese cooks slice the squid bag into two triangles, score them in a diaper pattern and stir-fry these pieces with chilli, garlic and coriander – the bitterness enhances the sweetness, too – with extra embellishments such as peanuts and sweet pepper. Tiny squid may be stuffed simply with pork seasoned with coriander and soy, and then poached tenderly in clear chicken soup. In South-East Asia, coconut milk underlines the sweetness, so too does hot chilli (see Sri Owen’s red hot sambal on p. 403).
HOW TO PREPARE SQUID AND CUTTLEFISH
Work close to the sink and have paper towels and a couple of bowls handy, for the different pieces.
After rinsing the squid, lay them on a board parallel to each other, tentacles all one way. Squeeze gently behind the hard part of each head, so that the round ‘beaks’ pop out between the tentacles. Throw these away. Now cut off the cluster of tentacles and arms so that they are still just held together by a ring. Remove any fine purplish skin and put the clusters in one of the bowls.
The next stage is to pull the heads gently away from the body sacks. Much of the soft innards will come away with them. You will be able to see a shadowed silver streak: this is the ink sac. Gently slip a small knife beneath it and ease it free. Put it into the other bowl. The rest of the head and innards can be kept for stock.
From the body sacks, hook out with your finger the transparent plastic-looking pen nib, if it has not come away already with the innards.
Now rinse the body sacks, pulling away the fine purple veil of a skin (deep-frozen squid may already have been skinned), and check that the inside is completely empty. Pat the sacks dry. At this stage, or earlier, you can cut away the two finny flaps. They are often chopped with the tentacles.
The body sacks can be left as they are for stuffing, cut across into rings or slit into two triangles and then scored in a diaper pattern, depending on the recipe you intend to follow.
If you intend to use the ink sacs, you can just leave them as they are and add them to the sauce if it will be sieved eventually: crushing them with a little water first helps to release all the ink quickly, but is not strictly necessary. If the sauce will not be sieved, put a sieve across the pan, crush the sacs with a little water or stock and tip them into the sieve, pressing down to make sure the ink goes through either with a pestle or a wooden spoon.
Cuttlefish are prepared in the same way, except that you will find it more difficult to remove the chalky oval part. If it has to be cut away, you may well slit the body sack: it can be sewn up with button thread if you want to stuff the cuttlefish, but this spoils the appearance. Cuttlefish produce more ink than squid, so be prepared.
BLACK RICE (Arroz negro)
This is a dramatic-looking dish of Spanish cookery that I received from Merce Navarro, chef-proprietor of the Roig Robi restaurant in Barcelona. There you may sample Catalan and Spanish food