Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [198]
Prepare and slice the squid and cuttlefish as described at the beginning of this section, keeping the ink sacs carefully in a bowl, slicing tentacles and body sacks, and retaining the soft inner debris.
As you are unlikely to buy most shellfish uncooked, remove the shells and put them with the squid debris. Open the mussels in the usual way (p. 239) discard the shells and strain the liquid over the debris, etc. Keep all cooked shellfish together on a plate: only lobster needs slicing.
Clean the mixed fish. Cut off any heads and put with the debris. Discard the innards, apart from the red mullet livers which can be put with the shellfish. Slice the fish into pieces that can conveniently be eaten with a spoon, putting the firmer fish on one plate, the rest on another. Season them. This can be done an hour or so in advance.
Prepare the soup in a large saucepan. Heat enough oil to cover the base and brown the vegetables lightly. Pour in the wine and boil down by half. Add the bouquet, chilli, garlic and tomatoes; then the debris of the shellfish, squid and other fish with the mussel liquid, plus a good litre (1¾ pt) of water. Boil slowly for 30 minutes, removing the chilli when the liquid is as piquant as you like it. Meanwhile pound the ink sacs with a little water to release the ink. Add to the soup, give it 10 more minutes and then sieve into a bowl, pushing through enough vegetable to give some consistency. Taste and season, boil down a little if the flavour needs concentrating. Reinforce it with a little sugar, or with tomato concentrate or one or two pieces of dried tomato, chopped up, if your tomatoes were on the poor side. Get the soup right at this stage, then pour it into a serving pot and leave it to brew gently over a low heat. Keep it very hot without further boiling or even simmering.
About 20 minutes before the meal, attend finally to the fish. Fry the cuttlefish and squid in olive oil, then add them into the soup when they are nicely coloured and almost tender. In the same pan, cook the firm fish for 5 minutes, keeping it on the go, then add the tender fish. When they are all just cooked, transfer to the soup. Finally add the shellfish to the soup, give it 5 minutes to heat through, and then serve.
Put the toast or fried bread into people’s bowls and ladle the Cacciucco on top, aiming for an equitable distribution of the fish.
SAMBAL GORENG CUMI-CUMI
This recipe for squid in a red hot sauce comes from Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food and Cookery. She says that if you are nervous of the heat of 6 large red chillis, substitute some sweet red pepper; the sauce must be a fine robust colour. The ingredients are available from oriental stores, and Macadamia nuts can be used instead of kemiri.
Serves 4 as a main dish, or 6 as a side dish
1 kg (2 lb) squid
1 tablespoon white vinegar
5 kemiri (candlenuts)
6 large red fresh chillis, seeded
6 shallots or 1 onion
1 slice trassi or blachan (optional)
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon powdered lemon grass
2 teaspoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons tamarind water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
salt
Clean the squid, keeping only the body sack which should be cut into small squares and the tentacles and arms which should be cut into 1-cm (½-inch) lengths. Mix the vinegar with 600 ml (i pt) water, stir in the squid and straightaway tip the whole thing into a sieve over the sink. Leave the squid to drain.
Pound the next ingredients down to and including the lemon grass into a paste. Fry it in the oil in a sauté pan for 1 minute, put in the squid and tamarind water and cook for 3 minutes more. Add sugar, some salt and 150 ml (5 fl oz) water, and cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring often. Serve hot, with rice.
SQUID AND COCONUT CURRY
A somewhat westernized form of cooking squid, this makes a most delightful dish – so long as you like coconut. The recipe works well for firm white fish such as halibut, weever and monkfish,