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Squid Casserole With Ink
Mark Hickman continues his series on Mediterranean cooking.
Last week, on our tour of Mediterranean cooking, we tried the highly popular gazpacho. This dish dates back to the ancient Greek offering Skorothalmi, which was a particular favourite with the Athenians and survives as the modern-day Skorthalia.
It is usually served with boiled or fried vegetables or fish, and particularly salted fish as in Spain and Italy. When diluted with water, it transforms into the cool Andalusian white variety of gazpacho.
Relatives of this sauce can be found along most Mediterranean coasts.
There is Aioli in France, which is transformed into a grand version for the traditional Christmas Eve supper.
In Italy there is agliata, in Turkey and the Middle East tarator,and in Spain all-i-oli.
From these dishes to the famous mayonnaise is only a small step. Leave out the garlic, add egg yolks as a thickening agent and there you are!
Another recipe that has travelled round the whole region is the famous fish soup.
The sea has always been a major source of food for the region, and Greek scholars such as Aristotle and Archistratos wrote learned and detailed diatribes on the variety of sea life.
Dioscorides praised the qualities of the region's fish soups, and suggested that they should be made with rock fish such as the ferocious-looking "pink scorpions" … and with nothing else but water and oyle and annise.
In today's times of depleted fish stocks and high pollution, one can only marvel at the bounty and the beauty that the sea must have afforded to the ancients and that is lost to us forever.
The Greek fish soup kakavia derives its name from the the kakavi – the pot it was cooked in, which is mentioned in the plays of Aristophanes.
From here the family tree reaches down to the modern Italian brodetti and the French soupe de poissons and bouillabaisse, which may have been introduced to Marseilles by the colonising Phocaeans.
Tradition has it that Agamemnon and Achilles ate fish soup beneath the walls of Troy. Julius Caesar consumed a bowl of it before crossing the Rubicon. Dante ate it in exile at Porto Corsino, while Napoleon
fortified himself with it before escaping from exile on Elba. Then things came full circle when Field Marshal Montgomery celebrated victory by eating brodetti at almost the same spot where Caesar enjoyed it!
I gave some recipes for these soups earlier in this series – so this week I am giving a slightly different, though related, recipe for squid with ink and garlic.
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Squid Casserole With Ink
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INGREDIENTS (serves 6)
2lb/1kg squid
1lb/450g onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 tbsp olive oil
1.25 pints/1.15l dry white wine
5 tbsp water
salt and freshly-ground black pepper
parsley, finely chopped
METHOD
1 Pull the heads of the squid away from the bodies. Cut horizontally under the eyes to remove the tentacles and reserve, discarding the heads. Empty the body and discard the innards, extracting and reserving the silver thread-like bag of ink. Skin the bodies and slice into 1inch/2.5cm rings.
2 Wash the squid meticulously to remove grit. Fry the onions and garlic in hot oil until glistening, then add the squid bodies and tentacles and fry for 3-4 minutes. Pour in the wine and water, add the ink bags, season, cover and cook gently for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3 Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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