Stuffed Calamari Recipe

I love seafood.  I am not, however, the greatest when it comes to cooking it.  I usually over cook it and then it ends up being rubbery.  There is a little greek restaurant about 2 blocks from our house that serves the most delicious stuffed calamari.  I order it in the appetizer size every time we go there.  We haven't been to the restaurant in a few months because my husband was put off with something with his last meal there and doesn't want to go back.  I've always enjoyed their food, but some things have changed and it isn't quite the same, but I'd still go if he would go with me.  So, I've been missing the calamari and decided I would try to make it myself.  I couldn't find a recipe anywhere on the internet for this dish, so I had to "wing it".  I think it came out very tastey - not quite as tastey as the one at the restaurant, but nonetheless, tastey.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the dish, but here's the recipe:

Suffed Calamari

Total cooking time approx. 1 hour.  Total prep time (after thawing the squid) approx. 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  

Ingredients:

Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup white wine
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
2 rounded tbsp dijon mustard
salt to taste

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, on medium high heat, make a roux with your flour and butter, then slowly add the cream to make a very thick white sauce.  Turn the heat down to medium - medium low and slowly add the white wine, mixing with a whisk so as to not get any lumps.  Add the pepper, mustard, and salt and continue to cook until the alcohol is cooked out and the sauce has re-thickened.

Tip:  If you don't have white wine or don't want to use wine, you can substitute it with no/low salt chicken broth. (edit:  you will need to adjust the amount of salt you use if you use chicken broth with salt)

Calamari:
6 small whole calamari (squid - with tentacles and head removed - I used frozen)
2 lb ground chicken (you could use veal or turkey, but the restaurant uses chicken in theirs)
1 small leek, chopped finely (about 2 - 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup finely chopped pinenuts
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
salt to taste

If you're using frozen calamari - thaw in a bowl of cold water, drain and pat dry.  Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Stuff the calamari with the chicken meat mixture.

Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of a shallow baking dish.  Arrange stuffed calamari in the pan and ladle over remaining sauce.  Cover with tin foil and place baking dish on a cookie sheet (the sauce may bubble over).  Bake in pre-heated oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the tin foil and finish cooking for another 10-15 minutes to brown up.

Serve with rice and vegetables of your choice.

You'll notice there is quite a bit of pepper in this dish.  Its the one spice I could definitely pick out in the restaurant version  I didn't add any other spices/herbs to the meat mixture because 1) I didn't want to ruin it, and 2) I could never tell if there was any other spices in it other than the pepper.  The pepper should make it a little spicy, but not over powering.  You may have to adjust how much pepper you use according to your taste, but I like lots and lots of pepper and those are the amounts I used.

I really hope you all try this dish.  I thought it was very yummy and quite easy to prepare.  If you try it, please let me know how you like it.

Talk to you later...

Cat