{"id":16995,"date":"2014-10-30T11:35:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T10:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16995"},"modified":"2014-10-30T11:35:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T10:35:39","slug":"indian-squid-curry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16995","title":{"rendered":"Indian Squid Curry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"squid_curryp\"I grew up without the slightest idea of what\u00a0squid tasted like and when I finally had a chance to eat\u00a0it, I fell in love with its delicate flavours and addictive texture.\u00a0Simply grilled, served in a Thai salad<\/a> or Korean stir-fried dish<\/a>,\u00a0squid never disappoints me. This curry\u00a0was no exception: it was simply sensational\u00a0and made\u00a0me very\u00a0keen on learning more Indian seafood dishes.<\/p>\n

As I have already mentioned while writing about Chicken Vindail<\/a>,\u00a0I have been\u00a0totally hooked on\u00a0Rick Stein\u2019s\u00a0India. In Search of the\u00a0Perfect Curry<\/a>,\u00a0which is one of the best cookery books I have ever owned (and I include here all the national cuisines).\u00a0This curry has immediately caught my eye not only because I love squid, but also because it is the last thing I expected to see in an Indian cookery book (and I have never seen squid on the menu of any Indian restaurant in Europe). It turned out so excellent and so perfectly paired with\u00a0squid, I still find it difficult\u00a0to imagine how such an extraordinary recipe can come\u00a0from Karkera Canteen in Fort Mumbai and not from an elegant expensive restaurant.<\/p>\n

I have slightly modified certain ingredients’ amounts and used coconut milk instead of grated fresh coconut, so I strongly invite you to check Rick Stein’s\u00a0wonderful book<\/a> for the original recipe\u00a0and\u00a0also to discover other fabulous Indian recipes.<\/p>\n

TIPS: Do not increase the amounts of any spices (except for chilli), at least for the first time, otherwise you might end up with a slightly bitter sauce.<\/p>\n

Preparation: about 30 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves two):<\/em><\/p>\n

Masala paste:<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon coriander seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon cumin seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

5 cloves garlic (peeled)<\/em><\/p>\n

3 fresh red chillies<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon powdered turmeric<\/em><\/p>\n

100 ml\/about 1.4 fl oz coconut milk or cream (or, if you can use fresh or frozen grated coconut, combine 50 g of it with 50 ml water)<\/em><\/p>\n

400 g\/about 14 oz cleaned (thawed if using frozen) squid<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1 small onion, sliced<\/em><\/p>\n

5 garlic cloves, sliced<\/em><\/p>\n

3 cm ginger, grated into a pulp<\/em><\/p>\n

2 fresh green chillies, sliced<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 Kashmiri chilli powder (or any chilli powder you have)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 small tomato, chopped (skinned or not)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon salt<\/em><\/p>\n

3 cm\u00a0tamarind\u00a0block piece<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon \u00a0jaggery or 1\/2 teaspoon brown sugar (not the coloured one!)<\/p>\n

fresh coriander leaves, chopped<\/p>\n

Pour 50 ml hot water it onto the tamarind piece. Leave for fifteen minutes. (In the meantime start preparing the masala paste and the curry). After this time, mix it well and strain leaving the seeds.<\/p>\n

Prepare the squid.<\/p>\n

Either cut it into rings (the author’s suggestion) or (the way I prefer squid):\u00a0make a big vertical cut through the body, spreading it flat and score it\u00a0diagonally in two directions, on the interior side.\u00a0Cut the squid into long 2 cm thick strips. Then cut\u00a0the strips and tentacles into bite-sized pieces.<\/p>\n

Put aside.<\/p>\n

Prepare the masala paste. Grind all the\u00a0seeds\u00a0into a powder in a spice or coffee grinder (you can of course use a pestle and mortar). Add the remaining ingredients and mix well in a food processor (baby food processor is very useful for such pastes).<\/p>\n

Heat the oil and fry mustard seeds at medium heat until they start popping. Add the onion and stir-fry it for five minutes. Add the garlic, the ginger, the green chilli and fry for one minute. Finally, add the masala paste, the squid, the chilli powder, the tomato, salt and simmer for 3 minutes until the squid is cooked (i.e. no longer translucent). Add the tamarind water and sugar. Heat for 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

Serve sprinkled with coriander leaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up without the slightest idea of what\u00a0squid tasted like and when I finally had a chance to eat\u00a0it, I fell in love with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,33,195],"tags":[212,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16995"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17007,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions\/17007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}