Totally Tubular
Posted on October 18, 2006
I’d be a real jerk for not introducing my friends in America to the exquisitely simple pleasures of Dalmatian cooking, and my recent visit to Brooklyn gave me an opportunity to do just that. I walked with Mike and Karen to the farmer’s market in Prospect Heights where, luckily, there was a decent enough fishmonger’s booth tucked into the sprawl of organic vegetable hucksters. After time spent in Zagreb and Split, I’m extremely spoiled as far as fish markets go, but I held my tongue about what I did and didn’t see as I made my appraisal of the fish on display. I decided that six of the medium-sized squid looked and smelled good enough to eat, and that I’d improvise a version of punjene lignje for supper. You may follow my advice on its preparation and adapt as needed.
After cleaning the squid, chop the tentacles for later inclusion in the rice stuffing, which you will began simply enough by sauteeing a relatively fine mince of five cloves of garlic, one large onion, a half cup of fresh Italian parsley, and a healthy handful each of fresh oregano and lavender.
Once the onions are translucent, add six medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped. Simmered this until the tomatoes are broken down and a thick, chunky consistency had been attained. Remove 2/3 of this sauce and set it aside.
To the remaining sauce add the chopped tentacles, 1/2 cup each of chopped carrots and green onions and approximately 1 cup of washed rice. Stir over a medium-high flame until you notice a bit of carmelization in the pan, then add enough mild fish stock to cover. When the liquid has been absorbed, add more stock, stirring all the while. Repeat this step until the rice is cooked and a firm, even consistency has been reached. Essentially, you’re aiming for a dry risotto. Feel free to use Arborio rice if you have it on hand, but bear in mind that this rice mixture will be stuffed into the squid and baked, so you’ll want to cook out most of the liquid. If your rice is too moist and brothy, it will not only be more difficult to get into the squid, but will also liquify further and leak out during baking. No one wants that.
I suggest cutting a small hole into the pointed end of each squid before stuffing. This will allow trapped air to escape as you fill the body with rice and also prevent the squid from exploding in the oven (an amusing effect, but undesirable). Be sure to get as much stuffing as possible into each squid. Once stuffed, I recommend securing the wide, open ends of the bodies with toothpicks to minimize leakage. Please remember to remove the toothpicks before serving.
Arrange your stuffed squid on a baking pan that has been rubbed generously with olive oil, then drizzle more oil over them. If you like, you may sprinkle sea salt and freshly cracked pepper or red chile flakes over them before heaving the pan into a 425 degree oven. I baked mine for somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. Once on the plate, I quickly heated the reserved tomato sauce and poured it generously over our stuffed friends. I suggest serving these (and just about anything else) with the ubiquitous Swiss chard and potato mash known as blitva. And, seafood is always accompanied by red wine in Dalmatia. Since I couldn’t find any Dingač in Brooklyn, we went with a mature Zinfandel.
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