Asturian-American Migration Forum

My aunt Connie says that my grandfather was the one who cooked seafood in her family. This dish was one of his favorite dishes. My aunt Dora said he liked to have it at Christmas time.

Clean a number of 5-6" squid.
Stuff the squid with:
-- finely chopped onion
-- the chopped tentacles from the squid
-- uncooked white rice
-- ham (or ground beef, or for Easter, make it without meat)
Close each squid with a toothpick.
Dip squid in egg, then in crushed corn flakes.
Bake in an oven.

The corn flakes are probably an American addition.
Interestingly, the squid aren't fried.
I was also surprised that there is no sauce. I suppose the juice for the rice comes from the onions and squid. I'll need to try this to see if it really works.

-----------------------

Mi tía Concepción dice que mi abuelo fue el que cocinó los mariscos en su familia. Este plato fue uno de sus favoritos. Mi tía Dora dice que le gustó en Navidad.

Limpiar un número calamares de 13-15 cm.
Rellena los calamares con:
-- Cebolla picada finamente
-- Los tentáculos del calamar picados
-- Arroz blanco crudo
-- Jamón (o carne picada, o en la Semana Santa lo hacen sin la carne)
Cerrar cada calamar con un palillo.
Mete cada calamar en huevo, y luego páselo en copos de maíz triturados.
Hornéalo en el horno.

Los copos de maíz probablemente fue una adición americano.
Curiosamente, no se fríen los calamares.
También me sorprendió que no hay una salsa. Supongo que el jugo para el arroz viene de la cebolla y los calamares. Tendré que probar éste para ver si realmente va bien.

Sounds like chipirones rellenos. But I don't know about that chopped ham, kind of odd to stuff the squid with that. Could it be an improvisation act in West Virginia, 20th century?

Chipirones in Asturias are either fritos (fried), rellenos (stuffed) or afogaos (cooked in their own sauce or in sauces of other kinds).

I got a tip from a lady in Casa Mario, a typical merenderu up in Deva (County of Xixon). She cuts off the tails of the chipirones (corta-yos la punta) to avoid shrinkage, dips them in voluminous amounts of oil (olive or vegetable oil) after tossing them in flour (farina), then serves them with lemon. They go well with cider, needless to say.

Chipirones are young squid, I think, but I've also seen the term applied to cuttlefish (in a restaurant in Avilés - I ordered the dish and it was clearly cuttlefish, not squid). I would appreciate a correction if I am wrong. In either case, I am very fond of them stewed in a sauce with their own ink. It is much easier to find squid than cuttlefish here in New England.

I've never had ham in stuffed squid, but my grandmother used to stuff them with their own tentacles and other ingredients and cook them in a tomato sauce containing, among other things, their own ink.

I still remember how to clean them, saving the ink sac and its contents for the sauce. Pull of the heads, remove the skin, and turn the main part of the body inside out to clean it, then back the right way. Cut of the head with its hard beak and eyes, but save the tentacles. There is a little plastic-like structure that needs to be pulled out of the body too. All of this is not really hard to do once you have cleaned your first squid, which is a learning process. Now, however, you can buy little packets of ink, so I buy the squid already cleaned.

When you're cleaning the squid, where will the ink sack be found? I've never noticed it.

-----------------------

¿Cuando se limpia las calamares, dónde se encuentra el saco de tinta? Nunca lo he notado.

Here is a link that should help. The black ink makes it appear dark, so it's not hard to find.

http://encarta.msn.com/media_461553803/ ... squid.html

The plastic like thing is called a pen in English. Does anyone know what it is called in castellano and asturianu?

Thanks, I'll look for that the next time I clean some.

Bob, when you said "pen" were you referring to the cartilage spine-like piece (obviously, being an invertebrate, it doesn't have a spine) or the hard mouth part?

------------------

Gracias, lo buscaré la próxima vez que les limpie.

Bob, cuando dijiste "pen", estabas refiriendo al cartílago pieza parecido a un columna (pues, no tiene columna como es invertebrado), o la parte dura de la boca?

Yes, it's sort of cartilagenous, a rudimementary shell in a way/ Cuttlefish have a bonier one, hence the term cuttlebone.

I think it's good to preserve and pass on some of the skills that our ancestors had in preparing food back in the days when prepackaged meat and fish in supermarkets didn't exist. There's a sort of connection with nature that is worth pursuing. I draw the line at slaughtering my own pigs and dismembering the carcass into smaller cuts however, even though my grandparents and their friends did it every year.

I haven't boned pork butts for chorizos in over 20 years, but I used to be able to cut the meat off the bone, which has a very odd shape, sort of like a T in cross section, quite rapidly. Fifty pounds in about two hours, and some of that time spent returning feeling to my hands in warm water. The first one or two are a learning experience, and after that it goes very fast. It takes a razor sharp boning knife and strict attention, because with refrigerated pork butts (and we do want to watch food safety issues) your fingers soon become numb.

You also have to be careful to cut the fat small enough to recognize and remove all of the little grey colored "glands."

When I say razor sharp knife, I mean that quite literally, even though the blade is not hollow ground. I sometimes test the edge by shaving a hair or two off my forearm.

I have never cut myself with a really sharp knife. Carbon steel is best because it takes a keener edge, but good quality stainless is also OK. I hone all of my knives with two fine grades of diamond sharpeners at regular intervals (about once a year if you keep them in good shape), and fine tune them with a steel before and after each use. If used for over 15 minutes or so, the knife gets rehoned on the steel, about 15-20 swipes on each side. This doesn't so much grind metal off as reset the fine and delicate razor edge. I draw the edge toward my hand, which I think gives better control of the angle. This takes me under ten seconds on an 8 inch chef's knife, and scares the hell out of my family. I've never once cut myself (knock on wood). I'll admit to enjoying the theatricality of it, especially when I cook for friends who are chefs.

¡Decididamente, sois mis cocineros favoritos!

Bob: La sepia y el calamar son dos "bichos" distintos, La sepia es mas redonda, esta està en el mar.


Y esta pobre ya está cocinada "a la plancha"

El calamar mas alargado, en Asturias los llamamos "potarros"

Pero ¡Ay amigos!, si podeis encontrar y degustar calamares como estos, sabreis lo que es una autentica delicia, simplemente a la plancha, un calamar de potera de Candàs, es un autentico manjar, os recomiendo que la próxima vez que vengais a Asturias no dejeis de probarlos.

No me parece que el chipirón sea el calamar pequeño, aunque sin duda son parientes

En algun sitio leí que hay 40 tipos de cefalópodos, supongo que se agruparán en familias, que yo sepa, ademas estan las "puntillas", de la familia del calamar pero muy pequeñitas (2 cm.) y los "choquitos" de la familia de las sepias.

Art: Si al limpiarlos tiras de los tentáculos de modo que salga todo lo que hay en el interior del calamar, verás sin ningún problema el saquito de tinta, en los calamares de potera es grande, de un color negro azabache precioso, recubierto de una telilla blanquecina y transparente, es necesario tener mucho cuidado de no romper esta bolsa hasta el momento de incorporarla a la salsa, puesto que se estropearia la tinta y tu te pondrias perdido.

En el potarro, la bolsa de tinta es mucho mas pequeña, está más seca y el color negro no es tan brillante.

Los que se rellenan, son generalmente los chipirones, se puede emplear cualquier cosa para el relleno, además de los tentáculos guisados en un sofrito, yo si los he probado con jamón, con carne picada, con aceitunas, con arroz....Depende de la imaginación y el gusto del cocinero, personalmente, pienso que un producto fresco, lo mejor es saborearlo lo mas al natural posible, asi que los chipirones como mas me gustan es a la plancha o fritos y los calamares guisados en su tinta y con arroz blanco ¡Uy, que fame!

Gracias, Mafalda.

Mafalda wrote:...es necesario tener mucho cuidado de no romper esta bolsa hasta el momento de incorporarla a la salsa, puesto que se estropearia la tinta y tu te pondrias perdido.

En el potarro, la bolsa de tinta es mucho mas pequeña, está más seca y el color negro no es tan brillante.

Ah, sí, eso explicaría porque nunca lo he encontrado. Normalmente compro los potarros y esperé un saco con contenidos muy líquidos.

Generalmente no me gusta comida frita, pero con calamares, me parece el el colmo de sabor los fritos.

-----------------------

Thanks, Mafalda.

Mafalda wrote:...you have to be careful to not break this bag until the moment you add it to the sauce, given that it will go bad and you'll get lost. [Art: ?? covered by the ink?]

Inside the potarro [kind of squid], the ink sac is much smaller, drier, and the black color isn't as strong.

Ah, that might explain why I've never found it. I think I usually buy the potarro and I was expecting to see a bag with very liquid contents.

I don't usually like to eat fried foods but, to my tongue, fried calamares are the very best tasting.

Our members in Asturias might like to know that fried calamares are very common on restaurant menus en los EEUU, at least here in the northeast. They are usually coated with a very light batter and very quickly fried, then served with a variety of sauces. I've never been in an Italian, Spanish or Portuguese restaurant tin the US hat did not have them on the menu.

For members in the Boston area, one of my favorite places to have them is Azorean Restaurant (which, as you might suspect from the name, features Azorean food) located in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

I have eaten calamares in nearly any place I have been. From Phillipines where they stuff them and them grilled them to the Middle East (yesterday I had stuffed calamari for lunch in Bahrain.

However nothing can beat a fresh calamar de potera.

I reckon that the main reason for the excellent taste of the Asturian Calamar is that you must fish the calamar one by one with a potera (type of fish hook) and that guarantees the quality of the product

Bob, Is it true that octopus is not a popular dish in USA and that very seldom you find it in a recipe?

Pulpo is - how shall I put it - somewhat rare in los EEUU, but is one of my favorite seafoods and can often be found in the better Spanish restaurants. It's not hard to find excellent pulpo in good fish shops if you want it, but it is not something that leaps to the attention of the casual shopper.

I like it with a little virgin olive oil, garlic and smoked paprika. The trick is in cooking it just right, tender, not tough.

Most norteamericanos buy their fish in supermarkets, which - in my opinion - is a big mistake. Our supermarkets never have pulpos. There is no substitute for developing a relationship with a good fishmonger. Just last month I bought some tiny baby pulpos that were exquisite.

I buy octopus (usually it's frozen, unfortunately) in the Korean markets here, but it's hard to find anyone willing to eat it with me! Most people look at those suction cups and get squeamish. Well, then there's more for me!

-------------------

Compro el pulpo (por lo general, es congelado, por desgracia) en los mercados coreanos aquí, pero es difícil encontrar a gente dispuesto a comerlo conmigo! La mayoría de las personas echar un vistazo a esas ventosas y se vuelven aprensivos. Pues, ¡más para mí!

Bob: Tu preparas el pulpo "a la gallega" cocido en su punto, cortado en rodajas, se le "incrusta" un poco de sal gruesa, se riega con aceite de oliva virgen y se espolvorea con pimenton. El mas rico lo he comido en la feria de Lugo, lo presentan en platos de madera , con unas patatas hervidas en el centro (cachelos, en gallego) ¡¡¡buenisimo!!!

Art: no es ninguna desgracia comprar el pulpo congelado, antes, en Galicia, (donde se pescan los mejores pulpos del mundo) le daban una buena "paliza" al "bicho" antes de cocerlo, para ablandarlo, ahora lo que se hace es congelarlo, consiguiendo asi el mismo resultado.

Se me olvidaba, las pulpeiras gallegas cuecen el pulpo en una cazuela de cobre, realza el sabor y mejora la textura. En casa, para conseguir un resultado similar puedes poner en la olla un buen trozo de cobre.

Vaya, Mafalda. Ahora tengo ganas de comer pulpo... ¡y aún no he desayunado! ¿Qué haces?!

----------

Man, oh, man, Mafalda. Now you've got me wanting some pulpo and I haven't even had breakfast yet! What are you doing!?