MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

A Tough Day Demands Soft Calamari

By

This recipe is a twist on my Thai Seafood Green Curry one as it only uses Calamari rings. If you are anything like me you have a love hate relationship with calamari – sometimes you get it just right and it is tender and tasty and other times you use the rings to hold your rugby socks up and for a long time!

I have done this version of my Thai Seafood Green Curry with two Calamari ‘versions’ – steaks and rings. Calamari steaks are relatively easy to cook and keep tender – score in a diamond pattern, sprinkle some meat tenderiser over and cook quickly. This method belong that I use for Calamari rings consistently produces good tasting tender calamari.

Ingredients:

  • 850 grams Calamari
  • One Onion
  • 1 Carrot
  • 4 Spring Onions
  • 4 Courgettes
  • Salt to taste
  • One can Coconut Milk
  • 2 tablespoons Thai Green Curry Paste
  • Fish Sauce
  • Lime Juice
  • Handful fresh Coriander
  • Olive Oil
  • Thumb Size piece Fresh Ginger and Thumb Size amount of Fresh Garlic choppoed finely together
  • Cooked Jasmine Rice

Method:

  • We do this dish in a wok and in four stages – vegetables, calamari, sauce and then all combined

Vegetables:

  • Chop the onion and spring onion and toss into the wok with a little olive oil.
  • Chop Courgettes into bigger than matchstick sizes and sprinkle with salt.
  • Chop Carrot into matchsticks
  • Let onions sweat in the wok (at around 145 degree setting – yellow zone on my wok).
  • Once onions are beginning to go translucent toss finely chopped ginger and garlic in.
  • Toss courgettes and carrot in and crank the heat up a bit (you want the courgettes cooked but crispy).
  • Watch that the garlic and ginger does NOT turn into little blackened bits.

Remove vegetables from wok to another dish.

Calamari:

  • Wash and drain calamari thoroughly – place in a flattish glass dish and sprinkle with meat tenderiser (30 minutes does the trick).
  • Heat up a pan of water (If your name is Auntie, be careful you don’t burn it!)
  • When the water is boiling rapidly toss the Calamari rings in – bring back to the boil and remove and drain after a minute or so.
  • Heat some Olive Oil in the wok – I like to make it very hot so that the calamari edges get a brown black tinge – toss and stir fry the rings quickly, remove to one side

Sauce:

  • This is where Peanut Oil really comes in handy as I like to stir fry the Thai Green Curry Paste in that.
  • Quickly Stir Fry the Thai Green Curry Paste in some Olive (Peanut) Oil.
  • Add a quarter of the can of coconut milk and blend until the mixture bubbles then add the rest of the can and blend.
  • At this point I like to add a teaspoon of peanut butter if I have not been using peanut oil.
  • Add a glug of fish sauce and a couple of squirts of lime juice to the sauce.

Combined:

  • Toss the vegetables and calamari into the sauce.
  • Blend gently until you see bubbles.
  • Turn heat down low, toss in chopped fresh coriander, cover the wok, pour yourself a cold one and go and talk to the Longhair, OR, if your name is Auntie, phone Mr D. because you have probably burnt everything.

Serve over Jasmine Rice.

Feeds:  Four, generously

Time: 40 minutes

Share your recipes with the Port Elizabeth community HERE.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

Reader Interactions

Comments