Slow-cooked Spicy Calamari

[judydawn]

I found this on recipefinder (Geordiegirl's kitchen) and thought it ideal for the TMX. We all know you can cook calamari either very quickly or for a long time and I have never done it the slow way before but the TMX does it beautifully. 

INGREDIENTS - 1 bunch spring onions cut into 5cm lengths
                      3 small cloves garlic or 1 large one
                      1/2 tspn sambal oelek or chillies to taste
                      3 tblspns olive oil
                      3 Tblspns tomato puree
                      250mls chicken stock (or veg stock)
                      4 calarari tubes, skinned & cut into 2cm strips (tedious but prevents it from being stringy)
                      2 Tblspns cornflour mixed with a little water
                      200-300g pasta shells
                      1200g boiling water, salted

METHOD   -     Chop onions, garlic and chilli 2sec/speed 5.  Scrape down with spatula and repeat.
                     Add oil and saute 4 mins/100^o C/speed 1.
                     Add tomato puree, chicken stock and calamari strips.
                     Cook 40 mins/70-80^o C/Reverse/speed 1.
                     Thicken with the cornflour mixture 3 minutes before the end of cooking time.
                     Pour the calamari into the thermosaver and cook some pasta shells (no need to wash the bowl). Drain
                     when cooked and add to the calamari.  Leave to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

PASTA     -     Pour 1200mls boiling water into the TM bowl, add 200g-300g pasta shells and cook as per packet
                    directions at 100^oC/reverse/speed1.
                    Time will depend on the size of the pasta. Leave MC on an angle to
                    prevent boil over.

Members' comments
Thermomixer - Thanks JD.  I think you could put the temp for cooking down to even 80 or 70.  I am sure chicken works just as well.
   
Mrs KK - Well JD - what a winner! We had this for tea last night and it was delicious. We normally only ever have salt & pepper calamari but this will be the new way to have it. I did it exactly as the recipe said and it was lovely. The only thing we didn't do was have it with pasta so there was a lot of sauce. I think you could easily double the quantity of calamari if you didn't need the sauce to mix through the pasta. Instead of pasta, I filled the bottom of a pasta bowl with baby spinach and then spooned it over the spinach. I made pizza bianca (varoma demo card) and salad to go with it. My DH commented that we were going all out restaurant style!

Amy - I'm adding 1/2 tsp curry powder instead of chilli. Words cannot describe the tenderness of this calamari.  It. Is. Amazing. Absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe Judy, it will be another regular in our house.

cookie1 -  DH and I enjoyed it but DD didn't like it that much, although she had seconds.

Katiej - We had this for entree last night.  It was the first time I'd cooked calamari and it turned out lovely.  I took Mrs KK's suggestion and served it with baby spinach, along with the pasta.  I served it with homemade foccacia. My DH and our visitors really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recipe JD, it was a hit. I didn't enjoy it as much as I don't really like seafood, but that's just my personal taste.

Nikkit - I did this with what I thought was calamari in the freezer. Once they had defrosted it turned out to be baby octopus. (note to self - I MUST label everything that goes into the freezer as I will definitely forget what is in that container.)
Anyhow, it was nice. Although I think the eyeballs of the not very well cleaned bubby occies put the kids off a bit!

JAM - I made this tonight and the calamari was delicious, so tender.  I have never been able to make calamari/squid as it turns out like rubber every single time.
One question, when you suggest to cut it into 2cm strips - what do you mean?  Rings that are 2 cms wide, or 2cm x 2cm squares?
I made this, put it in the thermoserver then made the Asian Stir Fry Vegetables and served this on top with a little of the sauce - it was amazing!

JD's reply - JAM, if you cut the calamari into rings, they get caught under the blades so it is better to open the calamari tube out and cut strips. It doesn't matter the length really but not 2 x 2 cm squares.

Amy - I had this on the meal plan for tonight but the only calamari at the fish shop was imported from China. So we got some scallops instead and I figured I'd just improvise.
I made the sauce, only cooking for 20 minutes, and set it aside in a saucepan on the stove while I steamed potatoes for mash and vegetables. 5 minutes before I was ready to dish up, I brought the sauce to the boil on the stove and then turned the heat off and dropped the scallops in. They were absolutely perfect and the sauce was delicious as always.

[I Love Bimby!]

Looks great JD.
Do you think that would work with chicken?  I'm not a seafood eater.... but it looks delish!

[judydawn]

DH loves calamari but all you ever get in pubs and restaurants here is crumbed and they range from great to terrible depending on who cooked them. This is a much healthier version and something totally different so I was pretty chuffed with it actually. So simple (took a while to pull that skin off, you can't see it but once you remove a bit it is then easy to get the rest off).  That's one thing I hate about biting into a crumbed piece, they never remove it.  As far as chicken goes, yes why not.  Cook the sauce a bit on it's own then add the chicken and only cook a short time if using breasts or tenderloins, a bit longer for thighs. I couldn't tell you the weight of the calamari now but when sliced, it filled a normal sized soup bowl - I'd say 500g or a bit more.

[I Love Bimby!]

Thanks JD 

[Very Happy Jan]

mmm yum. Thanks JD I love calamari.

[Thermomixer]

Thanks JD.  I think you could put the temp for cooking down to even 80 or 70.  I am sure chicken works just as well.

I did a beef and sweet potato curry last night and cooked it at 80 deg for 45 mins - and even at that temp it was cooking well.

[judydawn]

Thanks Thermomixer, wasn't sure just how low I could go.  So, if a recipes says to simmer something, 70 - 80^oC is the way to go?

[Thermomixer]

Yeah, try cooking something on the stove like a stew and put the thermometer to check what temp it is cooking at when it just bubbles away.  You wouldn't keep the flame up on the stove top, so why with the TMX?

[cookie1]

Judy this really looks tasty. I don't cook with calamari very often but I will give this a try. I usually cook it and it is tough. I also hate frying food.

[Thermomixer]

cookie1 - either high heat for seconds or very slow for an hour and it melts.  Goes through a tough stage so beware.

[cookie1]

Thanks. I hope to catch some when we go to Monkey Mia in May-if the tiger shark isn't around taking the squid jigs! I'm kinda scared of sharks when I'm in their domain.

[Mrs KK]

Well JD - what a winner! We had this for tea last night and it was delicious. We normally only ever have salt & pepper calamari but this will be the new way to have it. I did it exactly as the recipe said and it was lovely. The only thing we didn't do was have it with pasta so there was a lot of sauce. I think you could easily double the quantity of calamari if you didn't need the sauce to mix through the pasta. Instead of pasta, I filled the bottom of a pasta bowl with baby spinach and then spooned it over the spinach. I made pizza bianca (varoma demo card) and salad to go with it. My DH commented that we were going all out restaurant style!

[judydawn]

Thanks for the review Kylie - gee this is a very old one but I remember DH really enjoyed it too.

[gertbysea]

Thanks for reminding  me of this recipe.

Gert

[Amy :-)]

I found this recipe yesterday when I was looking for recipes to use up some squid tubes in our freezer. I put it on the meal plan for Saturday, so thanks for the review Mrs KK!!