Squids In Ink

Cenador de Amos

Chef: Jesús Sánchez

Country: Spain

City: 39793 Villaverde de Pontones (Cantabria).

Address: Pl. del Sol. s/n.

Chef Jesús Sánchez has done great things in favour of the evolution of Cantabria’s haute cuisine. He invented multiple creative recipes based on local products, such as the famous trip through indigenous cheese textures seasoned with Sanfilippo anchovies and peppers. Following this evolutionary and feasible line that distinguishes his style, this original composition reminds the regional appetizer par excellence: the popular squids. Nothing to do with frozen cuttlefish or other similar molluscs: fresh, utterly fresh squids, line-caught in the Santander Bay. The animal is enhanced by a glorious baby squid broth and by the techno, crunchy and chromatic touch of some toasts made with its ink that give texture, taste and beauty to this composition of His Majesty the squid.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

Ink toasts:

3 l water, 500 g prawn bread, 18 g ink of fresh cuttlefish.

Squid broth:

1,5 l water, 1 onion, ½ green pepper, 1 tomato, red pepper, leek, 25 g extra virgin olive oil, 1 garlic clove, 50 g white wine, ½ kilo fresh squids, salt and pepper.

Other ingredients:

1 300-g squid, 1 egg white, olive oil for frying, salt.

Method:

Boil the water and cook the prawn bread in it for 30 minutes stirring constantly. Once cooked, strain and put the obtained chips into a Thermomix. Add the cuttlefish ink and mix until getting a fine and homogenous dough.

Pour the fine and hot cream into a stainless steel mould previously placed on a non-stick surface. Let cool down for a couple of hours at room temperature. Cut the dough in small portions and dehydrate for 10 hours into a drying oven at 65 ºC. Keep in an airtight container until frying.

In a saucepan, slightly brown the garlic with the oil, add the rest of vegetables and then the squids, at the last moment. Add the white wine and the water and boil it all for 40 minutes. Let the broth cool down, strain and reduce to the half.

Clean the squid and cut into 2-cm-wide strips. Skewer the squid on a wooden stick. Heat the oil to 170º C.

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