I did that thing again. That thing, where I can’t think of a succinct and snazzy title for a recipe so I just list all the ingredients. This also has black beans, coriander and spring onion in it so I left out some ingredients, go me on the personal development front… eek.

Usually when you think stuffed, baked, calamari (I’m going to use the terms calamari and squid interchangeably in this post) you probably think of Italian or Greek flavours. I’ve gone in a different direction and made it Mexican. I wanted a seafood dish that felt very wintery as well as a Mexican dish that also had that vibe to it. I want to eat Mexican food all year round and as we’re lucky enough in Australia to have a never ending avocado season (thanks Queensland, you’re the real MVP here) it’s totally easy to get that vibe. Plus winter is citrus season so limes are a plenty.

Baking calamari makes it so tender, not at all chewy but with definite bite. The calamari flavour still shines through despite the spicy Mexicn flavours. The heat is a soft warm back of your throat kind of heat rather than a blow your tastes out type of thing. It’s my ideal chilli level. All the flavour without the burn.

Don’t be put off by the idea of having to stuff calamari. You can buy the whole tubes from your supermarket or fishmonger all cleaned and ready to go. They are masically little pockets begging to be stuffed.

This dish is perfect dinner party food for 2 key reasons. The first is that it can all be made it in advance, squid stuffed, sauce made and poured over the top, covered in foil, and you can just pop it in your oven when your guests arrive and in 45 minutes, dinner is served. The perfect amount of time for grazing on a cheese board. Just make sure the dish is at room temperature still when you put it in the oven as any cooler than that will slow the cooking down.

The second reason? It looks super impressive when you serve it! I usually take the tubes out of the baking dish and arrange them on a serving dish with the sauce both under and over them, you can then slice them as you you serve if it’s part of a banquet, or just give your guests one or two each if it’s the main dish. You also only really need to make a simple avocado salsa (diced avo, lime, spring onion, coriander) and dress some cabbage with lime juice and salt as your low maintenance sides. The polenta the squid is stuffed with is your carby accompaniment. It sort of oozes out of the calamari as it cooks and mixes with the tomato sauce, scoop this excess polenta onto your plate and eat it with the calamari. Ideal.

Top tip: Keep your leftovers and reheat them in the oven. Just cover in foil and reheat at 160 degrees celsius for about 25 minutes. If you only have polenta and sauce left then put that in a baking dish, sprinkle with cheese and bake until crispy on top.

Got some leftover black beans and chipotle sauce? Make a yummy dip/starter by sauteeing  1 cup of diced onions and celery until soft, add the black beans along with tomato paste and chipotle sauce and cooking, mashing with a wooden spoon on the stove top for 5-10 minutes. Place in an oven proof dish with a mound of grated cheese in the centre and bake in a 200 degree oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve with corn chips as a starter.

Ingredients

6-8 squid tubes, cleaned (depending on size – enough to serve 4!)

2 cups milk

1 cup polenta (uncooked)

1/2 cup black beans (cooked, canned is fine just drain and rinse well)

2/3 cup freshly grated manchego cheese

1/3 cup finely sliced spring onion

3 Tbs finely chopped coriander stem and leaf

3 Tbs roughly chopped jalapenos

1 tsp lime zest

Sauce

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely diced celery

1/3 cup finely chopped spring onion

1 Tbs finely chopped coriander stalk and root

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsps smoked paprika

1/2 cup white wine or sherry (whatever you have on hand)

2 Tbs chipotle sauce

2 cans crushed tomato

coriander, spring onion, lime wedges and extra virgn olive oil to serve

iDirections

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Place the calamari tubes in a shallow bowl and cover with the milk for 20 minutes minimum (do this overnight if you wish).

Make the sauce: Place the oil in a medium pot on medium high heat. Once hot add the celery, onion, coriander stalk and root,  garlic, cumin and paprika and sautee for 2-3 minutes until celery and onion have softened. Add the wine and cook until it has almost evaporated. Add the chipotle sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomoatoes and leave to simmer for 15 minutes on low heat.

Make the polenta by combining the polenta with 1 cup of cold water in a small pot. Add 1 and a 1/4 cups of boiling water and whisk. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionallly.

Take off the heat and place in a bowl along with the black beans, manchego, spring onion, lime zest, coriander and jalapenos. Add 1/4 cup of the milk from the calamari and stir well to evenly mix everything through the polenta.

get a large baking dish that will fit all your calamari tubes ready. take each tube and stuff it with the polenta, it should be enough to fill the tubes completely but a little less packed at the top won’t matter as the mixture will swell as you cook it. Lie the calamari tubes in a single layer in the baking dish and pour over the sauce. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Season with salt, lime juice and black pepper and serve scattered with spring onion, coriander and even some avocado if you like!

HH. x