Baby squids in their ink

How to make squid in your ink .

The difference between squid and squid is only a matter of size, the squid is the small squid . They are very typical in the Basque country where they are known with their spelling as “txipirones”.

The most valued are those caught with a hook in an artisanal way, they are tastier and have a better texture, but they are difficult to obtain and their price is higher. If we can buy them fresh in our usual fish shop, the result will be fabulous.

In Spain, baby squid is the most consumed and widespread cephalopod in cooking. We find different preparations throughout the country, depending on the tastes of each area.

We usually call them according to their size: the smallest “lace”, which are usually fried and battered; “Squid” when they are medium in size; and “squid” when they are adults.

For this recipe you must use squid or squid. They can be prepared in many ways: with noodles , fried, stuffed , onions, grilled , in their ink … but one of the most traditional recipes is to prepare them in their ink, since it gives the dish a more intense flavor and smell. .

It is one of the few dishes prepared whose result is black so it causes great surprise among foreign diners.

Before cooking. Squid cleaning

1. Try to buy first quality squid, it is essential that they are very fresh. When this is the case, the skin should never be removed because it gives the preparations a lot of flavor.
2. The first thing we do is clean the baby squid, we carefully pull the tentacles to remove all their insides. We remove the pen that is housed inside. Removing guts, eyes, mouth and inner pen. We must be careful so that they are very clean, especially to eliminate well the mouth and the beak that it contains since it is very uncomfortable to find it when eating.
3. If the baby squid are very small, it will be enough to put a finger in the body to remove as much sand as possible, without having to turn them over. If they are large, it is worth turning them around like a sock and doing their best in cleaning.
4. We have to be careful with reserving and not breaking the ink bag, which we will use to intensify the flavor and give color to our plate. We wash them well under the tap to remove possible remains and drain.
5. We place the ink bags on a plate and with the help of a spoon we crush them until the bag breaks. We remove the part of the bag that remains, add a little water to dilute it and pour it into a glass with a little water. We reserve.
6. Keep in mind that the bag that the baby squid has is very small, so if we prefer a more intense color or if this step is very laborious, we will add the content of a commercialized ink envelope.

Preparation of squid in its ink

1. Chop the onions into very small pieces and toss them in a pan to sauté them.
2. When the onion is soft, add the diced tomatoes, the squid and the minced garlic. Pour the fish stock until the content is covered and cook slowly, about 40 minutes, with the saucepan covered.
3. After 25 minutes of cooking, add the ink dissolved in water. Add salt and pepper.
4. When the baby squid are tender we remove them and we pass the sauce through the Chinese strainer. We put them back in the saucepan and pour the strained sauce on top. Let it boil together for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with a little parsley on top.

We serve accompanied by white rice to be able to soak it with the sauce. A very traditional dish, easy to prepare and also a cheap and healthy recipe. I hope you enjoy it.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier.

You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.