Stuffed Calamari
Serves 4
The calamari are cooked in a peca or Croatian oven (also known as a Dutch or damper or camp oven), but a conventional oven can also be used.
Ingredients
1 kg calamari (fresh baby squid)
olive oil, for cooking
2 onions, very finely chopped
½ bunch continental parsley, coarsely chopped
few cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt, preferably natural sea salt
ground pepper
1 ½ cups rice
2-3 teaspoons of the Croatian ‘secret spices’ – cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, Chinese Five Spice (that is, approximately ½ teaspoon of each spice)
good handful of pine nuts, unroasted
7-8 pieces dry or fresh sweet figs
additional olive oil
Method
Cut the heads and tails off the squid. Set aside the tubes and finely chop the heads and tails.
Heat the oil in a frypan and add the chopped heads and tails, then the onion, parsley and garlic, stirring constantly.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add uncooked rice, again stirring constantly.
Add the spices and, finally, the pine nuts.
Cook for 10 minutes, still stirring.
When cooked, ladle stuffing into the calamari tubes and secure the ends with toothpicks.
Slice the figs into quarters and arrange with stuffed calamari pockets in a baking dish. Pour olive oil over the top.
Put dish in the bottom of the Croatian oven and put the lid on. (Tip – Using this kind of oven means no liquid is needed for cooking.) However, a conventional oven preheated to 200° C can be used (in this case, use 2 glasses of wine)
Cook for one hour.
