Day 17: March 10, 2015 - Lenten Calamari with Red Wine Sauce - Νηστίσιμο Καλαμαράκια με Σάλτσα Κόκκινου Κρασιού

By now, you would have noticed that we love to discuss (and eat) foods kokkinisto (with a red sauce).  Typically that refers to a tomato sauce, but today, we made squid with red wine sauce.  Does that count as almost kokkinisto?

Wine is a common ingredient in cooking.  There are some wines that are better for cooking than others. We tend to use whatever we have open at the time, but realise that sometimes that is not the best choice.  For this recipe, however, we prefer a drier type of wine.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

2 pounds (about 900 g) cleaned Squid (Calamari)
2 onions
2 bay leaves
5 whole cloves
2 cups dry red wine
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup malt vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Start by making sure that the squid is cleaned well and all the hard pieces have been removed.  In a sauce pan, put the squid, onions, bay leaves and cloves.  Cover the pot and allow this to simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

Next, add the wine, oil, and vinegar to the pot.  Make sure it is well mixed.  Cover the pot and let this cook at medium - low heat for another 15 minutes.  You will smell the wine and the vinegar and want to taste, but there is more to do!  Now, you have to leave the pot uncovered at medium heat and cook until the liquids reduce by about half.  This is the time that you remove the cloves and bay leaves.  Pull them out of the liquid and discard them.  It is not easy to find the cloves, but make sure you do.  Nobody likes to bite into a whole clove hiding in a dish!

Now, cover the pot again, turn the heat to medium low, and allow this to cook for 1 hour.   You will see that the squid is pink in colour from cooking, but it gets a nice glowing pink from the red wine.  Allow this to cook for the hour, and you will know that the calamari is becoming especially tender in the pot.  This is your chance to make the rice or noodles that you will serve with this dish.  You want something that will catch some of the sauce from the calamari.

After an hour has passed, much of the liquid will be cooked away in the pot, but you have enough to dress each serving!  You can remove the calamari from the pot, and pour whatever sauce is left over top.  You may see some pieces of onions still, which makes a nice garnish on top of the calamari.  And, you can then arrange the calamari with the onions.  Before serving this, sprinkle some ground black pepper on top, whether it is already ground or you use a pepper mill, add a splash of pepper on top to serve, and enjoy!

"They asked an elder, "What is humility?" The elder said, "When your brother sins against you, and you forgive him, before he repents before you.""

(Ancient Patericon, 15.74)

Source of quote: http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm