This Recipe is part of the Hot and Spicy Mediterranean Menu
Whenever we get good fresh calamari of any size, Costas, my husband, likes to stuff and grill it over charcoal or on the portable electric grill. He doesn’t like the feta stuffing served with calamari at most Greek taverns, so he came up with this mixture of olives, almonds, and chiles. The calamari are very filling. Serve with just a green salad.
Ingredients
8 to 10 medium-small calamari (1-1/2 to
2 pounds), cleaned, bone discarded, heads separated
Marinade
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Good pinch of Aleppo or Maras pepper or hot red pepper flakes, to taste
Stuffing
3 tablespoons dried whole wheat bread crumbs or ground barley paximadi (see Sources)
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup firm green olives, pitted
Grated zest of 1 lemon, preferably organic
2 or 3 fresh thyme sprigs, chopped
1-1/2 to 3 teaspoons Aleppo or Maras pepper, or a pinch of hot red pepper flakes, to taste
Sea salt
Directions
1. Wash the calamari inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. With scissors or a very sharp knife, cut a 1/4-inch slit on one side, near the pointed end of each calamari tube.
2. In a bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, and Aleppo pepper to make the marinade. Toss the calamari (body and heads) in the marinade, rubbing with your fingers and making sure they are moist inside and out. Set aside for about 20 minutes.
3. In a food processor or blender, pulse together the bread crumbs, almonds, olives, zest, thyme, and Aleppo pepper.
4. Add salt sparingly since the olives are usually quite salty.
5. Light a charcoal grill, or heat a stove-top griddle.
6. Stuff each calamari tube with about 2 tea-spoons stuffing and secure the top with a toothpick.
7. Place the stuffed calamari, cut side up, together with the heads on a well-oiled rack, close to the burning coals, or on a very hot oiled griddle. As the calamari tubes puff up, press carefully with tongs to extract the air. Grill until firm and marked, turning once or carefully rolling, to cook and mark on all sides, brushing every now and then with the marinade, about 8 minutes total.
8. Slice and serve.
Serves 6 to 8
Recipe excerpted from Mediterranean Hot and Spicy by Aglaia Kremezi. Published by Broadway Books. Copyright 2009 by Aglaia Kremezi. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Buy the book now!
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