Sous Vide Squid Stuffed with Sticky Chorizo Rice
Speed - 95%
Simplicity - 95%
Tastiness - 97%
96%
Excellent!
The squid came out perfectly tender with all its natural sweetness. The savory chorizo rice stuffing was just superb.
Ingredients
For the Squid
- 500 Grams Squid whole, tentacles removed
- 1 Cup Glutinous Rice
- 1 Small Onion finely chopped
- 2 Cloves garlic mined
- 1 Piece Spanish Chorizo minced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1.5 Cups Chicken Stock
- 2 Pieces Bay Leaf
For the Basil Oil
- 1 bunch Fresh Basil Leaves
- 1/2 Cup olive oil
Instructions
For the Squid
- Rinse rice and soak for 15 minutes in cold water.
- Sautee onions, garlic, and minced chorizo in a pot.
- Add rice and sautee for a minute.
- Add chicken stock and bayleaves. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and leave to cook for 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and leave the pot covered for another 15 minutes.
- Fluff the rice and leave to cool.
- Stuff the squid with the cooked chorizo rice.
- Put the stuffed squid into a sous vide bag together with olive oil.
- Cook sous vide for an hour at 135F.
- Serve with basil oil.
For the Basil Oil
- Blanch basil leaves in boiling water.
- Transfer to an ice bath.
- Squeeze out any excess water from the basil leaves.
- Puree the basil leaves with olive oil in a food processor.
Cooking squid right – it's either going for a flash fry or a slow tender braise. Anything in between would yield mediocre results. The problem is, going for a long and slow braise takes out much of the squid's flavor, which is really naturally sweet. This was what I knew until I tried sous vide.
Just like with any other ingredient I've worked on so far, sous vide just renders food into textures which are honestly unbelievable. As for this recipe, I have never thought I could cook squid melt-in-the-mouth tender while remaining all juicy and sweet.
Though not to the level I've achieved, I had expectations that these squid would turn out really tender out of the sous vide bath. I just knew I had to stuff it with something for a fuller bite. The stuffing should be savory yet neutral enough not to get in the way of the squid's natural flavor.
I decided to go for a stuffing with some Spanish flare – a sticky chorizo rice, much like a less busy paella.
Let's start by getting our rice perfectly ready for cooking. By the way, we're using glutinous rice for the reason that it'll hold together way better than an ordinary long-grain variety. Arborio and sushi rice would be good alternatives.
Give the rice a few rinses under a running tap and leave it to soak for about 15 minutes. This soak would cause those grains to swell and hold much more liquid later as they cook.
After soaking, drain the rice and leave it to air dry for about 10 minutes. That long soak has caused the grains to turn fragile and air drying would re-strengthen them so they don't break in the next step.
Heat some olive oil in a pot and sautee the chopped chorizo, minced garlic, and chopped onions. Give those ingredients about a minute to sweat and release their flavors.
Add the rice into the pot and toss well to evenly coat each grain in oil.
Add the chicken stock and bay leaf. Bring the contents of your pot to a boil, stirring occasionally to release any grains that may have been stuck at the bottom. Continue to boil until the liquid level in the pot reduces to the level of the rice. Then, switch the heat down to the lowest possible setting, put the lid on, and start your timer for 15 minutes.
Resist any urge to remove the lid to check on the rice during this time. Releasing the steam inside the pot would mean undercooked rice.
When the time's up, turn the heat off and leave the pot covered for another 10 minutes. Doing so would allow the rice to absorb all the moisture left in the pot. Again, no peeking.
Get your squid all cleaned up. Keep the tentacles for some other recipe and clear the cavity.
Begin stuffing your squid. I'm sorry but this process is quite tedious. There's just no easy way around this task.
Also, make sure that the chorizo rice has cooled enough before you begin. Stuffing hot rice into raw squid would get the squid cooking instantly.
Put all the stuffed squid into a sous vide bag together with some olive oil.
Let the squid cook for an hour at 135F. I've tried going for longer cooking times which yielded very tender textures which I didn't find pleasing at all. I'm using a Gourmia sous vide pod for this recipe.
To freshen up the dish, I decided to make a quick basil oil that would go on top of the squid.
Simple. Blanch the basil leaves for about a minute in boiling water.
Transfer it to an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
Then puree them with a bit of olive oil.
Look how that basil oil bumped up the vibrance of this dish.
Ingredients
For the Squid
- 500 Grams Squid whole, tentacles removed
- 1 Cup Glutinous Rice
- 1 Small Onion finely chopped
- 2 Cloves garlic mined
- 1 Piece Spanish Chorizo minced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1.5 Cups Chicken Stock
- 2 Pieces Bay Leaf
For the Basil Oil
- 1 bunch Fresh Basil Leaves
- 1/2 Cup olive oil
Instructions
For the Squid
- Rinse rice and soak for 15 minutes in cold water.
- Sautee onions, garlic, and minced chorizo in a pot.
- Add rice and sautee for a minute.
- Add chicken stock and bayleaves. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and leave to cook for 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and leave the pot covered for another 15 minutes.
- Fluff the rice and leave to cool.
- Stuff the squid with the cooked chorizo rice.
- Put the stuffed squid into a sous vide bag together with olive oil.
- Cook sous vide for an hour at 135F.
- Serve with basil oil.
For the Basil Oil
- Blanch basil leaves in boiling water.
- Transfer to an ice bath.
- Squeeze out any excess water from the basil leaves.
- Puree the basil leaves with olive oil in a food processor.
Amaranth Flour Pizza Dough Recipe
Congratulations! We did a small variation of this by using Risotto rice with mushrooms (shimeji and shitake). The cooking time in Sous-Vide is the same! Then, instead of basil, we used sweet teriaki like sauce. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration!