Braised Calamari - Polvo guisado

 
I'm very late with my post, I was hoping to have put this up a week ago, I have no excuse really, just poor time management.
As you can see from my blog, I make a lot of seafood, it's the type of food that I grew up with & the type of food I love.
This dish is something I threw together with ingredients I had in the fridge.
You can serve this dish with boiled potatoes, or rice pilaf ( made with onions, garlic)
I'm sorry about the quality of the photos,every hot dish I make is always made for dinner & served up immediately so I'm always scrambling to take a quick photo before it goes cold, so I never have time to style the dish.
Sometimes I put the dish down on the table & won't let anyone touch it till I've got  the right photo, this day wasn't one of them.
It's probably the 3rd time I've included a recipe with capsicum paste so I promise I'll include a post about it very very soon. 

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg squid
• 100ml olive oil 
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tab red capsicum paste
• ink sac
• 1 tab parsley, chopped

Marinate

• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• 100ml white wine
• 1 tab red capsicum paste
• 2 tab chili sauce (optional)
• 1/2 tea paprika sweet
• 2 tea salt

1. Holding the body firmly, grasp the head and pull gently, twisting if necessary, to pull the head away from the body without breaking the ink sac. The internal body and tentacles will come with it.
2. Cut the tentacles from the head just below the eyes. 
3. Set aside the the tentacles to use (they're edible and tasty).Keep the ink sack, if desired.
4. At the top of the body, there is a clear piece of cartilage. Pull it out and discard.
5. If the squid has an outer spotted membrane-type skin, pull it off and discard if you like, I don't.
6. Under cold water, wash the tube carefully, inside and out, to get rid of any sand or other remaining tissues, and wash the tentacles carefully as well, making sure you don't break the tube.
7. Cut the squid into 2 cm tubes, keeping the wings. 

8. Once the squid has been cut, place the squid in a bowl & marinate with the marinate ingredients for at least 2 hours.

9.  Drain the squid in a colander keeping the marinate.

10.  On a high heat, heat the fry pan, add the oil then add small batches of the squid, fry for 2 min, tossing the squid with a spoon,
Once cooked reserve the squid in a bowl & set aside in a warm place till the rest is cooked.

11.  Clean the pan with a paper towel & continue the process of frying the squid or wash the pan if it's to dirty.

12.  Once all the squid is cooked add a bit more oil (100ml) fry the garlic, add the capsicum paste fry for 1 min, add the ink sac if you like, then add the marinate & reduce for 2 min. 
Add the squid tossing it in the sauce, add the chopped parsley to finish.




TIPS

• If the ink sac breaks, just rinse the squid under cold running water to clear away 
• Cook the squid on high heat,  it must be fast & quick 
• If you over cook the squid it will become tough & rubbery