Spear Squid | SHIZUOKA GOURMET

Squids and rice are cheap anywhere in the world, and many gastronomies combine the two.
In Japan rice stuffed squids are called Ika Meshi/烏賊飯.

The best squids for this kind of dish are spear squids or Yari Ika/槍烏賊 in Japanese. But any kind of long squid variety, large or small should be fine with this basic recipe!

INGREDIENTS: This is the basic, therefore I leave the exact quantities to you!

-Squid (or small squids)
-Rice: normal Japanese round rice
-Glutinous rice: Mochi Kome in Japanese
-Japanese sake (if unavailable dry white wine)
-Soy sauce
-Sugar
-Water

RECIPE:

Take the head, tentacles and all innards off/out.
Don’t forget that the tentacles are edible raw, or cooked!
Clean the squid thoroughly under running cold water.

Wash the rice.
The rice should be an equal quantity of normal rice and glutinous rice.
Soak in clean cold water for a whole night inside the fridge.
Before cooking drain thoroughly.

Fill the squid with rice.
Don’t overfill it as the rice will gain in volume upon cooking and will break the squid if too much is pushed inside. Just fill the squid pushing the rice in gently without expanding the squid.

Close/lock the squid with a wooden toothpick to prevent the rice from spilling out.

Fill a pan with enough water for the squid to “float”.
Add Soy sauce, Japanese sake and sugar. That is when you have to experiment. You may also add spices but do experiment there., too. Chili pepper should be ok!
Cover with lid and let cook over a small fire.
Stew until the squid is cooked. The rice having been soaked all night should be ready.
Take the squid out carefully. Peel off the thin membrane/skin which be broken in places by then.
pull the toothpick out.
Serve it whole or cut as in top picture. Decorate with green leafy vegetables.