Squid Curry

          Of all sea food there is few stuff that are really special, exquisitely tasty but are available verily on a seasonal basis. Squid tops this list. The aroma while it is getting cooked, the flavour of the dish and a unique non-seafood taste is what makes this special.

Ingredients:

Squid- 500g

Shallots- 20

Green chillies- 5

Tomatoes- 2 big

Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tsp

Mint leaves- few

Coriander leaves- few

Turmeric powder- 1 tsp

Red chilli powder- 1 tbsp

Dhania powder- 2 tsp

Cumin powder- 1 tsp

Pepper powder- 1 tsp

Cinnamon- 1 stick

Cloves- 2

Cardamom- 2

Star anise- 1

Curry leaves- a sprig

Salt- to taste

Coconut oil- 3 tbsp

Recipe:

          Clean the squid off all the ink and its shell and dice them into cubes.

In a pressure cooker add the cleaned squid, a few shallots, two slit green chillies, one teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste, one chopped tomato, turmeric powder, salt and a teaspoon of coconut oil and pressure cook for 20 minutes.

          In a kadai, add oil and splutter curry leaves. Add all the whole spices and sauté them for a minute. Add sliced shallots and fry them till translucent. Now add the slit green chillies and sauté them. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for a few minutes. Now add chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt and cook them well till they are mashed.

          Now add all the masalas one by one and the stock from the cooked squid and mix them well. Let the masalas get cooked in the squid stock for 10 to 15 minutes on low flame. Now add the squid along with all the additives and cook them for 10 minutes. Add mint leaves, coriander leaves and sauté for a couple of minutes. Put the flame off and sprinkle pepper powder and squeeze out a few drops of coconut oil on to the gravy.

PS: Squid is a crustacean and has a high tendency to induce allergy even if you are not allergic to other crustaceans like crabs, prawns or lobsters. Never store up raw/marinated/cooked squid in the refrigerator as this triggers the allergic responses very quickly.