Cooking with Greek Food Bloggers: Yiayia Rose’s Stuffed Squid

A lovely recipe for stuffed squid with rice and herbs in tomato sauce. Very popular in Greece as “Kalamaria Gemista”.

If you want to impress your guests look no further than Yiayia Rose’s traditional recipe.

Ingredients:

• 16 squid small tubes,
• 1 cup olive oil,
• 1 White onion finely chopped,
• 1 cup of rice,
• 1/2 cup of water,
• 400g Mutti tomato puree,
• Bunch of parsley,
• Bunch of mint,
• 4 cloves crushed garlic,
• 5 sprigs of chopped spring onion,
• 2 tbs Mutti Tomato paste double
• concentrate,
• Freshly ground black pepper,
• 1 Tsp Paprika,
• 1/4 cup of Red wine,
• 1 tbs dried oregano,

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Under running water clean squid tubes and remove internal parts of squid, keeping the tentacles for the stuffing. Chop tentacles finely
3. In half of the oil fry the chopped tentacles, onion and garlic, cook until all ingredients are soft.
4. Add rice, water and tomato paste and continue stirring for 5-10 minutes.
5. Add in the herbs, salt, pepper and paprika, cook for a further 5 minutes.
6. Pour in the wine and stir until all combined.
7. Once stuffing has cooled, stuff each tube lightly. Secure the openings with toothpicks (5-8cm H).
8. In a heavy-bottomed oven dish, lay the squid side by side top-to-toe.
9. Pour any left-over mixture on top of the squid. Cover the dish with Mutti tomato puree, olive oil and water.
10. Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes

*Keep up with Yiayia Rose’s culinary adventures by following Homemade by Rose on Instagram