Recipes

Octopus and stuffed squid open pie (2 people).

You will need: 125g octopus tentacles and arms, 6 baby squids (with tentacles), 170ml full fat milk, a pinch of saffron, 2 eggs, just over 130g type 00 flour, 100g butter, 2 bay leaves, ½ red onion cut into rings, chopped fresh parsley, paprika, 40g diced chorizo, 30g diced black pudding, 1 finely chopped red mild red chilli, salt, 1tbs olive oil.

Wash the squid and ensure their tubes are completely empty, reserving the tentacles. Put oven onto 170°C. In an electric mixer, blend 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 130g type 00 flour, 80g butter and a pinch of salt. Mix until it resembles bread crumbs and then roll out and line well buttered small pastry pins (or even a large muffin trays). Cook the pastry for 25 – 30 minutes (until golden). During the pastry cooking time, add 40g dicedchorizo, 30g diced black pudding and the 1 mild finely chopped red chilli to a frying pan and cook until the chorizo is browned. Remove from heat. Be careful with the next bit so you don’t burn your fingers. When the mixture is cool enough to touch (however, the hotter the better) stuff this mixture evenly into the 6 baby squids. When all are full, roll each squid in a total of 1tbs flour and a pinch of salt.

Fry half a red onion (cut into rings) in the remaining oil from the chorizo and black pudding until soft. Add 2 bay leaves, a generous few twists of black pepper and 170ml full fat milk. Bring to a simmer and add a pinch of saffron, turn off heat and add 1tsp sifted type 00 flour and 20g butter. Stir well until smooth and slightly thickened. In a clean frying pan, add 1tbs of olive oil and fry the squid tentacles for 1 minute over a high heat, then add the 6 stuffed squids and 125g octopus. Fry for another 1½ minutes then turn everything over and fry for a further 1 minute. Turn off the heat and allow the residual heat to continue the cooking process.

To serve, place the pastry into the middle of the plate, place 3 squids inside the pastry, pour over a some of the red onion and saffron sauce, then the octopus and squid tentacles on top of the squid. Sprinkle over the top some chopped parsley and a light dusting of paprika powder.