You might know in Greek Cuisine deep-fried squids (calamari) or octopus. But cuttlefish is also a very common dish. In general they belong to the same class of seafood. The difference is first of all in size (squids are small whereas cuttlefish is large) and secondly octopus has, as the name indicates, eight arms whereas the other two have ten.
All three are very popular during Greek lent. One of my favorite dishes of this kind is this one my husband is expert in preparing. It is really easy to cook and I promise to you, you will lick all your fingers!
The secret (and fun fact) about frying cuttlefish the right way is the time! Either you fry them for not more than 4 minutes or you cook them for 50 minutes. Everything in between is like chewing on car tire!
As side dish you can serve french fries, rice or spaghetti.
What you need:
1 kg cuttlefish
1 kg onions
100 ml olive oil
½ glass dry red wine
1 tsp. cumin powder
2 cloves
2 dry juniper berries
3 laurel leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
Salt, Pepper
250 gr canned tomato dices
½ glass water
How to prepare:
Unfreeze the cuttlefish if necessary and cut into stripes (appr. the size of thick french fries), cut the tentacles in halves if necessary. Clean the onions and cut into eighths.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot on high and fry the cuttlefish for about 5 minutes. Deglaze with the red wine. Add all spices and the onions, salt and pepper to taste. Let cook on medium heat until onions are soft. Add the tomatoes and the water and cook with closed lid on medium heat for appr. 50 minutes.
Eat Good Live Good 