Spicy Shrimp Stuffed Squid Salad #FishFridayFoodies

Spicy shrimp stuffed squid salad says it all. Shrimp, chili peppers, garlic and cheese are stuffed into clean squid and baked! Once sliced, these beauties make a tasty colorful addition to a fresh tomato salad. This salad looks fancy, if you have special guests that need impressing, but it’s really quite easy to make.

Way back circa 2005, we had a lovely gentleman builder named Dave Price supervising renovation work on our house in the Channel Islands. As I spent more time with Dave, I found out that master construction was not his only skill; he also did a lot of the cooking in his family. We’d discuss recipes and what memorable dish we’d made for dinner recently over many cups of strong tea.

When Dave told me about one of his specialties, stuffed squid, I couldn’t wait to write it down and try it. Squid are so perfectly stuff-able! Why hadn’t I thought of that?

This month I am the host of Fish Friday Foodies and our theme is seafood stuffing. When I created the event, I was thinking along the lines of seafood that would be stuffed into something else, like a crepe, taco or baked potato. But as I shuffled through my old files, I knew I had to share Dave’s recipe. I can’t recall if he said what he served the stuffed squid with but I decided to add it into a fresh tomato salad.

Spicy Shrimp Stuffed Squid Salad

Dave’s original instructions called for one 6-inch squid per person. Mine were much smaller so I bought eight, but the size really doesn’t matter that much since we are going to slice them anyway. Use what you can find. This serves 2-3 people as a main or 4-5 as a starter or side dish.

Ingredients
For the stuffed squid:
8 medium squid
25 medium shrimp (peeled and cleaned weight = 9 1/3 oz or 266g)
2 oz or 57g extra sharp cheddar, grated
1/4 cup or 56g sour cream
2 small red chili peppers, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the salad:
3 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced
1 small bunch cilantro, hard stems removed

Method
Clean each squid, first removing the head, tentacles and cartilage (cuttlebone)  from the tube. Use a sharp knife to cut the head away from the tentacles and discard it. Remove the beak from the tentacles and discard. Rub the outer colored film off of the tube with a dry paper towel. It should rub off quite easily.

Run the tubes under cool water and make sure they are clean inside. Set aside to drain.  If you need visuals of the cleaning process, check out this thorough post on The Spruce Eats.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Chop the tentacles and shrimp into small bits then mix them with the chili peppers, garlic, salt and a few good grinds of black pepper.

Add in the cheese and stir well. Mix in the sour cream.

Stuff this mixture into your cleaned squid tubes.

Sew up the opening with poultry string and tie a knot to keep it from coming open. I use a semi circular needle, which makes it easy to catch both sides of the squid as you stitch.

Put the shrimp stuffed squid in a baking pan and drizzle them with the olive oil.

Bake them in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes. They will release a lot of beautifully flavored liquid. Remove the squid to a cutting board and leave to cool. Save any bits of shrimp that managed to escape.

Strain the juice from the cooking pan and put it in a small jar or jug. Once whisked, this makes a gorgeous dressing for the salad. Taste it and add a pinch more salt if necessary.

Once the squid are cool enough to handle, use a sharp knife to cut them into circles.

Arrange these on your sliced tomatoes, along with the cilantro and any salvaged shrimp bits.

Whisk the dressing again and drizzle it over the tomatoes and squid.

Enjoy!

Check out the other seafood stuffing recipes my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing today!

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Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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