R024Meen Vevichathu
Kudampuli fish curry, the Kottayam Syrian Christian way
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringOil down from about 45 g to 12 g. What makes that possible is the two-stage cooking rule for squid: a fast sear, then a covered braise in its own water, then a dry roast. Squid gives up enough liquid to cook itself, and the traditional oil was mostly there to stop a pan from catching.
Koonthal roast is toddy-shop food, and it is on every shaap menu on the Kerala coast because squid is cheap, quick, and takes pepper and garam masala like meat. Squid also has a reputation for turning to rubber, and that reputation is deserved but avoidable: there are exactly two windows in which squid is tender, one under three minutes and one over twenty, and the whole method below is built around using both rather than getting stuck between them.
Before you start: Cut and dry the squid before you light the flame. Rings 1 cm wide, tentacles left in bunches, hoods scored inside in a fine crosshatch if you want them to curl. Then pat everything very dry, because wet squid steams and the sear is the point.
Koonthal Roast
Active 30 minutes Total 40 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓600 g (1 lb 5 oz) cleaned squid, in 1 cm rings with tentacles
- ✓12 g (2½ tsp) coconut oil, divided: 9 g and 3 g
- ✓120 g (about 12) shallots, sliced
- ✓15 g (a 3 cm piece) ginger, finely chopped
- ✓10 g (about 3 cloves) garlic, finely chopped
- ✓3 green chillies (about 15 g), slit
- ✓12 g (1¾ tbsp) M05 fish masala
- ✓4 g (¾ tsp) black pepper, coarsely crushed
- ✓80 g (about ¾) tomato, finely chopped
- ✓2 g (½ tsp) M07 salt, or plain salt
- ✓3 g (½ tsp) M01 Kerala garam masala
- ✓3 g (1 sprig) curry leaves
Allergens: Molluscs. Gluten (wheat) — only if your asafoetida is compounded with wheat flour, as most brands are (it arrives with M05).
Equipment: Wide heavy pan, 26–28 cm, with a lid. Substitute: any wide pan; a cheena chatti is traditional. The lid is not optional — the braise happens under it.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 160 kcal |
| Protein | 22 g |
| Fibre | 3 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 7 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 10 g |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Saturated fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 280 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Pat the squid completely dry. Any surface water lowers the pan temperature and you lose the sear.
- Heat the pan until a drop of water skitters, add 9 g of the oil, and sear the squid in two batches over a high flame, 60–90 seconds a batch — just until the rings turn from translucent grey to opaque white and firm up. Lift them out immediately with their liquid. This is window one.
- Cook the shallots, ginger, garlic and green chilli in the same pan over a medium flame until soft and browning at the edges, .
- Add the M05 and pepper and stir 90 seconds, until the raw note lifts. Add the tomato and the salt and cook down until thick and glossy with a thin rim of oil at the edge, .
- Return the squid and all its released liquid, cover, and braise over a low flame . The squid will tighten and then relax again; taste a ring at and if it squeaks against your teeth, give it another 3. This is window two.
- Uncover, raise the flame, and roast, stirring, until the liquid has gone and the masala clings to the squid in a dark coating, . Tilt the pan: nothing should run.
- Finish off the heat with the M01, the remaining 3 g of oil and the curry leaves. The garam masala goes in last so its volatiles survive.
Why this worksSquid muscle is packed with collagen in crossed layers. Under about three minutes that collagen has not yet contracted and the flesh is tender. Between roughly three and fifteen minutes it contracts and squeezes water out, which is the rubber stage. Past fifteen to twenty it hydrolyses to gelatine and the flesh goes tender again, softly. This recipe uses both windows and never sits between them.
Sourcing note
Squid is one of the few seafoods where frozen is genuinely as good as fresh, because freezing breaks down some of the connective tissue and the thawed flesh is often more tender. In the US, UK and Australia: cleaned squid tubes and rings are in every supermarket freezer, usually labelled calamari; ask for whole squid at a fish counter if you want the tentacles, which are the best part. In the Gulf: fresh local squid is superb and cheap. Baby squid needs 1 minute less at every stage. Cuttlefish is an excellent substitute and slightly sweeter; it needs 3–4 minutes more in the braise. Do not buy pre-battered calamari rings for this.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 8 g of net carbohydrate, mostly shallot and tomato. A very low-load dish.
Blood pressure: 280 mg, which earns the low-sodium tag, and squid is naturally one of the lowest-sodium seafoods there is. With no added salt it lands near 200 mg.
Cholesterol: 3 g of saturated fat is the second-lowest figure in this chapter. Squid is often flagged for dietary cholesterol; dietary cholesterol has a modest effect on blood cholesterol in most people compared with saturated fat, and this book's position is that the saturated-fat figure is the one to watch. Sesame oil takes it to about 1.5 g.
Swap it
Cuttlefish → sweeter, thicker-walled, 3–4 minutes longer in the braise.
Baby squid, whole → 1 minute less at each stage; leave them whole and they look better than rings.
Octopus → 600 g, and the timing changes completely: no sear, 40–50 minutes covered, then the roast. Excellent, and a different recipe.
Prawns → do not use this method. Prawns have no second window; see R033.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Cook through step 5 and hold; the braise is the slow part. Fridge 2 days, and it is arguably better on day two because the collagen has fully relaxed. Freeze 2 months — squid freezes better than any other seafood in this chapter. Reheat in a hot dry pan, 3–4 minutes.
Leftovers
Chop and fold through rice, or through a cabbage thoran, or into an appam. Cold koonthal roast with lime and raw onion is a proper snack.
Troubleshooting
Rubbery: the squid was cooked for 5–10 minutes total, which is exactly the wrong amount. Either under 3 minutes or over 15 — go back and braise it for another 10 and it will come back.
Watery and grey: the squid was wet at step 1, or the pan was crowded at step 2. Two batches, dry squid, high flame.
Pan liquid never cooked off: frozen squid holds more water. Give step 6 another 3–4 minutes with the flame up.
Bitter: the M01 was added over heat and its whole spices scorched. Off the heat, at the end.
Serve with
R015 Matta Rice · R001 Appam · R063 Cabbage Thoran · R053 Vanpayar Thoran
Tap a star to rate this recipe
