July 24, 2006

Would You Eat something which shoots out of a Squids ASS?

...and it's BlACK too!!
*grin*Well...Squid ink isn't really harvested with the chef scaring the shit out of a squid to get it to squirt its ink *laughs* but merely slicing a really fresh squid open and removing the ink from its sacks. For a short scientific explanation to why squids need sacks of black liquid;
Squids use the ink as a means to escape predators, emitting this dark cloudy substance as danger approaches in hopes of intimidating the oncoming danger.
So need not worry...nothing about animal "wastes" are related to why it has such a dark colour.
The ink from Squid or cuttlefish is used as a food coloring and flavoring, providing a very dark black color and a salty tasting flavor to foods such as pasta or rice. It is also served as a condiment, first being dried in an oven, crumbled into tiny particles, seasoned with salt and then used on a variety of foods. (recipetips.com)

I purchased a bag of Squid Ink Spaghetti (al nero di seppia- no idea what this means...I'm guessing it means "Squid Ink Spaghetti"-DUH, but if anyone could transalate it to me in its language of origin; it would very much be appreciated) at the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show as I was intrigued by its dark mysterious colour. It was displayed amongst a huge range of different pasta's of orange, green and yellow. It looked exceptionally glamorous and I decided to take it home with me.
While I was cooking it, I received several oOOOs, eEeerggHhs, and wahhHhs from my fellow diners. To be very honest; I was "Oo, erGh and ahh" -ing in my own head as well! Haha. It looked strangely like long dark worms cooking in a pot! *shiver* I picked a lucky one out of the pot and took a good slurp! YEAp! Worms definitely don't taste like that! LOL....Not to say I've tasted any *sneaky eyes*
I dressed the pasta up with a garlic+chicken tomato base sauce and threw in a couple of cheeses at the end. Everyone dug in; and the ewws and Erghs were over. The Squid Ink adds both a sea tang and a deep black glow to the pasta.Sauce Recipe:
2 cloves garlic diced
1 can tomato puree
1 yellow chili sliced
2 sprigs fresh oregano chopped
1 fresh tomato cubed
1 chicken breast cubed
2 tsp seasalt
good dash of cracked black pepper
1 tsp of tabasco (leave out if you like)


Saute garlic in olive oil till fragrant and slightly brown, add in chicken and cook for another 2minutes on medium flame. Add in all other ingredients and allow to simmer till chicken is tender. *taste the sauce* - Add more of whatever else you think might improve it.
Cook the black spaghetti in heavily salted boiling water until cooked through; Should take about 10-12 minutes. Drain and dunk it into the pasta sauce and give it a good stir. Add in Boccocini Cheeses/ grated mozzarella/ Parmesan into hot pasta before serving.

9 comments:

Lex said...

wow.. that actually look good :) lol so since when did u really start cooking and stuff?

aLz said...

hey, su yin, was wondering, do u have any recipe which uses tim tam? thanks..

Su-Yin -Décorateur said...

lex: hmm..probably about 1-2 years ago...nothing more than that really.

al: Not currently; but that's quite a good idea! Haha; ive used lots of Arnotts cookies in my recipes before...but tim-tam hasn't been one of them yet *starts thinking of a tim-tam dessert*

Lex said...

no wonder you are soooo good! ghehe

Su-Yin -Décorateur said...

thanks ally for the info :)

Anonymous said...

YES, YOU ARE RIGHT: 'AL NERO DI SEPPIA' MEANS SQUID INK.

Anonymous said...

I first tried squid ink spaghetti at a restaurant a couple of years ago, and tonight I found it in my grocery store! I'd never seen it retail before, but I picked some up and tried it tonight. I wasn't really sure what kind of a sauce to make, so I did a basic olive oil and garlic thing. It turned out ok. I guess I was mostly wondering if you've tried other sauces, maybe some kind of wine sauce or something creamier? I'd be interested in figuring out what else to do with this! I, too, love cooking, but am young and very experimental with the whole thing. Bon Appetit!

- xtina - said...

heya :)

good to see you've followed your passion, that inspires me.

anyways, i went on exchange in italy and al nero di seppia literally means "at the (al) nero (black) of seppia (squid)" :)

food names in italian and french are wonderful

Anonymous said...

This is late, but "al nero di seppia" translates to "black with cuttlefish ink." Seppia is actually cuttlefish since squid ink is harder to come by and more bitter in flavor.

So it follows that:
riso al nero di seppia (rice in cuttlefish ink)
linguini al...
spaghetti al...

You get the idea.