Nagesh Seethiah’s Squid Vindaye
Squid vindaye is otherwise known as Mauritian pickled squid.
This vindaye pickling spice is used with a myriad of ingredients in Mauritius. The most popular are fish and vegetables. The dish tastes best the day after making it, and even better a few days later. It’s the perfect lunch option and goes well with hot, fresh steamed rice or sandwiched in a soft white bread roll.
Read Nagesh’s story here.
Ingredients –
Ingredients
2 whole squid – Cleaned and skinned. Your fishmonger might do this for you.
Ice
2 purple shallots
6 garlic cloves peeled
3 long green chillies
2 cm chunk ginger
1 teaspoon each brown and yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
Neutral cooking oil – not olive oil
100g white wine vinegar
20g mustard oil
Lemon juice – To taste
Method –
Put a large pot of water on to boil. Salt generously.
Clean and gut the squid, separating the tentacles from the body. Some fishmongers will do this for you, or Youtube will show you. Keep the body whole!
Peel the skin from the squid body and as much as you can from the tentacles.
Prepare an ice bath. Blanch the squid in the rapidly boiling water for 1 minute. Transfer straight to the ice bath.
Once completely cool, drain squid and pat dry. Cut along one side of the body to open it up into one large sheet. Cut in half down the middle again.
Turn the squid so it lays horizontally on your chopping board, and slice into thin strips on a slight angle. Cut the tentacles into bite sized lengths.
Thinly slice the shallots and garlic. Julienne the ginger. Slice the chillies in half lengthwise and then into half moons. Keep all these ingredients separately for now.
Lightly crush mustard seeds, turmeric and chilli powder with some water and salt. You don’t want a powder! Just to crush the mustard seeds to make a paste.
Heat 5 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Add the spice paste and cook out on medium heat until aromatic. The mustard seeds will pop and sizzle.
Add ginger and garlic and cook gently to soften.
Add white wine vinegar and mustard oil, bring to a boil, simmer for a bit then turn heat off. Season with sea salt and a little black pepper.
Pour this pickling liquid over the squid, add sliced shallots and chillies. Gently mix together.
You might find that the mix needs little extra acid, add a touch of lemon juice to make it brighter (but not too much).
Season again with a pinch of salt.
Allow to cool, then pack into an airtight container making sure the mix is submerged under the pickling liquid. Top up with a little mustard oil and cooking oil if need be.
You can substitute the squid for –
– White flesh fish like kingfish, flathead, spanish mackerel and the like. Cutlets work well, or diced chunks. Lightly fry the fish to seal it off.
– Shredded cabbage, carrot, green beans (like you would for a coleslaw)
– Octopus
– Green mango
