Some years ago I ate small squids that were still alive. They were only maybe 5 centimeters long and crawled in my hand. I put them in my mouth and chewed them as they were crawling around in my mouth. It was quite a taste sensation. The flavors were simply incredible. It was like eating the essence from the sea. I realized that we clean cephalopods of all sorts a bit too much before we eat them. Of course large octopus needs certain preparations but, whenever I find cuttlefish of pristine freshness and quality, I really do very little with them. If necessary I rinse them quickly in cold water and then I cook them or eat them raw. Especially the ink bag is utterly delicious.
My preferred cooking method for cuttlefish has gradually switched from searing them to lightly poaching them in water or steaming them at low temperature in a steam oven.
So what do you need and what do you do? First of all you need some incredibly fresh cuttlefish. If you can’t get them in the condition that they were still alive only hours ago, I suggest you go for frozen ones. The change in taste and texture are significant after 24 hours.
What are the signs of great fresh cuttle fish. Ideally, they still move when you get them. If they don’t, a sign of freshness is that the skin is still colored and/or they still display reflexes if you run your nails on their back. The best sign of freshness is that the eyes are still clear. The eyes gradually go foggy as they deteriorate.
These qualify as fresh.
After some basic rinsing they are put in water at a temperature of 65-68 C, very lightly salted with sea salt. Only fill the pot with enough water to just cover them. The temperature will drop and should be maintained at 60C for around 10-15 minutes when the cuttlefish will be ready to eat.
The larger the longer it will take obviously. I then serve them with a vinaigrette-like sauce made of ink, the cooking juices, clarified butter, olive oil and white Banyuls vinegar. A good accompaniment is sweet onion wedges simply softened in butter but only so much that they retain the crispness to counterbalance the tenderness of the cuttlefish. A few leafs of wild rocket add a peppery bitterness and a few basil leafs add the perfume of the sun.
3 Comments
Amazing stuff Mikael. Simply amazing
The site looks fantastic, congratulations.
Can you go into a bit more detail about the sauce? It looks emulsified.
Yes, it is emulsified. The truth is that the cooking liquid is a little reduced. The gelatins that are there are enough to emulsify the sauce. I only use a bit of the liquid.
Another option to cook cuttlefish would be to cook them whole in a sous vide bag. Not to much pressure so you don’t ruin them. You want the inkbag inside the cuttlefish to be whole so you can pop it in your mouth.