Pan Grilled Mango Stuffed Squid

Grilled squid is staple dish during beach outings.  It is usually stuffed with onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass or tomatoes to flavor this sea creature.  When grilled right, squid has a soft and tender bite.  However, done over cooked and surely you will have this chewy and rubbery consistency.

When my friends and I went on a summer outing last May (or June? Can’t remember it.), I prepared all our food.  We had grilled buffalo wings, chicken kebab, grilled pork belly with an extremely crunchy pork cracklings and this nice grilled mango stuffed squid.  this is a new twist to enjoy grilled squid if you are bored with the usual stuffing.  I bet you don’t eat the squid stuffing and it usually goes on the side.  Well, that’s what I do.

However, with mango stuffing, you will surely eat everything stuffed in it.  This pan grilled mango stuffed squid is like eating a California maki but instead of the mango rolled in a sushi rice, the mango was stuffed inside the squid.  The sweet tropical flavor of the mangoes really goes well with the chopped onions.  The mango-onion combo gives a sweet, fruity, pungent and spicy flavor to the squid.  What’s more fun in eating this dish is the lemon zest which gives a nice lemony aroma as you slice the squid.  I realized that the lemon zest also goes well with the sweetness of the mango.

To give this dish a traditional way of eating, you can simply dip this in a soy sauce squeezed with calamansi or lemon for more intense flavor.  I decided to pan grilled this for convenience as I’m too lazy to set up a charcoal grill.  If you prefer a much authentic summer outing  experience, you can grilled this on a live charcoal.  What’s more fun in grilling this is you will get that distinct smokey flavor associated with summer beach outing.

Ingredients
800g or 3 pieces                              Large Squid
1 piece                                           Mango
1 piece                                           Large Onion
1/4 cup                                          Chopped Parsley
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt
Pepper

Procedure


Thoroughly clean the squid.  Remove the innards, ink, beak, inside plastic and the outer skin.  Drain to remove excess water.

Remove the skin and seed and of the mango.  Cut the mango flesh in cubes.  Roughly chopped the onions, no need to finely chopped it.  In a bowl, combine mangoes, onions, parsley and lemon zest.  Season with salt.  Stuff this inside the squid.  Use a toothpick to reattached the squid head.  Season the squid with salt, pepper and lemon juice.  Pan grill on a hot pan for about 1 minute on each side.  Do not overcook as you don’t want to eat stuffed rubber squid, do you?  Dip in soy sauce with squeezed calamansi or lemon.  Add some chili if desired.  Pan Grilled Mango Stuffed Squid ready!