Asian style BBQ Squid (Sotong)

Asian style BBQ Squid (Sotong)

A dish for my Mary of course, not for yours truly. Another day, another BBQ. This day downstairs with our mates The Breen’s. I whacked together about 3 or 4 dishes and this was one of them – my Asian style BBQ Squid (Sotong). Very easy, very effective, very tasty.

This will make enough for 2-3 as a sharing plate;

• 5 squid or sotong. Clean the squid by pulling the tentacles from the body, which should then also removed all the head and guts etc. Chop the tentacles off below the mouth/beak of the squid. Throw all the bits above the beak away and clean the insides of the tube bit and the tentacles;
• 1 bunch of ripped up coriander;
• The juice of 3 lemons;
• 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika;
• 2 teaspoons of finely chopped garlic;
• Some Olive oil; and
• A good pinch of sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Clean the squid as described above. You should now have 5 clean tubes and loads of little legs. Cut open the tube down one side and then open it to make it flat. On the outside skin, score with a sharp knife in a criss-cross fashion. This will make the squid make butterfly up when cooked. Then flip over to expose the white interior and give that a gentle bashing with a tenderiser hammer. This will avoid the squid being chewy. That’s the starting point of Asian style BBQ Squid (Sotong) completed.

In a bowl marinade the squid pieces with the coriander, lime juice, garlic, smoked paprika, Olive oil, and salt and pepper. Try to leave it an hour or so minimum – the scoring and bashing will help the squid to soak up all the flavours.

Remove from marinade and cook on the BBQ until it starts to char (blacken) a little as you want that BBQ taste in there too. And that is it. Garnish with a sprig of coriander, and maybe a dust of fresh paprika. I did drizzle a little of the marinade juice over the top, which made it glisten and gave it an additional kicker of the lime juice. There you have it folks my Asian style BBQ Squid (Sotong) – ENJOY!!!

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Brian Kennett

Father of 3. All my kids are mixed, with English-Japanese, and English-Filipino - a recipe in the making there. I have been cooking since a small lad, as guided by my Nan and my Mum - gradually that morphed through exposure to Thai cooking from a lovely lady called Da in Margate. I used to hang out in her restaurant and watch the techniques. So the 1+1= greater than 2 occurred - Mum/Nan/Da - off I went in to the world of Asian cuisine. Moving to Asia in early 2000's clearly has brought that on somewhat - we travel continually, and eat locally and therefore have exposure to more and more new things. I have lived my dream and written a cook book whilst here, an amazing experience and all for a good cause too as I raised a lot of money for charity. My blog is now hopefully turning in to book number 2. Watch this space. I hope you enjoy my passion.