Ingredients
1 kg of fresh chipirons with ink (squid)
2 onions
2 cloves of chopped garlic + 1 or 2 depending on the number of pan-fried dishes
25cl of dry white wine
5cl of Armagnac per pan
20cl tomato coulis or 2 large tomatoes, peeled and seeded
30cl of homemade prawn stock or 1 tablespoon of powdered fish stock
Espelette chilli powder
olive oil
salt
Preparation
Start by cleaning your squid very carefully by emptying it, removing the skin, the "bone" and all gelatinous parts. Remove the very fragile pocket where the black ink is located.
Separate the heads and remove the eyes and beaks.
Wash the squid carefully and drain them as much as possible by placing them on absorbent paper.
Cut the bodies of the squid into sections of about 3cm if they are large, if they are small leave them whole, keep the tentacles and heads whole.
In a casserole, gently fry your finely chopped onions, add the garlic and cook until transparent. Add the diced tomatoes (or the tomato coulis) and add the white wine and reduce by half. Add the fish stock. Add the ink obtained by squeezing the small bags and diluted in a cup of water.
Season with salt and Esplette pepper powder.
Leave to simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, then strain the sauce through a sieve to obtain a smooth and creamy sauce. Then put the sauce back into the pot over low heat.
While the squid are plopping in the pan, heat a frying pan with olive oil and a whole clove of garlic, and sear the squid on a very high heat for 2 minutes (in two batches if your pan is too small). Overcooked squid quickly become rubbery! When the squids start to colour, pour the armagnac over them and flambé.
Remove the garlic from the pan and pour the squid into the pan containing the sauce. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, the chipirons in ink need to be a little spicy, don't be stingy with the Espelette pepper.
Serve with basmati rice, flavoured with a few sprigs of lemon thyme if it is your main course, with a slice of toasted bread in pretty little earthenware cases (heated in the oven beforehand) if it is a starter.
This dish, like many dishes in sauce, is best reheated, you can prepare it the day before but reheat it gently in the oven, in an earthenware dish covered with aluminium foil, without boiling the preparation.