Chef Lupita
Acúmara Tatemada al Comal
Michoacán's Lake Pátzcuaro acúmara, a whole kurucha from the lago tatemada on a comal de leña and served with chile perón atápakua, corn tortillas, and P'urhépecha discipline.
Culinary Explorer
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Calamares Rellenos de Camarón en su Tinta
Created by
Campeche's stuffed squid braised in its own ink, with a picadillo of shrimp, crab, capers, olives, and the warm spice of the peninsular recado. The Gulf coast on a plate.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
45 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•2 hr total
Yield6 servings
This is from Campeche. Not Veracruz, not the generic Mexican coast, Campeche. The state that sits on the Gulf with its back to the Yucatán peninsula and its face turned toward the boats. The cooking here is peninsular, which means Mayan technique married to Spanish, Caribbean, and a quiet thread of Lebanese influence that arrived in the late 19th century. You taste all of it in this dish.
The squid is local. The shrimp and crab are local. The olives, the capers, the raisins, the warm spices of allspice and clove, those came on Spanish ships and stayed in the kitchens of Campeche cooks who made them their own. This is not Mediterranean food with a Mexican accent. It is Campechano food, period. The picadillo de mar inside the squid is a cousin to the picadillo that fills the empanadas of San Francisco de Campeche, salty and briny and faintly sweet, warm with allspice. The ink turns the sauce the color of deep night water. The habanero sits on top of the cazuela like a watchman, perfuming everything without burning anything. Do not cut it open. That is not how it is done.
My mother never made this dish. She was from Jalisco and Jalisco does not cook with the sea this way. I learned it in Campeche, in the kitchen of a woman named Doña Esperanza who cooks for the families on Calle 59 and who showed me, with the patience of a teacher who has done this a thousand times, how to clean a squid without breaking the ink sac. She told me the dish is for guests. For Christmas Eve. For the day your son comes home from working in the north. You make it because the people at the table deserve the work. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Calamares en su tinta has roots in the Spanish Mediterranean tradition that arrived with Andalusian and Basque sailors during the colonial era, but the Campeche version was reshaped by the ingredients of the Gulf and the recado tradition of the peninsula, where complex spice mixtures, often containing allspice, clove, and oregano, define regional cooking more decisively than chiles do. The use of raisins, capers, olives, and warm sweet spices alongside seafood reflects the layered influence of Spanish, Caribbean, and Levantine cooks who passed through the port of San Francisco de Campeche from the 16th century onward, and the dish belongs to the category of comida de salón, the dressed-up cooking served at family celebrations and political dinners since the late 19th century. Campeche's cuisine remains the least documented of the peninsular three, overshadowed by Yucatán and Quintana Roo in the national imagination, though local cooks and the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche have worked since the 1990s to record and protect the recipes of the state.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole squid
Quantity
6 medium (about 6 to 7 inches in the body)
with ink sacs intact if possible
fresh shrimp
Quantity
8 ounces
peeled, deveined, and finely minced
fresh blue crab meat
Quantity
6 ounces
picked over for shell
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
4 tablespoons, divided
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely diced
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
finely minced
fresh chile xcatic (or chile güero)
Quantity
1
finely diced, seeds in or out to taste
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons
rinsed and chopped
pitted green Manzanilla olives
Quantity
1/3 cup
finely chopped
golden raisins
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1 teaspoon
ground allspice
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
ground cloves
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Quantity
to taste
squid ink
Quantity
4 packets (4 grams each), or the ink from the squid sacs
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2 pounds
blanched, peeled, and roughly chopped
white onion (for the sauce)
Quantity
1/2 medium
roughly chopped
garlic cloves (for the sauce)
Quantity
3
peeled
bay leaves
Quantity
2
fresh thyme
Quantity
1 sprig
dry white wine
Quantity
1/2 cup
seafood or fish stock
Quantity
1 cup
fresh chile habanero
Quantity
1
whole and uncut
wooden toothpicks for sealing
Quantity
as needed
white rice (optional)
Quantity
for serving
pickled red onion with sour orange (optional)
Quantity
for serving
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole squidwith ink sacs intact if possible | 6 medium (about 6 to 7 inches in the body) |
| fresh shrimppeeled, deveined, and finely minced | 8 ounces |
| fresh blue crab meatpicked over for shell | 6 ounces |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 4 tablespoons, divided |
| white onionfinely diced | 1 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely minced | 4 |
| fresh chile xcatic (or chile güero)finely diced, seeds in or out to taste | 1 |
| capersrinsed and chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| pitted green Manzanilla olivesfinely chopped | 1/3 cup |
| golden raisinsfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1 teaspoon |
| ground allspice | 1/2 teaspoon |
| ground cloves | 1/4 teaspoon |
| kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper | to taste |
| squid ink | 4 packets (4 grams each), or the ink from the squid sacs |
| ripe Roma tomatoesblanched, peeled, and roughly chopped | 2 pounds |
| white onion (for the sauce)roughly chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic cloves (for the sauce)peeled | 3 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| fresh thyme | 1 sprig |
| dry white wine | 1/2 cup |
| seafood or fish stock | 1 cup |
| fresh chile habanerowhole and uncut | 1 |
| wooden toothpicks for sealing | as needed |
| white rice (optional) | for serving |
| pickled red onion with sour orange (optional) | for serving |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide 12-inch clay cazuela or heavy braiser with lid
- •Sharp paring knife for cleaning the squid
- •High-powered blender for the tomato sauce
- •Wooden toothpicks for sealing the squid
- •Small heatproof bowl for the ink sacs
Instructions
- 1
Clean the squid
Hold each squid body in one hand and pull the head and tentacles out slowly. The ink sac is the small silver-gray pouch attached near the head. Cut it free with care and reserve it in a small bowl. Pull out the transparent quill from the body and discard it. Rinse the body under cold water, inside and out, and pat dry. Trim the tentacles just below the eyes and reserve them. Discard the beak, the small hard knob at the base of the tentacles. The body should be a clean, intact pouch.
If your fishmonger has already cleaned the squid, ask for the ink separately or buy commercial squid ink packets. Do not skip the ink. The dish is named for it. - 2
Prepare the filling base
Finely chop the reserved tentacles. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the lard. Add the finely diced onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and the chile xcatic, cook 1 minute more. The chile xcatic is the yellow chile of the peninsula, mild and floral. If you cannot find it, chile güero is a close cousin. Do not substitute jalapeño. The flavor is wrong.
- 3
Build the picadillo of the sea
Add the chopped tentacles to the skillet and cook for 2 minutes, until they tighten and turn opaque. Add the minced shrimp and cook just until pink, about 2 minutes more. Pull the skillet off the heat. Fold in the crab meat, capers, olives, raisins, parsley, oregano, allspice, and cloves. Season with salt and a generous turn of black pepper. Taste. The filling should be salty, briny, faintly sweet from the raisins, and warm with the allspice. This is the recado seco of the peninsula expressed through the sea. Let it cool until you can handle it.
- 4
Stuff the squid
Using a small spoon or your fingers, fill each squid body about two-thirds full with the cooled picadillo. Do not pack it tight. The squid shrinks when it cooks and a stuffing packed to the brim will burst the seam. Seal the open end with a wooden toothpick threaded through like a stitch. Set the stuffed squid aside on a plate.
Any leftover filling can be stirred into the sauce at the end. Nothing in the Campeche kitchen gets wasted. - 5
Make the tomato base
Blend the peeled tomatoes, the chopped half onion, and the 3 peeled garlic cloves until smooth. In a wide cazuela or heavy braiser, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of lard over medium-high heat. Pour in the tomato puree. It will sputter loudly. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring often, until the puree darkens from bright red to brick red and the fat starts to separate at the edges. This is the same step as frying a chile paste for mole or pozole. Skip it and the sauce tastes raw. La manteca es el sabor.
- 6
Add the ink and braise
Stir in the squid ink (from the sacs or the packets). The sauce will turn from brick red to a deep, glossy near-black. Add the bay leaves, thyme sprig, white wine, and seafood stock. Lay the whole habanero on top, uncut. The habanero perfumes the sauce without making it spicy. If it breaks open, the dish becomes something else. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- 7
Braise the squid
Lower the stuffed squid into the sauce in a single layer. Spoon some of the black sauce over each one. Reduce the heat so the sauce barely murmurs, cover partially, and cook for 35 to 45 minutes. The squid is ready when a knife slides easily into the side of the body. Squid has two doneness windows: under 3 minutes or over 30 minutes. Anything in between is rubber. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado de Campeche, they will tell you the same.
If the sauce reduces too much before the squid is tender, add a splash more stock. You want the sauce to be the consistency of a loose mole at the end, glossy and clinging to the back of a spoon. - 8
Rest and serve
Remove the habanero, bay leaves, and thyme sprig. Discard them. Let the cazuela rest off the heat for 10 minutes. The sauce will settle and the squid will absorb the flavor of the ink. Remove the toothpicks. Slice each squid crosswise into thick coins so the picadillo shows through the black sauce, or serve them whole if the table prefers. Spoon the dark sauce generously over the top. Serve with white rice, pickled red onion with sour orange, and warm corn tortillas. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Buy whole squid, not pre-cleaned rings, and ask your fishmonger to set aside the ink sacs. If they look at you blankly, buy commercial squid ink packets from a good Spanish or Italian source. Nero di seppia from Italy is the same thing. The dish is named for the ink. No me vengas con atajos.
- •Chile xcatic is the yellow chile of Yucatán and Campeche, mild and floral. Outside the peninsula it is hard to find fresh. Chile güero is the closest substitute. Do not use jalapeño or serrano. The heat profile is wrong and you will lose the floral note that makes peninsular cooking what it is.
- •The habanero on top of the cazuela is not a garnish. It is technique. The whole, uncut chile releases its perfume into the sauce without releasing its heat. If you cut it, the dish becomes a chile dish. Leave it whole, fish it out before serving, and discard it. The habanero gave what it had to give.
Advance Preparation
- •The picadillo filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. The flavors marry overnight and the allspice deepens.
- •The tomato-ink sauce base can be made up to one day ahead and refrigerated separately from the stuffed squid. Combine and braise on serving day.
- •Do not stuff the squid more than a few hours ahead. Raw stuffed squid loses texture if it sits too long, and the picadillo weeps liquid into the body.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 600g)
Calories
560 calories
Total Fat
16 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
290 mg
Sodium
760 mg
Total Carbohydrates
68 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
35 g
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