Cuttlefish Stew

Cuttlefish Stew with Tomato & Spinach:

• First, in a pot or pan with tall sides, heat a ¼ cup or so of olive oil.  (No, I didn’t measure it.)
• Dice a ½ an onion and sauté it until there’s not an inordinate amount of moisture left.
• Clean as much baby (little) cuttlefish as you’ve got, or want to eat, and cut the bodies into halves.
• Drain and liquid from your cuttlefish and save it.
• Add your cuttlefish to your onions and sauté until they’re no longer translucent.
• Now, you need liquid.  I’ll bet white wine would be good.
• I didn’t have wine though. I had juice from steaming clams.  So, I used that.
• I also poured in the juices that had drained from the cuttlefish a bit earlier.
• In the rare possibility that the cuttlefish didn’t release juices that deglazed your pan, now would be a good time to make sure everything’s deglazed.
• Stir in a large can of chopped tomatoes.  Or, in my case, chop up a large can’s worth of whole tomatoes and stir those in along with the juice.
• Pour in some water.  Remember, you’re making stew or soup, or whatever.
• Add a large amount of dill.  I used dried dill.
• Season.
• Add in quite a few shakes of paprika.
• Plus a little saffron.
• Then a teaspoon or so of cinnamon.
• Maybe some more dill, depending on how you feel.
• Now, with the clam juice, and all, the fishiness was a bit intense.
• So, I stirred in a couple of capfuls of cider vinegar and a huge, plastic bear rending squeeze of honey.  You couldn’t taste either vinegariness or sweetness later, I swear…
• Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until the cuttlefish are soft.
• Then, throw in a couple of handfuls of rice.
• Next, chop up about a quarter of a bundle of fresh parsley and stir it in.
• After that, de-stem and wash an entire package of spinach.  If it’s not packaged, use a lot.
• Stir in the the spinach, and cook it until it’s nicely wilted down.
• Cover the pan and let it sit until the rice will be tender enough to eat.
• I served it with bread for mopping.