Adriatic Squid - The Queen Of Molluscs

We are talking about squid.

However, how to put squid and a mandarin together on the plate ?!

Although it lives in almost all the world seas and oceans and is known on all continents, you can also buy squid from distant seas in Zadar. However, Adriatic squid is especially appreciated because its quality, fullness of taste and thickness of the body wall, stands out from its distant relatives. The abundance and quality of small fish, especially oily fish in the Adriatic Sea, which is the main prey for squid, is the most likely reason for this. All squid is delicious, but only the Adriatic squid is the right one, simply different and the best, everyone in Zadar will tell you.

The squid lives at different sea depths, and in the autumn and winter at the spawning-time, it reaches shallower waters, and it is then that the most intensive squid fishing takes place. It can be caught with several types of nets, but the most popular and most accessible way of squid fishing is the one with different artificial baits. Both professional fishers and recreative anglers fish it. When in autumn, before dusk at sea off the coastal towns and villages, including Zadar, you see groups of fishing boats floating, be sure that their crews are catching squid.

Squid is prepared in several ways in the Zadar area. It is common to fry it sliced into rings in deep oil; it is also delicious when grilled or baked in the oven with potatoes. Some people even boil it and make a seasoned salad of it or a delicious stew (brodetto). Fishermen especially like to cook freshly caught squid "whole" in a little salted water, i.e. without cleaning it, with potatoes, and immediately season it with good olive oil. In Zadar and its region, no food from the sea should be served without olive oil, even more so squid.

One of the advantages of squid, and other molluscs like octopus and cuttlefish likewise, is that it takes deep-frozen storage well unlike fish, which is always best when completely fresh, squid and other molluscs are softer and suppler after a short stay in the freezer.

French chef Victor Vercoustre runs the kitchen of the restaurant "Momento" in Petrčane near Zadar, a place which received a boost from tourism as far back as the mid of the last century. An idyllic little town with a long waterfront facing the sunset is surrounded by a number of delightful hotels with a high occupancy rate and apartment complexes, so Parisian Victor from the "Moment" wants to create a solid fine dininig restaurant for gourmet connoisseurs. He adapts the menu and meal courses to seasonal foods, so in his autumn menu for 2020 he combined squid with another characteristic autumn fruit - mandarin. Mandarin is a favourite and common fruit in the southern parts of Croatia, and large plantations of this citrus are located in the south, in the Neretva river valley. You will often see it in Zadar and its surroundings, where it adorns many gardens with its thick treetops and, in autumn, ripe orange, tasty and healthy fruits. 

Chef Vercoustreu found squid and mandarin to be a logical choice: the squid is briefly sauteed in butter until crispy, and then placed on a phenomenal mandarin and carrot cream. To enrich the sweetness of this combination, the dish is sprinkled with miso vingretta made of pickled carrots and fresh mandarins, and new extra virgin olive oil, which is made in the autumn in many oil works in the Zadar area. And all that is garnished with minimalist decorations of herbs such as water parsley.

Victor created a sensational dish in which he combined traditional simplicity in the preparation of squid with other gifts of autumn.

Elsewhere and with another chef, the squid will be served differently, in a different creation, but whichever you choose - you won't go wrong. And don't forget to always ask the hosts  whether they serve you the real queen of the Adriatic - squid.