I’ve been noticing Portuguese recipes in my Pinterest feed, and I finally had to give them a try. First up is this recipe for Squid Stew or Caldeirada de Lulas. Reading through this recipe made me think “comfort food” especially with the tomato broth and potatoes. I know it’s still summer, but a stew made with squid should be light enough for the season. Plus I’m just in the mood for a nice seafood stew, hot weather or not.
Portuguese Squid Stew, known as Caldeirada de Lulas, is one of the best and most popular Portuguese seafood dishes, and for good reason. It is a traditional and hearty dish which provides many of the best flavors in Portuguese cooking. The combination of the fresh squid along with a rich tomato sauce makes for a wonderful seafood dish that is perfect for any occasion.
The Ingredients
The squid for this recipe meant a special trip to Whole Foods since my regular grocery store doesn’t carry it. They didn’t have whole squid like this recipe calls for, but they did have cleaned squid tubes and tentacles. A quick google told me I would only need about 2/3 the amount of cleaned squid versus whole, so I settled on 2.3 pounds instead of 4. The rest of the ingredients were basics, so they were inexpensive and easy to find.
The Process
Making this squid stew was easy as it required only basic cooking skills. The prep work did take a little while because of all the peeling, chopping, and slicing involved, though. At least half of that was slicing the squid tubes into rings, so you could save time by buying it pre-sliced. The tentacles were small enough that they didn’t need to be cut apart.
The only confusion in the directions was when to add the paprika. It’s listed in the ingredients but not in the instructions. I decided to add it to Step 4.
Lastly, a note about the potatoes. I peeled and chopped them with the rest of the prep work so they would be ready to go when they were called for in Step 5. I also cut them into bite-sized pieces instead of halves so they would cook faster and be easier to eat. As a result, they cooked in just 15 minutes.
