Kanava is the kerala name of squid (In English-speaking countries, it is known as calamari - Italian word) .This species is unique in nature because of the structure and texture...About the structure, it has eight arms arranged in pairs and two longer tentacles and also have a ink sac mainly used to escape from its enemies..If any one of its enemies are in action it produces a black ink and makes the entire environment in black in color so enemies can't see them and also according to the environment it has the ability to change its body color too...
Usually we are not using the ink sac for preparing any dish but we saw travel channel's bizarre foods by Andrew Zimmerman (our ever time favorite TV show) was eating the squid soup prepared with this ink. He commented about that special dish as " Oh man unbelievable". Sure if we get a chance we have to try that too...Got bored because of my story? Don't worry let's talk about the recipe. Today I am going to share you the kanava thoran recipe.
Kanava Thoran is one of our favorite dish from mom's menu..Especially my brother fond of this squid thoran..we used to have it only with rice ..no other curries required..so u can imagine how delicious our mom's kanava thoran is..I hardly get chance to prepare this dish as because my hus didn't get a chance to taste it before( my in-laws place they doesn't like this fish) and also another thing i thought it is a very hard process to clean and cook..When mom came here we bought this from our Chinese store Cam Asia (a good Chinese grocery in our neighborhood with almost all fish) and my hus got the chance to taste our favorite dish ..He also liked it so much..another thing is that the same time mom taught me how to clean and cook this special food...I think its not a hard job, but we need little patience. that's all. I can guarantee that everyone love this dish..because it has a very unique taste.
It is very important to know about cleaning this. You should be careful and follow the four important things given below:
1.Carefully remove the ink sac from the body.
2.There is a stone kind part is there in the head.you should remove that part before cooking.
3.Peel away the skin.
4.Carefully remove the cuttle bone.. (In Kerala it is known as Sea Pen - Kadal Pena)
If you want to know more details about cleaning this squid,visit this link. Actually the person described the cleaning process in a very detailed way..sure it will help you a lot...
Cooking time : 20-30 minute
Cost of the item: 3.99 usd/Pound
Ingredients:
Kanava : 1 large
Salt : to taste
Water : 2 cup
Coconut : 1/2 cup
Garlic : 4 pods
Green chili: 4 nos
Pearl onion : 3 nos
Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder : 1 tsp
Coriander Powder : 1 tsp
Chili powder : 2 tsp
For seasoning
Mustard seed: 1 tsp
Red chili : 2 nos
Curry leaves : 5leaves
Preparation
Prior to cooking
2.cut the pearl onion into very small pieces
Step 1 : Boil the kanava pieces with enough water and salt.Here, what i did was i cooked the squid using pressure cooker...If you cook this in a vessel it will take long time to cook. If you use pressure cooker, within 2-3 whistle the cooking will get done. (boiled kanava -see the snap).
step 2 : make a coarse paste of coconut ,garlic with chili powder ,coriander powder and pepper powder.
Step 3: Heat oil in a pan ..add the mustard seeds,once it started spluttering add red chili and curry leaves then add the cut pearl onion and green chili,saute for 2 minute .
Step 4 : Then add the coconut mix into it.Let it fry for about 3-5 minute
The delicious kanava thoran is ready to have..Have it with rice ...
Points to ponder
- Cut the kanava into very small pieces..that will make the dish more tastier.
- If you like to make the thoran spicy increase the amount of green chili and chili powder.
- Do not forget to add salt while cooking the kanava pieces..
This looks really tasty. I love calamari and don't always want to eat it fried. Thanks.
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