La Brújula Calamares Rellenos
Squidding Around
Originally Published: Monday, March 27, 2023
Specs
The tasteful thickness of it.Ray… Ye… Nos…
The catch of the day is the Calamares Rellenos from La Brújula in Spain. This cannery makes artisanal conservas and offers a wide range of seafood in different flavours. The packaging of my can indicates that this is number 80 in their line of products, but a cursory review of their website reveals that they do not have quite so many items for sale (strangely, the can I purchased should’ve been number 84 instead of 80 according to their catalog). Numbering oddities aside, they do appear to offer products that are of considerable quality.
Calamares Rellenos loosely translates to stuffed squid. This product is preserved in olive oil and packs two to three pieces of chipirones (small squids) into each can.
“What is it stuffed with?”, you ask? Well, I was asking myself the same question as the box only lists three simple ingredients: squids, olive oil, and salt. I eagerly peel open the beautifully designed outer box to reveal the treasure within.
H.R. Giger has opinions on this.First Impressions
Peeling the tin back revealed two plump squid bodies bobbing in a pool of golden olive oil. There was a distinct scent of preserved squid that wafted from the container. It’s a bit hard to describe, but it’s a bit musty and fishy, but not acrid or “stinky”. Those who regularly enjoy barbecued squid or dried squid snacks will be familiar with the scent.
I removed the rolled-up squid tubes gently from the can, fearing that they may fall apart. They held up very well and transferred to my dish with ease. I tasted the olive oil left in the can. It had a nice silky texture that enveloped the tongue but not much beyond the mouth feel, so I discarded the leftover oil.
First Bites
My first taste of the squid allayed any fear amassed from the appearance of the pallid squid rolls. The texture was nice and firm, bouncy but not rubbery, and managed to preserve a lot of the joy from eating fresh calamari in the mouth feel. The flesh is supple enough that I was able to cut through it with my fork. The taste could best be described as “neutral”, as there were no additional seasonings beyond the listed oil and salt components. This allowed me to enjoy the flavours of the squid with very little distraction.
Mushroom risotto and stuffed squid.The olive oil component pulled its weight in the ensemble, adding some of the fruit and bitter nutty flavours to the whole experience. It also improved the texture of the squid by giving it a higher fat content. Interestingly, the flavours in the olive oil were more prominent when tasting the squid than when tasting the oil on its own, perhaps due to the salt content in the meat.
The squid itself had a mild flavour and the salt did well to focus them. The musty squid funk is present and the most overt note, with some fishiness coming in near the end. The flavours tapered off with a light ammonic finish that was unusual but not unpleasant.
So, What Was It Stuffed With?
Slightly taking apart a squid roll revealed the tightly packed structure of each cigar shaped morsel and the secret to the excellent texture. Each roll was comprised of about two to three layers of tightly wrapped squid body on the outside, and bits of tentacles on the inside. There are many people who are averse to the sight of squid tentacles and would ask for them to be removed from an order of calamari. I personally love tentacles and think they add a nice fun texture to the experience. This squid roll combines the best of both worlds preserving the fun texture of the tentacles while hiding it out of plain sight.
H.R. Giger has further opionions on this.Any Last Words?
The major downside of a product like this is its neutrality. As a standalone product it does not offer the most interesting tasting experience. By the same merits, it’s very easy to incorporate this product into dishes as the protein component due to the lack of any strong seasoning. The texture allows the product to stand up to a certain level of manhandling while cooking without disintegrating.
Sadly, I don’t think this product is a high value product, at least in North America. I paid about $13 CAD for this tin and a quick Google search shows that many Canadian and US retailers have it marked at even higher than that. On the product’s official store page, it’s closer to $8 CAD (5 Euros), which I find a lot more reasonable.
From a value star perspective, I would have to say no stars, with an erratum of 1 Star for Europe. For us North American plebs I suggest buying frozen squid for cooking and allocating the budget to another product for snacking.
With that said, La Brújula offers a range of other interesting and tasty looking products, and I look forward to trying them all.