I’ve been on a Vietnamese recipe kick recently since I visited my parents in LA for Thanksgiving. Over past few weeks, I realized that connecting with my culture through food and sharing it with the world is very important to me. All I want is for people to see Vietnamese food as more than pho! Vietnamese cuisine has so many different dishes that are just a good as pho. Case in point, this Vietnamese stuffed calamari dish.
The first time I saw this dish being made was while watching a Gordon Ramsay video. He has this show called Gordon’s Great Escape where he goes around to different Southeast Asian countries and learns about their cuisine. The episode that I loved the most was the Vietnam episode (of course right?). It taught me that I have A LOT to learn about my own culture’s cuisine. This stuffed calamari dish was made in that episode by a fisherman in the south of Vietnam. He and Gordon went fishing in the middle of the night to catch some fresh squid, and this is the dish they made to celebrate their successful fishing trip.
This dish is pretty simple. The pork stuffing is made of ground pork, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, and green onions. Mix all these ingredients together with your hands and set aside. You then get some squid tubes and stuff them with the pork mixture. Usually you finish it over the stove but I wanted to use a healthier cooking method so I baked them at 500 degrees F.
These Vietnamese stuffed calamari can be eaten as an appetizer or in a vermicelli bowl. I personally like it in a vermicelli bowl because I like the refreshing taste of the vermicelli noodles mixed with the veggies and topped with some nuoc cham.
Vietnamese Stuffed Calamari (Muc Nhoi Thit)
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 stalks green onions minced
- 1 ginger 2 inch piece, minced
- 4 tbsp fish sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 18 squid tubes
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
- Combine ground pork, garlic, green onions, ginger, and fish sauce in a medium sized bowl. Use your hands to mix all the ingredients together. Set aside once well mixed.
- Stuff squid tubes with pork mixture. Leave 1/2 inch of room at the top.
- Weave a toothpick through the top of each squid tube to keep the mixture in while it's cooking.
- Place the squid on a baking sheet. Brush with the vegetable oil.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes. The stuffed squid is done when the ground pork is a brown color. I usually cut it open to make sure it's cooked.
This looks like an interesting and delicious dish. Yes, Vietnamese cuisine has many more tasty dishes than just pho. Even Vietnamese like us have dishes we’ve never tried yet :D. And I love the beautiful shadows in your photos :).
You’re so sweet! Thank you for the love. There are soooo many Vietnamese dishes/recipes I haven’t tried yet, and I’m learning more and more everyday!