Squid Ghee Roast

Succulent squid rings with a wonderful aroma of spices cooked in ghee and fresh curry leaves. This squid ghee roast in Mangalorean style is a delightful seafood delicacy that you’ll fall in love with!

A selection of spices toasted, freshly ground, and fried in ghee, forms the base of this dish. Marinated squid rings are then cooked to perfection in this flavourful base with curry leaves and some jaggery. This is the Mangalorean cuisine at its finest!

Some delicacies are so special that you only have to try it once to become a lifelong fan. Chicken ghee roast from the Mangalorean cuisine was one such find for me. Along with kori sukka, it is one of my all-time favourites from this region’s cuisine.

If you are a fan of the chicken ghee roast, you’ll love the other variations as well. You can make an amazing ghee roast with seafood like prawns or squid. Unlike chicken prawns and squid need very less cooking time. That makes this squid ghee roast recipe an easy delicacy to put together.

About this squid ghee roast recipe

In the chicken ghee roast recipes we usually use yogurt to tenderise the meat. Squid doesn’t need much time to cook, so we don’t have to add yogurt for marination.

This squid ghee roast preparation involves three steps. The first step is toasting the spices, and grinding a paste adding ginger and garlic. The second step involves marinating the squid rings with this paste adding turmeric powder, lime juice, and salt. We’ll use some of this spice paste to marinate the squid rings. The final step is the actual cooking itself. The spice paste is fried in ghee before adding the marinated squid rings. Addition of curry leaves and jaggery completes the dish.

While cooking with squid rings, you should be careful not to overcook them. They’ll become rubbery if you cook them for more than 3-4 minutes.

If you like this squid ghee roast recipe, don’t forget to check out the following Mangalorean recipes as well. They are some of the most popular recipes on my blog.

• Kori Sukka (Mangalore style dry chicken curry)
• Chicken Pulimunchi

Print Recipe

Squid Ghee Roast

Succulent squid rings with a wonderful aroma of spices cooked in ghee and fresh curry leaves. This squid ghee roast in Mangalorean style is a delightful seafood delicacy that you'll fall in love with!

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time45 mins

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Main Dish, Side Dish

Cuisine: Karnataka

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 400 grams squid rings cleaned
• 1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 10 whole black pepper
• 7-8 dry kashmiri red chillies
• 3-4 hot red chillies or to your heat preference
• 1 inch ginger
• 5-6 cloves garlic medium size
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 lime juice squeezed and pips removed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
• 2 tablespoon ghee or more if you prefer
• 3-4 sprigs curry leaves go generous
• 1/2 tablespoon jaggery powder

Instructions

• Heat a pan and lightly toast the spices (without the dry chillies).
  
• Gently stir as they warm up to release the aroma.
  
• Add the dry chillies. Mix well and toast for another 30 seconds.
  
• Switch off and let it cool down.
• Transfer to a blender, add ginger and garlic, and blitz to a coarse paste adding a little water at a time.
  
• In a mixing bowl, add two tablespoons of the ground masala paste, lime juice, turmeric powder, pepper powder, and salt.
• Combine well. This is our marinade. Keep the remaining masala for cooking in ghee.
• Drain off all the water from the squid rings, add them to the marinade.
• Coat them uniformly with the marinade.
• Let it marinate for 15-20 minutes (preferably in the fridge).
• Heat two tablespoons of ghee on a low flame in a thick bottom pan.
• Add the ground masala paste to the hot ghee.
• Add salt and fry till the oils start emerging from the paste.
  
• Now add the marinated squid rings, gently stir to get them coated in the ghee fried masala.
• Cook for 3-4 minutes while stirring occasionally.
• Cook them just enough.
• Add the curry leaves and the jaggery powder.
  
• Stir gently and cook for another minute.
  
• Switch off and serve hot with some neer dosa.