Smoked squids reverse seared on the Traeger and Kamado

Looking for a delicious start of your BBQ meal? These smoky squids will do the trick! Serve them with a delicious white wine and you'll be dancing around the fire from pure joy! Time to invite some guests and impress them with your BBQ skills. Don't worry! It's really simple! As long as you make sure the squids don't slip from your grid!

Course apero, Starter

Cuisine Southern

Keyword baby squid, Coldsmoked, Grilled, italian food, kamado, pellet, reverse seared, Smoky, Traeger, woodsmoked

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 35

Marinating time 1

Total Time 1 40

Servings 1 apero portion

Equipment

Fruit wood chunks
Cast iron skillet

Ingredients

20 baby squids

Voor de marinade

1 clove garlic
1/4th hot pepper
2 twigs mint leaves
2 twigs lemon verbena can be replace by more mint
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp hazelnut oil
1 pinch of salt

Finishing touch

1 lime zest and juice at taste
Salt and pepper at taste

Instructions

Put the baby squids in the freezer for at least a couple of hours. If you're buying frozen squids you can skip this step. By freezing them the though tissue will break up. After freezing allow the squids to defrost in the fridge.
Take a mortar and add all marinating ingredients except for the oil. Grind until you get a nice paste like structure and add the oil. Mix through and pour over the baby squids.
Put the baby squids with marinade in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

BBQ time

Prepare your smoker for an indirect session at low heat (75-100°C). I've used the Traeger ironwood at 75°C for this using apple wood pellets. But you can also use a kamado with indirect heat and apple wood chunks.
Smoke the baby squids with their marinade for 30-45 minutes.
Raise the temperature in your BBQ or move the baby squids to a direct heat zone (+- 200°C). For this part I've used the mini kamado. Roast the squids until they have a slight golden brown colour. Pay attention to the squids! By heating them up they will shrink and might slip through the grid. Use a small grid or cast iron pan for this step.
Before serving sprinkle some drops of lime juice on top of the grilled squids and grate some fresh zest over it. Add some salt and pepper at taste but be careful with this! You don't want to overpower the delicate taste of the marinated and smoked baby squids!