We often have groups of squid and cuttlefish hanging out around the boat. They are really interesting to watch communicating with each other with intricate changes of colour, swimming forwards, backwards and even sideways looking like aliens. We always wondered why they were so interested in the anchor chain, now we know: they are looking for a convenient substrate to attach their eggs! The poor creatures don’t know that we’ll lift the chain after a day or a week, so their offspring has no chance to develop…
The first time Christian pulled up the chain with translucent, slimy bags attached, he simply threw them back into the water. Then we did some reading and found out that the eggs have no chance of survival floating freely. AND we read that squid eggs are edible. So the next time there were eggs attached to the chain we washed them and sauteed them with butter and garlic. The result had a nice taste, but the consistency was too slimy for our taste. So I put them in a blender with pre-soaked bread, lemon juice and olive oil, mixed everything and got something very much like the Greek Taramasalata spread (which is made with fish roe).
If you have squid eggs on your anchor chain, here’s our recipe:
4 slices of soaked and drained white bread
the juice of 1 lemon (or more or less according to taste)
1/2 cup of olive oil (or more or less according to consistency)
Blend it and enjoy as a dip or spread!
So while we would never deliberately harm those curious and very intelligent animals (or their eggs), it makes sense to make delicious use of roe that would otherwise perish…
