More often than not, calamari is served in some deep-fried form. In this dish it is stuffed and slowly braised in a rich tomato sauce. One of the key stuffing ingredients is sultanas, which add a delicious and unexpected sweet dimension.
Back in the 1930s in my hometown, Mildura, a man by the name of De Garis undertook a massive marketing campaign to promote locally grown sultanas. There were amazing cash prizes and other incentives, and for a while Australia became sultana crazy! Sadly, nowadays sultanas have become almost overlooked. They pop up in the odd fruit bun or breakfast cereal, but these tend to be cheaper imports from countries like Turkey. When it comes to quality and flavour, however, there is nothing to match the Mildura ‘five-crown’ sultana.