Today the store had some fresh squid so I bought 5 of them. Kay got he fun job of cleaning them. First you pull the tentacles and head from the sac. The tentacles need to be cut just below the eye. Discard the rest of that part.

Next take the sac. There is a purple skin covering which just peels off. In the sac is a gelatinous stuffing which needs to be removed along with the cartilidge "beak". Now you have a tentacle and a sac from each squid.

These Squid had sack about 8" long. They are going to be a tiny bit chewy no matter what. You can grill them whole, or in rings, or split them open and score them to make them more tender. I chose the ring approach.

I sliced the sack into rings about 3/8th of an inch thick. The tentacles I split into two. I crushes and chopped 5 cloves of garlic. I made a dressing from the juice of 3 limes, 2 Tbsp of blood orange O brand olive oil and 1 Tbsp of Thai fish sauce. I ground a lot of black pepper into the mix. I tossed a 4 oz bag of pre washed Asian Baby greens and a 4 oz bag of Mache in a stainless steel bowl. I tossed the greens with the dressing.

I heated a cast iron skillet until fairly hot but not smoking. I poured in 3 Tbsp of olive oil (plain Spanish EVO oil, not flavored) and then tossed in 1/4 tsp of red chile flakes. As soon as they were sizzling, I tossed in the garlic. I stir fried it for 15 seconds and then tossed in all the squid. I stir fried the squid till it turned opaque. I splashed in some more fish sauce, some salt until the squid tasted right and there was a little liquid at the bottom of the pan. Then I poured the contents of the pan onto the greens and tossed.

We had it with some 12 grain sourdough and a bottle of Albert Mann Gewurztraminer 2001.

We folowed it up with some blackberries with some drained yogurt mixed with aged balsamico.

Some 25 years ago when living in Queensland, I was out fishing for flathead with my best friend. He was a seasoned fisherman. Nothing was biteing, but my line felt like it was collecting weed. I'd pull it in, and just as it approached the surface, the line would go slack and the bait (a whole small fish) was still intact. After three or four of these experiences, I pulled the line in more slowly and what do you know, a squid was wrapped around my bait. Out with the net...scoop.. and one squid in the boat. half an hour later, half a dozen squid in the bucket. Bill gave up on the flathead, threw away his bait and reached into the bucket. "What are you doing?" I said. "Using this new bait" he replied. For Queenslanders in the mid 70's, squid was bait.

To cut a long story short, to his and my wife's horror, I took them home to cook. Neither would stay in the kitchen, and I was left to my own devices. For twenty five years we have been eating squid, and at around $5.00US a kg (that's say $2.50 a lb), it's the cheapest seafood available here in Sydney.

My all time favourite is a stir fry with chopped celery, garlic and celery leaves and sesame oil. Just lightly stir fry the garlic, salt and squid in an oiled wok for a minute, add the celery and chopped celery leaves and drizzle with the sesame oil.

It's also great with Szechwan pepper. The following recipe is for the full catastrophy, however you can always just make the Chilli Salt, toss the squid rings in it and stir fry in a little oil for 30-45 secs. For the second recipe, you can substitute the szechwan pepper for cracked pepper. Szechwan pepper really isn't a pepper...it grows on vines not trees..and needs lighlty toasting in a pan to release the flavour and aroma. Once tasted, you are hooked for life.

Chilli Salt:
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Szechwan pepper
1 star anise
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 cardamom pod
50g Horizon Salt Flakes or rock salt
150g rice flour

1. Roast all the ingredients (except for the rice flour) until fragrant.
2. Grind the spices and mix with the rice flour.

Sweet corn fritters:
Kernels from 2 corn cobs
1 tbsp olive oil
100g rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Salt & pepper
125ml milk
2 eggs, separated
125g natural yoghurt
2 tbsp chopped herbs (see Tip)
1/2 birds eye chilli - minced
Ghee for cooking

Burnt Orange Dressing:
1 L unsweetened orange juice
125ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp tamarind syrup

Mango & Avocado Salad:
1/2 bunch Thai basil
2 avocados, sliced
1/2 bunch mint leaves
2 bunches fresh asparagus, blanched and refreshed
1/2 bunch watercress
1/2 bunch coriander
3 squid tubes, cleaned and sliced into thin strips
Lime wedges to serve




To prepare the Corn Fritters:

1. Roast the corn kernels with the olive oil until golden and caramelised, then transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the rice flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and season with salt and pepper. Combine the milk, egg yolks and yoghurt, and whisk into the dry ingredients. Stir in the herbs and chilli.
3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold gently into the batter.
4. Heat a frying pan with ghee and pan-fry spoonfuls of the corn fritter mixture until golden and puffed, turning once during cooking.

To make the Burnt Orange Dressing:

1. Bring the orange juice to the boil and simmer gently until reduced by one third. Whisk in the other ingredients and season, then allow to cool to room temperature.

To prepare the Mango & Avocado Salad:

1. Toss together all the ingredients except for the squid.
2. Dust the squid with the chilli salt mix and deep fry for 30-45 seconds depending on thickness.
3. Toss the squid with the salad ingredients and dress with the Burnt Orange Dressing. Arrange the salad on the sweet corn fritters and serve immediately with lime wedges.

Tips

* Horizon Salt Flakes are available from specialty food stores and Woolworths Supermarkets.
* Use fresh herbs such as coriander, mint or Vietnamese mint.
Recipe kindly provided by Chef Simon Yarham of 2 faces - the restaurant in Geelong, Victoria.



Salt and pepper Squid

Chef: Lyndon Wade, Ceduna.


Easy to create, this jumps off the plate!

Serves 1

Degree of difficulty: Low

Preparation Time: 10 minutes with 2 hours refrigeration.

Cooking Time: 5 minutes.

You need:
1 squid
cracked pepper
sea salt
Fresh lemon juice
rice flour
olive oil for cooking

Method:
Clean the squid, removing the back 'bone' (cartlidge) and tentacles. Open the body of the squid and score the inside of with a sharp knife (be careful not to cut all the way through).
Rub the cracked pepper and salt into the scored body. Place the squid into an airtight container, and squeeze the juice from a lemon onto the squid. Cover and shake the container to ensure that the juice has covered the squid. Place in refrigerator for a few hours.
Just before mealtime, cut the squid into think strips, and dust in rice flour. It may pay to flour the lot before cooking. Place in a hot fry pan with a small amount of oil (wait until the oil is hot before adding the squid).
Cook until golden brown, stirring with an egg-flip. Squid will only take 1-2 minutes.

Serving Suggestion: Serve on a bed of fried, or boiled rice.

Gavin, Chris still uses squid as bate .

When Becky was little everytime she'd ask what we were eating for dinner Chris would say, "Squid." It grossed her out. One night when she was about 5 or 6, we were out at an Italian restaurant with Chris's family. We ordered a double order of fried calamri. Becky ate them like french fries, until Chris, in his infinite wisdom, told her "Becky, this time, you're really eating squid!" I kicked him but too late. She won't touch the stuff.

Personally, I'm not a big squid eater. I'll do the fried calamari but not much else - can't stand if it's chewy.

Jaleo, our favorite tapas restaurant in DC and Bethesda grill whole squid bodies and serve them with a little olive oil and lemon. Its superb. Thay also do squid in its own ink but thats too rich for me.

Hi Kim. Tough squid tends to be overcooked. That's why the recipes call for just 30 to 45 seconds. Marinaded for 24 hours and cooked on the BBQ for just 45sec is so tender.

Gavin, What do Szechwan peppers look like? Are they like Red chili peppers or small black peppercorns?

Schezuan peppercorns look like tiny dried berries, somehat flat and elongated rather than peppercorn round. The are a dark dark reddish brown. The have some stems and a little seed inside. They produce a gentler kind of hotness that sneaks up on you. In addition, they also produce a tingling numbness on the tongue. In Schezuan cooking, they will usually be combined with other sources of hotness, typically fresh green chilies. Sometimes they will be usewd with dried red chilies. The real killer dishes use all three.

As mentioned, you need to toast them before using. Heat a frying pan, dry, over medium heat thill hot. Add the peppercorns and toss until they start to give off a little aroma and smoke. Pour them into a stoneware of stainless steel bowl (these matreials help remove the heat from the peppercorns fast which helps them get brittle and keeps them from burning). Then put them in a spice mill (I use my old coffee mill for this) and whizz them into a powder. Tightly cover in a small jar.

Another way to use them is to make Schezuan peppercorn oil. Take a small pan heat it, and fill it with about 1/2 inch of grapeseed or peanut oil. Test the oil by utting the end of a bamboo chopstick in it. If the oil bubbles around the end of the chopstick, the oil is ready. Add about half as much schezuan peppercorns as oil. The pan will boil up and foam furiously, so make sure you are using one with a high lip. As soon as you see the first wisp of smoke, or the peppercorns start getting almost black, pour the oil out into, again, stineware or stainless steel bowl. Let it cool. Be sure to do this with good ventilation in the kitchen. The peppercorn oil lasts for a long time. To use, you can either use just the oil or mix up the peppercorns and oil with a spoon and use some of each.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kim:
Becky ate them like french fries, until Chris, in his infinite wisdom, told her "Becky, this time, you're really eating squid!" I kicked him but too late. She won't touch the stuff.

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This reminds me of when I was very little, probably 4 or 5. My parents took me with them to San Francisco when my dad had to go to the Furniture Market. One night we went out to a fancy dinner at Paoli's. They delivered a huge assortment of antipasti to the table. One dish has something breaded on it that my parents were enjoying. They couldn't figure out what it was but I was sure it was squid. I would't touch the stuff! Don't ask me how I knew but I was sure!

When the waiter came to the table, they asked what it was and I was right! They were mortified because they thought that they did not like squid. I don't know when I became a squid lover, but now its one of my favorite foods.