K & S: Extreme Home Edition

the other day m and i were inspired to try out matthew dillon's (sccc culinary program grad and ec of sitka & spruce) "grilled squid with miner's lettuce salad and green sauce" lifted from the best chef's of 2007 issue of food and wine. we're not usually read-and-create people, but it was hot and this salad sounded great. so on the way home from work, m stopped at uwaji's to get some whole squid and the requisite ingredients.

i've never cleaned whole squid, so i just guessed, and i think i did it right. i chopped off their heads and tentacles, squeezed out the innards, peeled out the windowpane cartilage, and peeled off the purple skin. i don't think you have to skin them, but i figured, i don't see too many purple squid bodies in restaurants, so i only left two with their brilliant purple covers.

below i'm rinsing off a cleaned, skinned body. mmm, silky white.

m prepared the "green sauce," which was essentially a flatleaf parsley pesto. he blended anchovy fillets, capers, sweet onion, garlic, green onions, lemon juice and zest, parsley, and olive oil. the entire kitchen smelled fresh and green. i can't even begin to tell you how zesty that sauce was.

here's the remains of some "green sauce" elements.

we were supposed to marinate the squid for at least two hours, but it was realistically more like 30 minutes. the squid bathed in lemon zest and juice, olive oil, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, and more flatleaf parsley. wow it looked so good, and i couldn't wait to taste it after 2 minutes on the grill!

m grilled them for (seriously) 2 minutes, then we sliced them up into bite-sized pieces.

while m was grilling, i constructed a simple salad out of arugula (peppery...also my favorite), mini garbanzo beans, and a simple vinaigrette made from lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, and finely-minced sweet onion.

the finished product was both beautiful and delicious. the squid was amazingly tender and sweet a la fresh crab/lobster and was well-complimented by the salad and pesto. i think the squid definitely would have benefited from a longer soak in the marinade, but it was still delicious. it would be a really easy dish to marinate the day before and forget about it...then two minutes on the grill and a salad and toasted slice of olive bread later....dinner.


i hope you enjoyed this special home edition of ketchup and soup....if this recipe is of interest, please feel free to comment and i can email it to you :).