The Return

Cephalopods and me

Edward Lear, Owls, Pussy-Cats and other nonsense

A new year, a new look and a new post. Now, the chronoligists amongst you may have noticed it is a year and a day since I last 'blogged'. Although I can hear you making instant comparisons to Edward Lear's owl and pussy-cat sailing away for a year and a day I have, regrettably, to tell you I have not been whisked away on a cruise, a ferry journey or even a hour on the local boating lake. No such luck, I can't even claim to have partaken in the wrinkly equivalent to that strange student phenomenon, the 'gap year'.

The truth of the matter is I've simply had a years gap!

Much as the thought of sailing away for a year and a day on a beautiful pea green boat has a certain amount of appeal, playing gooseberry while Owl strums his guitar and serenades his feline shipmate with the lines “O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are” does not!

But enough of this nonsense, lets talk cephalopods...

I suspect, many students first discover squid on their gap year. I discovered or rather rediscovered it on my year gap. What has become an almost obsessional love of this strange, but strangely attractive eight legged or more accurately eight armed lovely from the depths started one warm and sunny summers morning with a walk to the town (officially city) library after a coffee with a friend in the park. I mention this only so you can appreciate I was in something of a Mediterranean mood, well as much as you can be after drinking mediocre coffee while looking onto the rubble strewn bed of the River Ribble at slack water.

It was while at the library that quite by chance I picked up a copy of 'Recipes from my Italian Grandmother' by Kate Whiteman with Angela Boggiano and Jeni Wright. I think I should point out at this point that the grandmother in the title is not 'my' grandmother (I don't have an Italian grandmother), and whether it's actually the grandmother of one or more of the afore mentioned is not altogether clear either. The fact is, irrespective of whose grandmother the title refers this was my book find of the the summer. I so enjoyed it and was so taken with the recipes I dusted off my trusty debit card and sent off for my very own copy from that well known on-line retailer bearing the name of a somewhat larger river than our local offering.

Kate, Angela and Jeni's book comes in two halves, not literally of course, that would be silly, and possibly twice the postage. The first half covers ingredients. Comprehensive, informative, with cooks tips and basic recipes, and of course great pictures this is the 'orses doufers to the main event, the recipes. Ever the sceptic though, when I first read the introduction to the recipe section and saw the inevitable phrase '...ingredients that can be found easily outside Italy...' my first thought was, probably not in my town girls! But after a peruse of the recipes and their ingredients I'd only spotted two that could be a challenge, osso buco, but that possibly could be resolved by a visit to a more upmarket butchers in a more upmarket out of town garden centre (don't ask, it could just be a northern thing), and of course squid! Now I'm no marine biologist but I suspect the waters of the Fylde coast are not the squid's environment of choice.

You can imagine my disappointment a few days later when I came across a pack of the little monsters in a supermarket freezer section. Well nobody likes to be proven wrong do they! Like most people of a certain generation and background my overriding memory of squid was of those inedible rubber bands lurking in a soupy and/or crispy bottomed paella (depending on how long it had sat there bubbling away at the optimal bacteria breading temperature). This, foolishly ordered in some pavement restaurant of a costa building site or further afield, in some oil rich, bowel bubbling Greek concoction served with a side order of disdain. However someone's Italian grandmother's recipes had not let me down so far and thus after a brief one to one with the supermarket's self-checkout machine, which thankfully chose not to announce to all and sundry that I had an unexpected item in my bagging area, my squid and I were on the way home.

My book of someone's Italian grandmother’s recipes has two recipes for squid so half the pack went into the freezer and the other half went into the fridge to defrost slowly over night. On inspection the following day my defrosted squid turned out to be fairly small, with a body of about four inches or so, fairly well cleaned with it's tentacles tucked into it's sack (if you had to re-read that – grown up!).

First on the menu was Chargrilled Squid or as they say in Italy Grigliata di calamari. There were a couple of reason to try this dish first. One, it is served with a simple risotto to which I'm particularly fond. Two, I didn't have the potatoes and green beans for the other dish and besides, this dish needs just a splash of white wine, a bottle of which I'd already opened, whereas the other dish, which I will bore you with later, needs a little red wine.

Preparation of the squid was simplicity its self and after rinsing under running water consisted of cutting lengthways down the body, opening out flat and doing the criss-cross scoring trick that will be familiar to anyone who watches daytime TV cookery programs. I know you may think that watching daytime TV cookery programs is quite sad but it's a lifestyle choice and I like it! The tentacles were chopped even though to be fair they were hardly large enough to be a threat. These and the scored body parts were marinated for about an hour in balsamic vinegar and olive oil before the body parts were lifted out and given a good griddling, both sides, on a ridged griddle pan. They curl up so holding them flat with a fish slice is required to get those lovely chard lines. The marinated, scored and griddled bodies were sliced into diagonal strips and placed in a warmed oven while the chopped tentacles and a chopped fresh red chilli were warmed through for a few minute in a pan before adding a splash of white wine.

To serve, the risotto was piled on a dish, the slices of squid arranged on top and the warm tentacles, chilli and wine dressing drizzled over everything... Superb!

The Chargrilled Squid above is a great example of cooking something quickly to keep it tender and beautifully textured. As proof I have since made this dish with a large fresh squid, and I mean 20,000 leagues under the sea large and it still worked out toothsomely tender.

The other recipe in my Italian Grandmothers book employs the opposite technique of slower cooking.

Genoese Squid Salad, Calimari in insalata alla genovese, don't panic salad dodgers, there's not a floppy green leaf in sight. In this dish the squid is cut. cooked and served in rings, so my smaller frozen squid are ideal. The rings are placed in a dish with garlic, red wine and some ground black pepper (I also slipped in the tentacles, waste not wont not) and cooked, covered, in the oven until deliciously tender, about 45mins depending on the size of your rings.

While the squid is in the oven small waxy potatoes are boiled in a pan until tender, then removed and set aside to cool a little. Green beans, trimmed and cut into short lengths are given 3 mins or so in the vacated pan and then again drained. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle they are thickly sliced and placed in a bowl with the green beans and thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes. This lovely 'salad' is then drizzled with a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic and S&P. A gentle mix and pile on to a plate. I deviate a little form someone's Italian Grandmother's recipe in that I don't add the squid to the salad bowl before mixing and serving up. Ever the rebel I prefer to drain the squid rings and arrange them on the potato, green bean and sun-dried tomato salad, you can ditch the wine and garlic, they have done their job. Grind more black pepper over the whole dish and enjoy...

In the interest of balance and in true BBC fashion I must point out that other countries squid dishes are available. I will in time be working my way east to give them a try but that will be after a little diversion west to try Lulas de Caldeira, Portugues Squid Stew!

Speaking of Portugal and stew, I've recently had a really nice octopus dish originating in that fair land but that's another kettle of fish or should I say ink-fish. They may be related but 'Ollie the octopus' is far more than a robust version of it's more delicate cousin.

Remind me to tell you about it sometime...