The Tri-Blog Cooking Challenge

I am throwing down the spatula and food tongs in a cooking challenge for my blogging friends.  I have been on a quest the last few weeks to shake up my menu.  So I did something I rarely do.  I started pulling cookbooks off the shelf.  I should point out that I don’t follow recipes.  I approach a recipe as a list of suggestions.   I believe it is wrong to cook with only one recipe.  Besides, cooking is about that magical (and chemical) combination of ingredients, taking advantage of and enhancing the flavors and freshness of each ingredient.

With all of this in mind, I am issuing my challenge to Pat, I am an (Big Green) Egg head, over at Blue Ridge Smoke; Scott, I am a super geek, over at the Usual Blah; and Curt, I can’t believe I used to call Brian a friend, over at Austin Acre.  Why these three?  Well, Pat is always looking for that hook for his websites.  He is going to fix the internet sensation Bacon Explosion Pork Bomb in his Big Green Egg at some point (please oh please let me be there when that happens!), but he needs something to set himself apart from the crowd.  Scott,  a self anointed miso ramen expert, just gave up drinking Coke.  Holy Dragon Ball Z, what is he thinking?  If I don’t grab his attention quickly, I may never hear from him again.   And then there is Curt, creator of Stinky Mac and Cheese.  So far this year Curt has taken on a new job, a daily bus commute (gasp!), and a vow to post on his blog every day.  Trust me, you need a lot of new material to meet a goal like that.  And hey the remaining two people reading this, please feel free to play along at home.  Add your own description to the comments section describing yourself and your qualifications.

So picture me in the Iron Chef Kitchen studio speaking with a staccato attack on all consonants and a preference for short phrases a la the Chairman.  “Today’s secret ingredient is…” (Long dramatic pause, lots of fog from dry ice) “…squid!”  That is right; say it with me, SQUID.  Does the Italian calamari sound better?  What about the Japanese ika?

WAIT!  Don’t leave!  Bear with me and hear me out.  I have never prepared fresh squid.  I keep seeing these cute burgundy spotted glistening blobs of slime in the grocery store and at the fish mongers shop.  They call out to me from their little beak mouths hidden behind eight mustaches: “BUY ME!”  So I went and I bought and prepared.  I ended up going the Italian route and using Mario Batali’s Simple Italian Cooking and an Alton Brown recipe I found on the internet as guides.   I deep fried nice crisp rings of breaded calamari on Saturday; I stuffed a squid on Sunday.  Both recipes have been designated as keepers here at the Walker household and you, my challengers are free to prepare it any way you like.

I have to be honest; my initial plan was to prepare it in a traditional Japanese style: ika that is stuffed and then boiled .  However, when I mentioned this to Pam she wrinkled her nose and asked how I was going to fix it.  I explained that the base for this style was mirin, sake, sugar and soy sauce.  This common base for Japanese cooking has a unique sweetness to it.  A sweetness that is contrary to Pam’s liking.  Pam pointed out that she had had it that way and there was no way she was ever going to eat it again.  On the other hand, she pointed out that if I wanted to fix it in  its own ink,  I was free to do that.  “I like it that way.”  I felt tackling the slimy cartilaginous beast was a big enough first step without adding one of its own body fluids.

So Here is what I did:

I went to my local fish monger and picked out two fresh squid.  Confessions of a squid novice:  I should have read more before I started because the squid I picked out were the perfect size for stuffing with its body longer than my hand.  However, smaller ones, say, no more than five inches long would have been ideal for the breaded and fried calamari.  Likewise the smaller ones would have been easier to handle in my tiny broiler.

Squid, while quite cute, need to be handled carefully.  If you turn your back, they will steal your beer (This reminded me of Tom T. Hall singing about “Sneaky Snake”…Sneaky squid goes swimming, and wig-a-ling and a-hissing…and when you are not looking, he’s stealing all of our beer.”)

Clearly, such behavior called for severe punishment!  I don’t tolerate anyone or anything stealing my Asahi Super Dry!  (The Picture below shows his sac, head, tentacles and beak.  The beak can be pushed out with your finger after you separate the tentacles from the eyes.  And yes, playing with the beak is great fun.)

Get out your 20-inch hunting knife and skin the slimy thing.  I found scoring the top (or was it the bottom?) let me get a good grip on the skin and it then came off in nice pieces.  I skinned the wings as well.  I would recommend washing the squid with cold water as you go along; multiple times.

I then sliced the rings and chopped up the tentacles.  I found it fascinating that the tentacles still had the ability to lightly attach themselves to your fingers.  The multiple washes help remove the little bony “teeth” around each sucker.

I coated the rings with bread crumbs and cayenne pepper.  Heat your oil to 375.  Drop the breaded rings and tentacles into the oil.  I took mine out when they turned golden brown.  Maybe two, three minutes.  Squeeze with lemon and serve.

For the stuffed squid, I roughly followed this recipe from Alton Brown which is a bit more ingredient heavy than Mario Batalli’s.  The cleaning and prep was the same as it was for the fried calamari.  I did cut off the wings and skinned them separately.  I set them aside with the tentacles. Alton suggests turning the sacs inside out.  This is a great idea and makes cleaning out that sac a lot easier!  He also points out that because of the natural curling action, this helps hold the stuffing in the sac.  I found numerous other squid recipes on the web, and many quoted Alton on the benefits of turning the sac inside out.

I  lightly processed the shrimp, tentacles and wings.  I combined them with bread crumbs and rice.  I sautéed my onions, ginger and garlic and added that to my mix as well as freshly chopped parsley, pepper and salt.  I opted to sprinkle with lemon after it was broiled instead of adding lemon zest.

My cook time was about twenty minutes, turning the stuffed squid frequently to brown evenly in my broiler.  I served it over a homemade tomato sauce (use your favorite).  I sliced it into about six pieces, and sprinkled with fresh lemon.  It was quite delicious.

The next time I see some smaller squid, I am definitely fixing this again.  Fortunately for me, the Cherry Blossom festival is around the corner, so I can get some Japanese style stuffed ika from one of the vendors.  I will keep you posted.

I look forward to seeing Pat, Scott and Curt’s posts on their sites.  If you are playing along at home, let me know how it turns out; you may, if you so desire, leave a photo in the comments section with your update.