DISCLAIMER: If you are at all weak of stomach, and/or are just sitting down with a nice scone and latte at 7 in the morning, you may want to bookmark this for later. I’ll be talking about squid guts.
I enjoy an order of calamari at Earls as much as the next guy. (Perhaps a little less… you’ll never have to fight me for it.) But it is the sort of thing it would never even occur to me to make from scratch. Which is why I enjoy, at times, being pushed off the edge of my comfort zone. This usually happens when chefs or other food writers come to town and I take care of their foodstyling for TV appearances and such.
I spent today with my pal Ron – you may know him as Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk, self-proclaimed barbecue evangelist and winner of I don’t know how many barbecue competitions, and all-round awesome guy. He taught me how to plank brie (I’ll show you soon, I promise! Maybe this weekend?) and how to throw chunks of wine barrel straight onto your barbecue (just lift up the grate and toss ‘em in) to easily smoke a prime rib of beef, and how you can do a whole roast on the grill by placing it on the left side but then lighting the right, so that it’s indirect heat and doesn’t burn. (I wish I had remembered my camera this morning at Breakfast TV. Wow oh WOW was that piece of meat a thing of beauty. We all just stood around and sobbed with joy at it out on the street among the commuters at 8 am.) He even has a meat thermometer that comes with a little beeper that clips on his belt and lets him know when his meat is at the exact temperature he wants it. Far cooler than an iPod, no? I like to hang out with people who have smokers and remote control meat thermometers.
On today’s agenda was calamari – on the grill. How the hell do you do calamari on the grill without all the little bits falling between the grate? I had no idea how it was going to work out, and had serious doubts. I grudgingly went to the store and bought a box of squid (easy to find in the frozen seafood section), which after leaking grey inky goo all over my (clean!) fridge, turned out to be whole. Great, an upgrade in my calamari/biology education. (Mike’s too, as we figured out how to pull the heads off, thus extracting the guts and a pretty cool looking clear cartilage, then cut off the tentacles right beneath the eyes, which were intriguingly detailed in a disturbing sort of way. Then we dissected and opened up the tube-like bodies, scraped off the purplish skin, and once the bodies were clean, scored them on the fleshier insides in a criss-cross pattern so that when they cooked, they’d sort of turn inside out and be tube-like. It sounds like an awful lot of work, but as Mike put it, it was boring, but not at all difficult.)
When it was all done, we ended up with a tidy pile of tentacles, another of tubes, and a third of guts, which we decided against feeding to Lou. (I’m not cleaning that up.) So far more squid than we needed for the show, which sent a pretty clear message to me that I should try my hand at Earls-style calamari while we were at it. What else do you do with calamari? (I know, there are a million things – salads, pastas – baby steps.) So I threw half into a container with olive oil, minced garlic and a hefty pinch of red chili flakes, and the rest I cut into rings for the battered kind. I had no dinner plans yet anyway.
As is the norm when I attempt something new, I browse around and see how other people are doing it. Some doused the calamari in buttermilk before the flour, and that seemed like a good idea. So I thought – why not let it sit in the buttermilk for awhile, rather than just dipping it, and add a minced clove of garlic to the mix as well, since buttermilk is such a great carrier of flavours? (Makes a great chicken marinade, tenderizing the meat as it adds whatever flavours you stir in.) So that sat in the fridge for the afternoon.
This afternoon included grilled calamari, which worked out just fine, didn’t fall through the grill at all (the secret is to get it really hot – not a problem with a gas barbecue) – Ron just threw them on, straight out of their oily marinade. They looked at first like they were trying to escape, but didn’t – they curled and charred and went from flaccid and grey to all spazzy-looking (the tentacles, anyway) and purple; the tubes crosshatched, grill-marked and white. It was very cool, very fast, and will definitely be fed to my vegetarian friend(s) who come for barbecues this summer.
But I didn’t think I’d like it. They looked like the very epitome of fish gum. The purple tentacles weren’t helping. I wouldn’t have even tried any had Ron not thrust a forkful at me. I fully expected to be chewing for awhile, but I wasn’t. It was fab – smoky and charred and garlicky with a kick from the chilies. And not even battered and deep-fried.
Seared Calamari with Fresh Tomato-Basil Salsa
If you don’t want to divvy the calamari onto individual serving plates, you could serve this family-style out of a larger bowl or platter the same way. Slightly adapted from Barbecue Secrets Deluxe, by Ronnie Shewchuk.
1 lb. cleaned squid, equal parts bodies and tentacles
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp. crushed dried red chili flakes
Salsa:
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. rice or white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Sprinkle the squid with salt, then rinse it well with cool water. Slit the bodies open and score the underside in a crisscross pattern, not cutting all the way through the skin. Put all the pieces in a bowl, cover with olive oil, add the garlic and chili flakes, stir and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat your grill on high. While it’s heating, toss the cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vinegar and some salt and pepper in a small bowl; toss to combine. Divide among 4 plates.
When the grill is ready, gently place the calamari on the cooking grate, taking care not to let the pieces slip through the cracks. (You could get a grill-topper designed for cooking small pieces of food, but it’s not necessary.) Stand at the grill with a pair of tongs – don’t walk away! – and turn the squid as they cook. They will need no more than a minute per side. Once opaque and char-marked (don’t overcook – like shrimp, they could get tough), transfer the pieces to the plates, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you like, give each plate an additional drizzle of olive oil.
Serves 4.
And then the battered stuff. It was easier than I thought, albeit messy, and Mike, a true calamari lover, loved it. I kind of did too – something I was reluctant to admit until I found myself picking at the bits in the bottom of the bowl, having finished the whole thing between the two of us in about 10 minutes. It’s light and crispy, and not at all doughy. Finish it with sea salt and if you like, a squeeze of lemon.
Buttermilk Battered Calamari
about 1 lb. squid, tubes and tentacles
1/2-1 cup buttermilk
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
pinch cayenne (optional)
canola oil, for frying
Put the calamari into a bowl with the buttermilk and garlic; set it in the fridge for as much time as you have – half an hour or overnight.
When you’re ready to cook, put the flour into a plastic bag (the ones from the produce department work fine) and season generously with salt and pepper, and add a pinch of cayenne if you like. In a wide, shallow pan, heat about an inch of canola oil until it’s hot, but not smoking – test with a small piece of bread – if the oil bubbles vigorously around it, it’s ready to go.
Lift the calamari out of the buttermilk using your hand or a slotted spoon, letting the excess buttermilk drip off. Drop the pieces (all at once, or half at a time) into the bag of seasoned flour and shake it about to coat everything well. Drop pieces into the oil, separating them a bit as you do (you don’t want massive clumps) but don’t shake the flour off or anything. Cook, turning with a slotted spoon as you need to, until they are golden. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
Season with salt and serve while they are still warm. Preferably with a dish of tzatziki.
Serves 4-6.
Tzatziki
Regular yogurt, preferably thick Greek yogurt, is far superior to the runny low fat or fat free varieties that are most commonly found at the grocery store. If you like, strain the yogurt through some cheesecloth for several hours to thicken it. (Save the nutritious drained-off liquid to use in pancake or muffin batter.)
1 small cucumber, peeled if necessary
1 – 2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups good quality plain yogurt, preferably Balkan-style
salt & pepper to taste
Grate the cucumber with a box grater onto a double thickness of paper towel. Gather up the cucumber in the towel and squeeze out as much excess water as you can.
Combine cucumber, garlic, yogurt, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir until well blended. If you like, add a squeeze or lemon. The garlic flavor will intensify the longer it sits. Makes 2 1/2 – 3 cups.
Per 1/3 cup: 45 calories, 1 g total fat (0.6 g saturated fat, 0.3 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 3.5 g protein, 5.6 g carbohydrate, 3.7 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g fiber. 20% calories from fat
One Year Ago: Bison Burgers topped with Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
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May 25 2009 | appetizers and on the grill and seafood | 27 Comments »
Yes, I know that’s not soup. But it was my best-looking photo, don’t you think? Yesterday Wade made us Indian chicken – I can’t recall his formula except that it was a spice blend they had picked up in Seattle. Sorry, gin & tonics on the lawn tend to dull my short-term memory. He also made a spinach salad (the same dark, crinkly stuff I had out at Edgar Farm) with sweet diced mango and crunchy rhubarb he had quickly pickled himself earlier in the day. Pickled rhubarb. Huh. It sure made a fantastic addition to a salad, particularly with a handful of salty cashews.
I’ll spare you (and myself) the events of today, but at around dinnertime tonight (and up until after 10) I was busy making lots and lots of soup with the sistas – Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage, Broccoli, Spinach and Leek, Hamburger Soup, Mushroom, Bean & Barley Soup with Chicken, and Bouillabaisse. Not with my actual sisters, but about 30 of my new Soup Sisters. (Kind of like blood brothers, but with girls and cooking, rather than with boys and cutting yourself.)
I was part of the third official Soup Sisters event put on by a two-month-old group who gather regularly for hands-on soup making sessions. They hang out, visit, cook (in enormous pots in a professional kitchen – tonight we took over the Cookbook Company), have some drinks, sit down to a bowl of soup and crusty bread while their pots cool, then portion the soup out into labeled reusable Pyrex dishes to distribute to the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter. Great idea. I lost of how many dozens of bowls we hauled downstairs to the fridge to be delivered tomorrow.
It was a very full weekend, and one I shouldn’t be telling you about well after midnight when I still have a bunch of prep to do and a 6 am call time for a foodstyling gig tomorrow morning. (I feel like I’m trying to pull off a report the night before it’s due. I wonder if I have any duotangs left.) Wait, it’s now after 1, and I have to be up in four hours. I am cutting this short. No wonder my eyeballs feel like they are about to roll out of my head.
Tonight, these soups were the two favourites:
Mushroom, Bean & Barley Soup with Chicken
½ oz (15g) dried wild mushrooms
canola or olive oil, for cooking
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ lb (250g) fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup pearl barley
2 L chicken or vegetable stock
2 cans white kidney beans, drained
1 rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded or cut small into pieces
1 tsp. salt, or more to taste
1/2 tsp. pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Soak dried mushrooms in 1 cup hot water for about 30 minutes. Strain liquid through a sieve lined with paper towel (to get rid of the grit) and reserve. Coarsely chop the mushrooms.
In a large pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and cook the onions, carrots, celery and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the mushrooms and barley. Add the stock and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about half an hour. Add the beans, chicken, salt and pepper and simmer for another 20 minutes.
Stir in parsley right before serving, or sprinkle some over each bowl. To freeze, cool completely first. Makes 12 to 14 servings.
Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage
This recipe comes from one of the Sisters – we streamlined it a little, but in the original she grills the sausage and slices it into the finished soup at the very end, rather than cooking it right in from the beginning.
1 Tbsp. each canola or olive oil and butter
1-2 Italian sausages, mild or hot
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, with leaves, chopped
1 L chicken broth
2 cups water
2 cups red or green lentils
1 tsp. thyme
2 medium butternut or acorn squash, peeled, halved, seeded and cut into chunks
salt & pepper
In a large stockpot, heat the oil and butter over medium heat squeeze the sausage in out of its casing; cook, breaking it up with a spoon as if you were cooking ground beef. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the vegetables are soft and starting to brown a bit. Add the broth, water, lentils and thyme; bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and simmer for half an hour.
Add the squash, dried thyme and simmer for 30 -45 minutes or until the squash and lentils are thoroughly cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 8.
One Year Ago: Roast Chicken with Lemon and Garlic, Mushroom Barley Risotto and Honey-Balsamic Glazed Roasted Beets and Carrots
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May 24 2009 | leftovers | 12 Comments »
I had dinner tonight with another group of friends I hadn’t met yet; a couple who had bid on me (and won) at a silent auction to raise money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and their pals. I went to their house and cooked (but really spent most of my time agonizing over her collection of CP silver) – it was their 44th anniversary, and we decided on Italian tapas. Prosciutto wrapped prawns with pesto for dipping, arancini, grilled portobello mushroom pizzas, panini made with slow-roasted tomato and garlic pesto and melty cheese, grilled zucchini, eggplant, asparagus and red peppers, and maple-rosemary pork loin satay. For dessert, mascarpone panna cotta topped with strawberry-mango salsa, and chocolate panini. Phew, sounds like a lot when I type it all out.
The grilled portobello pizzas went over particularly well – it’s something I made last year and then promptly forgot about until a week or so ago when I was challenged to come up with some interesting vegetarian eats for the barbecue. Portobello mushrooms are always a good bet, but if you brush them with a little oil (I crush a clove of garlic into the oil first) and grill them until they lose some of their moisture and turn a bit leathery, they are great as a burger, set atop a burger, or filled on the cupped side with any number of pizza-esque fillings and topped with cheese. The easiest way to do this, I’ve found, is to spoon on some chunky jarred bruschetta – Classico Extra Garlic is my favourite, and they don’t even give me free jars to say that. Fresh bruschetta (made with fresh tomatoes) tends to be a little too watery – the jarred kind is kind of cooked down, saucier, and more intense. Top with grated cheese and then close the lid of the barbecue to create an oven environment and melt the cheese. I made some for lunch last week and Mike declared a) his love for them, and b) his intention to load an entire one, bruschetta, cheese and all, on top of a burger next time. Can’t wait to see him try to eat it.
Sorry to be brief, but I seem to be coming down with something, and have 4 banana loaves to bake for an event tomorrow morning. I also need to do a little fixing upping around here, with a new header and a bit of index tweaking, so I’m going to get on that. I have dug through my tickle trunk though, and for Free Stuff Friday came up with… drumroll please… a brand spanking new, hot off the presses, new and improved, extreme-makeovered copy of Grazing! Yes, it’s here. It’s about time. (Congrats to Donna and Ellen, who are on the receiving end of a pound of Pike Place coffee and a $25 Starbucks card – thanks Starbucks! See you in the morning!)
So, in keeping with the theme, for one of the very first copies (I don’t think they have trickled into stores yet, but are on their way) – what do you like to graze on? (It’s not just for cows anymore!)
One Year Ago: Pesto Salmon and Israeli Couscous with Tomatoes, Garlic and Feta
May 22 2009 | appetizers and on the grill and veg | 70 Comments »
I sat down to dinner with the loveliest group of people tonight. (Yes, lovely. The word is, I think, sadly misconstrued, calling to mind something sweet, politely grandmotherly or maybe floral, reminiscent of Eunice “Lovey” Wentworth Howell, Thurston III’s wife on Gilligan’s Island. As an adjective, lovely is defined as having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye, or of a great moral or spiritual beauty. A good thing to be, no?)
Most were local farmers and their families who have joined forces to create Country Drive 2009 – a partnership of 26 farms and rural businesses who are making it easier to discover attractions, events, history, markets and local cuisine right here in Alberta. They gathered at Edgar Farms today to preview this year’s Country Drive, and after chatting with John, Pim and Mary-Ann, Elna and Doug, Pete and Jan and others we sat down to a local feast: bison smokies, Angus beef burgers, ostrich burgers, Elna’s fantastic asparagus (which had just come from the very ground we were sitting on) with ginger-sesame vinaigrette, real potato salad like I haven’t had in a very, very long time, if ever (and from a place called The Farm with the Good Food – how can you not adore that?), macaroni salad, bean salad, and a bowl of just-plucked spinach leaves, plain, because we are so used to adorning perfectly good food with other things. I popped three leaves in my mouth before I got to the table. For dessert – vanilla ice cream with cherries I could have easily eaten a vat of.
Elna Edgar’s Cold Asparagus with Sesame-Ginger Vinaigrette
1 lb. Edgar Farms fresh asparagus
1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds*
1 garlic clove – crushed
1 tsp. fresh ginger – grated
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. orange juice
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¼ tsp. red chili flakes
¼ tsp. sesame oil
*To toast sesame seeds, put them in a small skillet and heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant and just golden. Watch carefully.
Bring lightly salted water to boil in a medium skillet, add asparagus and cook for 5 minutes or just until tender-crisp.
Immerse asparagus in ice-water to stop the cooking action. Pat dry and arrange on a platter.
In a blender, combine the dressing ingredients (reserving half of sesame seeds) and blend until thoroughly combined.
Pour dressing evenly over asparagus, sprinkle with reserved sesame seeds and serve. Serves 4.
(As I type this I’m eating my goody bag of plump dried cherries from Prairie Perfect in Innisfail, having selfishly hidden them until M & W were safely asleep.)
If you are planning to do more day trips around home this summer (assuming home is somewhere in Alberta – I know a lot of you are elsewhere), or are looking to get out and enjoy the spring air, sunshine and green, there is no better way, with kids or without, than to hop in the car, grab a coffee and poke around back country roads, stopping at real farms to kick the dirt, inhale, listen to the cows and horses and buy just-laid eggs, handmade pies, jars of put-up spiced apples and pickled beets and asparagus and the freshest produce, in a little open country “store” with no walls and a built-in wooden money box with a jar of change set beside it. Or pick, cut and dig your own. And best of all – go home with dinner and a relationship with the place it came from. No Superstore will ever provide that experience.
The Spring Drive is next weekend – May 30th and 31st – and coincides with Edgar Farms’ Asparagus Festival (asparagus from Edgar Farms, in case you haven’t figured, is only the very best asparagus you will ever eat – and now is the time to get some). Bonus: chefs Scott Pohorelic from River Café and Wade Sirois from Forage Foods and Infuse Catering -two of my very favourite chefs- will be on hand to cook some for you.
And if you miss this one, or even if you don’t, there’s the Summer Drive August 1st & 2nd, Harvest Drive October 10th & 11th, and Christmas Drive December 5th and 6th. So you know what I’ll be up to on those weekends. I need to go get more asparagus relish – yum.
One Year Ago: Pizza with Spinach Meatballs
May 21 2009 | eating out | 16 Comments »
Oh yes. Yes yes yes yes yes.
Yes.
Seriously, yes.
Sweet Potato Aloo Gobi
Aloo (potatoes) gobi (cauliflower) is a potato-cauliflower curry; this version, inspired by Bal Arneson’s beautiful new cookbook, Everyday Indian, uses sweet potatoes for a flavour and nutritional boost. (Use the larger, darker-fleshed sweet potatoes rather than those that are longer, thinner and paler-fleshed.) The tomatoes melt around the sweet potatoes and cauliflower, mingling with the spices and creating a sticky-sweet, smoky almost-sauce.
generous drizzle of canola or olive oil
1 medium head cauliflower, separated into florets
1 onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. garam masala
2 tsp. ground cumin or 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2-3 medium-large tomatoes, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with oil and spread the cauliflower out in a single layer; drizzle with a little more oil and toss the cauliflower around with your hands to coat the pieces. Roast for 10-15 minutes, until tender and golden on the bottoms and edges.
Meanwhile, heat a generous drizzle of oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, until starting to soften. Add the ginger, garam masala, cumin, chili powder and salt and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and potato. Stir to combine everything well, pour 1/2 cup water over top and cover with a lid; reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender – about 7 minutes.
Add the roasted cauliflower to the pan and stir to combine everything well. Serve immediately, as is, with rice or naan.
Serves 4.
One Year Ago: Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread
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May 19 2009 | eating out and one dish and sweet stuff and veg and vegetarian | 36 Comments »
