Great Lent Gourmet: Day 48: April 10, 2015 - Fast and Simple Grilled Calamari - Γρήγορο και Απλό Τηγανητό Καλαμάρι

Friday 10 April 2015

Day 48: April 10, 2015 - Fast and Simple Grilled Calamari - Γρήγορο και Απλό Τηγανητό Καλαμάρι

Today, we got a late start to preparing dinner, and we needed something quick and filling. After all, during Holy Week, we do spend a lot of time in church in the evenings. We wanted to make sure to include a good protein, so we were not just filling up on pasta and bread, and today, we chose to make a simple calamari.

Squid is one of those foods that you love or you hate, and you cook at home or you don't. For a few years, we did not make our own calamari at home, and it was a "restaurant food" in our house -- one that you eat only when you are at a restaurant. In Toronto, we have several preferred restaurants where they have mastered grilled calmari; one of favourites, as well as many of our family and friends, is the famous Toronto landmark, Pantheon Restaurant on the Danforth.

Now, after having tried many calamari dishes, and various methods from several people, we think we understand how good calamari can be. Our favourite way is on the grill -- outside in our back yard. But, with the lack of time today, and uncooperative weather, the barbecue was not the right choice this time. Instead, we took a few steps to make the calamari almost as good as if it were done on the grill.

For this recipe, you will need the followoing:

2 whole squid tubes (one portion per person)

1 lemon

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup fresh parsley

between 1/4 and 1/2 cup oil

salt and pepper to taste

We started by preparing all the ingredients. The squid tubes came prepared for us, they were clean and ready to use in the package. Make sure if you are buying fresh squid, to remove the quill in the tube! So, wash the squid and make sure they are fully clean. Then, using a very sharp knife, score the tubes. This means that you are going to cut through the calamari, but leave one side completely connected, so it makes a claw-like pattern. Make your cuts as equal as you can so the squid cooks evenly throughout. Put the cut squid into a zipper seal bag.

Now, cut up the garlic. We chose to roughly chop the garlic since slices are too big, and a minced garlic is too small. We still wanted to bite on actual garlic, but this is to our own liking. Cut the garlic as large or small as you like to eat. Add it to the zipper bag with the squid.

Roughly chop the parsley. Leave the pieces larger so they look pretty in teh cooked dish. If you want to use chopped parsley or dried, that's fine, but the dried parsley does not have the fresh flavour of the green leafy stuff. If you use dried, use only about 1 Tablespoon for this recipe. Add the parsely to the zipper bag with the calamari and garlic.

Now, add some salt and pepper. You want to add them now so they land directly on the bodies of the squid. The seasonings will stick to the calamari a bit more if it is put on before the oil or the lemon. And, next, you will squeeze the juice of the lemon, and add that to the zipper seal bag.

Now, pour enough oil into the zipper seal bag so the oil fully coats the squid. The calamari does not need to swim in oil and lemon juice, but it needs to be fully coated with the liquids. When you seal the bag, remove all the air that you possibly can so the calamari stays fully coated and submerged in the oil and lemon juice inside the bag. Allow this to sit and marinate for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove the squid tubes from the bag, and set them aside. Pour the contents of the bag (oil, lemon, garlic, and parsley) into a frying pan. We want to cook this on medium high heat to get the flavours out of the garlic and the parsley. Bring this liquid up to a boil, and allow it to boil for 2-3 minutes.

Now, add the squid tubes to the pan. The pan and the liquids inside will be rather hot, which will cook the squid rapidly. Add the squid to the pan making each tube as flat as possible.

When you see the squid bodies start to "grow" or "swell" it is time to flip the tubes. It is always fascinating to us to watch calamari change shapes as we cook them. Above, you can see how open the sliced parts of the tube have become. This is the indication that the bottom side (in the liquid) has cooked to the middle. And, this should not take more than 5 minutes, but that will depend if you truly had a boiling liquid and/or a very hot pan.

Turn the squid tubes to the other side, and cook on the second side unitl you see a little more growth. You will know they are done cooking when they look more reound than flat. This took about 4 minutes on the second side.

When the squid is done, remove it from the pan, but leave all the liquid on the heat. You want ot take the next 2-3 minutes to cook down the liquid and let it thicken a bit.

Once the liquid has reduced by about half, then you can pour the hot liquid on the warm squid and serve. You will want to portion out the lovely chunks of garlic and parsley that were left in teh pan. And, you may even want to sprinkle more parsley on top. Serve this with your favourite bed of rice or pasta, or even simply some crusty bread, and enjoy.

This really was a 30 minute meal today, start to finish. Sometimes, even 30 minutes can be too much time. So, if we were rushing through this recipe, we would have marinated for only 5 minutes, and then quickly cooked the tubes in a very hot pan with the marinade. That may have taken a total of 15 minutes. But, 30 minutes to make this went quickly, and hopefully, everyone who eats this calamari will enjoy it as much as we do!