Salmon, Lane's Squid, and Scrap dinner

We're trying to eat seafood at least once a week. I have never (honest!) cooked squid myself, even though I really like it. I had a salmon fillet in the freezer, and had stopped to get some frozen squid. And I had leftover cores and scraps from various leafed vegetable things. Also, since Lane doesn't usually photograph his recipes, I wanted to include some so people not accustomed to working with squid would know what they were looking at. So the obvious choice was a salmon, squid and scrap salad dinner using Lane's marinated squid salad.


Recipes:

Broiled Salmon
Serves 1-2 per steak (we split one)

Salmon Steaks (approx 6 - 8 oz. each, approx 3/4" - 1" thick)
1-2T Ghee per steak

Set broiler to high and preheat. Put salmon, skin side down, on a broiling pan and brush the flesh with 1/2 the ghee.

Put under broiler for approx. 4 min. Remove from broiler.

Flip steaks over so skin is up. Brush skin with remaining ghee. Broil another 3 - 4 min. Remove from oven. Cut in half if you are splitting and plate. Drizzle ghee and juices in the bottom of the pan over the salmon. Season to taste (I just used some fresh pepper)




Scraps from greens, cabbage, broccoli, etc.
Tomatoes
1T Vietnamese Roasted Red Chili Paste
1-2T coconut oil

Prepare scraps for Scrap Salad. Thinly wedge or slice some tomato (whatever you have).

Stir just enough water into the paste so that it is pourable.

Heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat. Saute the non-leafy green scrap bits until just starting to get soft. Add the leafy bits, tomato, and the softened chili paste and turn heat to medium-low. Stir and mix in until leafy bits get limp.

May be served hot or cold.


Squid Tutorial


I made Lane's squid and it was superb. Pictures show the frozen squid soaking in water; the squid after I've chopped it; and the cooked squid being rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking.

My only substitutions: I had no Mirin so I used sake. I had no pickled chili, and nothing to make a reasonable substitution, so I just left it out.

One clarification: the recipe should say to use a pound of cleaned squid. I got mine frozen right before, so I just kept rinsing it in changes of cold water until it thawed enough to slice. By then I didn't need to rinse the squid again in water.

Also, if you're working with the squid right from frozen, little blocks of ice will collect inside the squid bodies. Work these out before you slice the squid bodies.

When I cut the squid, in addition to splitting the tentacle bunches I cut the long tentacle (each bunch has one and sometimes 2) into 2" - 3" lengths.

Eating Notes: This was really nice and was very flexible time-wise because everything but the salmon can be made ahead. The squid really was nice. Tender, with just the right bit of subtle bite (and Phil and I both agree that Lane is to be commended for bringing up pre-teens who like marinated squid!). I'm saving half the squid for tomorrow to see what it tastes like after marinating a full day.