TV/Dinner - Squid Games

Sometimes, if I didn’t enjoy a dish at a restaurant that I felt should have been really good, I’m left unsatisfied to the point where I then play a sort of game and make the dish at home in an attempt to improve upon it. But what I often prefer is trying to recreate a dish I loved.

I didn’t start watching Squid Games until recently (yes, it’s highly addictive, frequently stunning, and probably dangerously subversive) but was reminded of an evening years ago at Milos in mid-town New York—a soaring space draped in splashes of white with glittering ice banks of fish on display, freshly flown in from Greece. I once enjoyed the most delicious grilled squid there, stuffed with goat cheese, basil, and mint. It was rather pricey, so instead of going back to Milos, I headed down to Chinatown for a bunch of inexpensive squid and made a pretty good version in my own kitchen.

I’ve included a basic recipe for grilled squid from Serious Eats (with a little help from Ina Garten) below and tinkered with it to recreate the fabulous squid at Milos.

Unlike Squid Games, there are no rules to this particular squid game. Play however you’d like! For example, I recently stuffed some squid with a ground salmon burger and grilled that. Opa!

Grilled Squid With Olive Oil and Lemon
Serves 4 

(2 stuffed squid per person)

Ingredients
8 medium whole cleaned squid bodies
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling and serving
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 oz goat cheese

2 oz feta cheese

1 heaping TB chopped basil

1 heaping TB chopped mint

1 TB lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Fresh parsely, for garnish

Directions
1. Rinse the squid tubes and pat dry with paper towels. 

2. Make the Stuffing:

In a bowl, combine well goat cheese, feta cheese, basil, and mint with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
3. Stuff the Squid:
Carefully spoon (or pipe with a pastry bag) the stuffing into each squid tube, filling about 3/4 full. 
Secure the open ends of the squid tubes with a toothpick.

4. Preheat a grill pan to medium-high heat.

5. Brush the stuffed squid with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and grill for 2-3 minutes per side, or until the squid is opaque and has light grill marks. Avoid overcooking as the squid can become tough.
6. Serve:

Transfer the grilled squid to a serving platter, drizzle with olive oil or lemon juice, and garnish with fresh parsley. Serve immediately.  



Thanks to realgreekrecipes.com for the pic!

Tonight's Menu - Quenelles!

I'd wanted to make quenelles for years, after having once had them at an intimate summer dinner party in the back garden of a friend's apartment in Greenwich Village. Finally, having found the occasion, my own particular pale, fragrant, light fish dumplings were absolutely delicious and were served as our main course, preceded by a green salad, hosted with roasted potatoes, and followed by chocolate mousse cake. Quenelles were once served as a side dish, next to such things as seared scallops perhaps or even a steak but I think they very much stand on their own. The spongy little fellows in question here were made with pate de choux (paht ah shoe--sounds like you're sneezing, anyway it's a French thick sauce base) for substance from a Julia Child recipe. There are so many versions of this delish fish so search quenelles online for your favorite but to see the great lady at work, go here for the video or purchase a copy of The French Chef Cookbook as I did. I draped my quenelles with an impossibly easy, ingenious, really quick hollandaise sauce made in a blender, courtesy of Ina Garten. I shaped the quenelles into balls with two spoons before dropping them into barely simmering water to poach--however next time I would form them by hand, in more sturdy, cylindrical shapes. Whatever your preparation, this is an elegantly arranged, readily prepared dinner for any evening!

Tonight's Menu
Delightfully Served Two
Green Salad of Baby Lettuces (prepared a la minute, table side, with a few good sprays of squeezed lemon juice, a dose of balsamic vinegar, and freshly ground pepper and salt all tossed together)
Monkfish Quenelles (any lean fish fillets may be used) with hollandaise sauce (don't be shy on the cayenne pepper)
Roasted Potatoes (in olive oil, with salt and pepper, and topped with shredded flat leaf parsley--I used perfectly suitable canned potatoes, don't tell anybody!)
Individual Chocolate Mousse Cakes (I bought them at a local patisserie--don't tell anybody!)

Do enjoy!

A Friend Writes...

About recipes for Fall!

"I made some delicious Autumn recipes a few weekends ago - started with the Lentil and Sausage Soup, which I served with crusty French bread of which I had half a loaf left over - so was then inspired to make the Panade which required day-old bread! The Panade is like a savory vegetable bread pudding - really delicious and surprisingly hearty for something that is totally vegetarian (though not vegan - lots of dairy - milk and cheese). Both will fill your home with delicious aromas while they cook on a weekend afternoon, and will keep for a few days in the fridge or freeze very nicely for leftovers."

Panade
Published in The New York Times Magazine, 9/8/10
Adapted from “Tartine Bread” by Chad Robertson

Ingredients
6 tblsps butter 2 leeks, white part only, finely chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
6 cups whole milk
Salt 4-8 slices day-old country bread or French bread, each 1 inch thick
1 small butternut squash, about 1 lb, peeled, seeded and cut into ¼ thick slices
1 bunch black kale or Swiss chard, center stems removed
1 head cauliflower, about 1 ½ lbs, trimmed and cut into ½ thick slices
½ lb fontina cheese, thinly sliced

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt 2 tblsps of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the milk, the remaining 4 tblsps butter and 2 tsps salt. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Cover the bottom of a heavy, ovenproof 5-qt pot with bread slices (I used my enameled cast-iron Dutch oven). Arrange the squash slices in an even layer on top of the bread. Pour in 2 cups of the hot milk mixture. Add a layer of bread slices, and then the kale/chard. Arrange the cauliflower slices over the kale. Press down to compact the ingredients if they don’t quite fit in the pot. Pour the remaining milk mixture over the top. Stop adding milk when the level is almost to the rim. Season with salt. Cover the pot with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for 30 mins. Uncover and arrange the cheese over the top. Return to the over uncovered and bake until the liquid is absorbed and reduced and the cheese has melted and browned, 30-40 mins.

Lentil Sausage Soup
Adapted from the “Barefoot in Paris” cookbook by Ina Garten

Ingredients
1 lb French green lentils
¼ cup olive oil
4 cups diced yellow onions (3 large)
4 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts only (2 leeks)
1 tblsp minced garlic (2 large cloves)
1 tblsp salt
1 ½ tsps black pepper
1 tblsp minced fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
3 cups medium diced celery (8 stalks)
3 cups medium diced carrots (4-6 carrots)
3 quarts chicken stock
¼ cup tomato paste
1 lb kielbasa or firm French-style sausage (I used a duck and fennel seed sausage from Trader Joe’s)
2 tblsps balsamic vinegar
Freshly grated Parmesan for serving

Method
In a large bowl, cover the lentils with boiling water and allow to sit for 15 mins. Drain. In a large stockpot over medium heat, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions, leeks, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme and cumin for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are translucent and tender. Add the celery and carrots and sauté for another 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock, tomato paste and drained lentils, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, or until the lentils are cooked through and tender. Check the seasonings. Add the sausage and vinegar and simmer until the sausage is hot. Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

The Sole Series - Part Three, Sole Meuniere

Oh sole mio! Sole is so simple--yet so frustrating! It certainly should be as easy as each recipe I look at claims it to be. Previously, I'd dallied with the fish for guests, the results sometimes good, sometimes not.

Here, I was making dinner solely for Baby and me:

Ina Garten's "Easy Sole Meuniere" recipe is simple in theory, but there are a few unexplained things that I have to still thoroughly determine, regarding the proper saute pan, level of heat to cook the fish (both resulted in the fish not panning out the way I hoped it would), the correct butter (we used our own this time out). The recipe says to use filets 3-4 oz. each which we did, but the filets also need to be thick. Ours were too thin. The reason why to use thick filets is that sole is a very delicate fish and the first batch fell apart instead of holding firm. The second batch fared better. The problem with many recipes is that the authors rarely explain the "why" about anything.

So what did I learn? Well, I used a pan that I loved, but it was the wrong pan: the sides were too high, the temperature not high enough and as I mentioned, the sole filets too thin (but you could hardly blame us, they were on sale at Whole Foods, though hardly a bargain after all). Use a long, wide rubber spatula, it's hard to negotiate flipping the fish with a metal spatula. I also didn't have enough sauce at the end to pour over the fish and had to add more butter and lemon into the pan at the last minute to finish the fish--I used too much fresh lemon juice.

That's it. We had a decent dinner just the same, with a side of Celery Victor and a few glasses of a lush German clemensbush riesling with a gentle complexity. Stay posted for the next (hopefully less disappointing) sole installment.

Ina Garten's Easy Sole Meunière
Serves 2

As one is often found in a French market with some time on hand, a few randy Euros, and an ounce of inquisitiveness, Ina posits, "One day in Paris, I decided to challenge myself and just go to the market with no menu in mind. Dover sole was in season and I thought, 'Well, I can make sole meuniere without a recipe, can't I?' Yes, I could! I was shocked by how easy and delicious it was. Of course, Dover sole is the best, but you can certainly use gray sole fillets from any fish store. The slightly burnt butter and the fresh lemon zest give this dish a big fresh lemon flavor. I serve two fillets per person."

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 fresh sole fillets, 3 to 4 ounces each

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teasoon grated lemon zest

6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
"Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Have 2 heat-proof dinner plates ready.
Combine the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper in a large shallow plate. Pat the sole fillets dry with paper towels and sprinkle one side with salt.
Heat 3 tablesoons of the butter in a large (12 inch) saute pan over medium heat until it starts to brown. Dredge 2 sole fillets in the seasoned flour on both sides and place them in the hot butter. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 2 minutes. Turn carefully with a metal spatula and cook for 2 minutes on the other side. while the second side cooks, add 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon zest and 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice to the pan. Carefully put the fish fillets on the ovenproof plates and pour the sauce over them. Keep the cooked fillets warm in the oven while you repeat the process with the remaining 2 fillets. When they're done, add the cooked fillets to the plates in the oven. Sprinkle with the parsley, salt, and pepper and serve immediately.
Note: Zest the lemons with a rasp before you squeeze them for their juice. This dish cooks quickly so I prepare all the ingredients before I start cooking."

Good luck.

Copyright © 2008 by Ina Garten. Photographs copyright © 2008 by Quentin Bacon. Reprinted From Back to Basics with permission from Clarkson Potter/Publishers.