I first tried this recipe with octopus and loved it. But octopus isn’t something you make everyday – if ever – and I realised it works just perfectly with squid.
It’s very straightforward. You cook the squid first with a bit of oil and salt and then add the lovely fragrant Asian dressing. This dish has a beautiful fresh citrusy flavour and is healthy too. Make lots. It will disappear quickly!
Ingredients
Approximately 500g cleaned squid. For how to clean squid, click here
1-2 sticks lemon grass
4 small spring onions
2 small fresh chilies
3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp lime juice
4 handfuls of rocket (rucula) or other green salad leaves
A few springs of mint (optional)
Method
1. Begin by preparing your cleaned squid. Grill them, barbeque them, fry or cook on a plancha(griddle) as I do, with just a little oil and coarse salt. Depending on the size it will take a couple of minutes each side till they have plumped up and turned slightly golden. Put them to one side to cool while you make the marinade.
2. Peel back the hard outer leaves of the lemon grass and discard. Cut lengthways to reach the tender, inner leaves and scrape and shred them very finely. Then tip them into a bowl. Be careful there are no sharp hard pieces.
3. Shred the onions and then the chillies, discarding the seeds if you wish. Add the coriander leaves, the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice and mix together.
4. Chop the squid into rough chunks then toss it all in the dressing. Mix and adjust the flavour to taste.
5. Serve piled on the rocket (rucula) leaves. You can serve this dish as a starter or as a light meal
The lemon grass, lime and chilli give it a wonderful fresh spicy flavour. So easy and so delicious!
P.S. I’m a big fan of squid but you could try this recipe with other seafood and I’m sure it would work brilliantly. Try prawns, mussels, clams….or even a mixture of all and let me know!