Quick lunches and Seafood

Summer is the time for most things perfect.. beautifully ripe produce and the high season for meat. Except it is perhaps a bit too hot, in many places, to do much with all that good stuff.

Easy, quick meals that do not require prolonged periods of standing over the flame are my way of cooking through these few months of heat. Yes, and things that require the oven to be turned on are kept to necessity.



Seafood becomes the go to choice of meat. It's fresh, ridiculously succulent and flavorful and cooks in a jiffy.. not to mention the versatality of use.. from salads to, full blown gourmet entree that you can put together with minimal sweat (pun intended!)

Sometime back, my favorite seafood market was carrying fresh crawfish. So we had a simple lunch of a couple of pounds of the shell fish cooked in a spicy, Creole inspired broth.

Another day, as I was perusing one of my few cookbooks, I came across a Spanish recipe for Stuffed Squid, which, made quite a lot of sense and packed a whole lot of flavor. That's my recipe today!



Enjoy, and stay cool (or warm!) this week! :)



Stuffed Squid in Saffron Tomato Sauce

For the Squid:
8 baby squid, cleaned, tentacles removed and reserved
4 shallots, diced fine
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T golden raisins
1/4 cup bread crumbs
salt and paprika for seasoning

For the sauce:
1 medium red onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced small
3 T dried apricots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp saffron
1/2 cup stock
salt, pepper and oil as needed
cilantro, red onion, tomatoes for garnish

To prepare the squid:
Finely chop the tentacles and mix all the stuffing ingredients together. Season with salt and paprika. Gently fill the squid cavity with the stuffing taking care to not be greedy! {the bodies shrink while cooking, so overfilling runs the risk of bursting at the seams}. Lock the ends with toothpicks. Set aside until ready for cooking.

To make the sauce, saute the garlic and onion in oil. When soft add tomatoes, apricots, saffron aand all the seasoning. Gently place the stuffed squid in the pan and pour the stock over. Cover with lid and cook for 15 minutes, then lift the lid and cook for another 10 minutes. During this time, turn the squid around for even cooking. Serve immediately garnished with diced onion, tomatoes and cilantro sprinkled.