Calamari sensation

today was a very unique day... A friend of a friend caught a giant squid deep sea fishing in the pacific and was offering pieces. Haven't had this much fresh caught squid since my trip to Thailand, were it was hoisted onto the beach, grilled over an open flame and basted in Thai chilli peppers, basil, lemongrass and flavor. I have no idea why many places dip it in batter and deep fry it to the point where you can't even taste the squid.

I was handed a 7 by 6 piece of 2inch calamari steak. After peeling off some of the skin, this is what it looked like:



Now the fun part, how to prepare it. In the absence of an open fire pit or a Viking range or a team of Thai cooking experts, proceeded to do the next best thing: improvise!

So started with some olive oil, fresh thyme, garlic, a splash of chili juice and a dash of pepper and sea salt for the marinade.

Decided to coat it lightly with some Italian bread crumbs, tarragon, dill and some paprika to give it some zest:




In the saucepan they went, high heat, extra chili oil for a quick couple of minutes... You don't want to overcook squid as it will get hard and rubbery:




Served with some carmelized vegetables and a side of bacon crumbled spinach salad, not too bad:







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