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2013 Cooking Club Week 12: Calamari, Patatas Bravas and Aioli
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28-03-2013 7:45pm#1Hello hello! First off I hope nobody minds I'm putting this up a day early, won't get the chance tomorrow!
Seeing as it's Good Friday tomorrow, I thought I'd do a fish dish. This is a fairly simple recipe and shouldn't take too long to throw together. It's especially good with a beer but obviously we'll all be abstaining tomorrow for the day that's in it :pac:
Ingredients:
Calamari:
-Squid. I buy tubes from my fishmonger, and usually one per person is enough. Each tube is about 200g.
-About 150ml milk
-Flour, salt, pepper.
-Oil. Something light enough, but able to cope with deep frying-I used rapeseed
Patatas Bravas:
-Potatoes. Waxy ones ideally.
-Onion
-Garlic
-Red chilli (I use about half a chilli but adjust to your taste)
-Chorizo (optional but nice!)
-Red wine vinegar
-Tin of tomatoes
-Paprika
Aioli:
-Garlic
-1 Large Egg
-Lemon
-Mustard
-Oil. Again, I use rapeseed. Never use olive oil!
Method:
1.First, preheat your oven to the highest setting.
2. Next, start on the sauce for the patatas bravas. Roughly chop one onion, the chilli and 2-3 cloves garlic. If using chorizo, chop this, add to a pan with some oil and fry until it starts to release it's delicious fat. Then saute the onion, chilli and garlic in this. When soft, add a dash of red wine vinegar. Once this has evaporated, add the tin of tomatoes, a good teaspoon of paprika, reduce heat and simmer while you get on with everything else. You can serve this chunky, but normally I blend it up before serving.
3. Chop your potatoes to rough one inch chunks. If you want to put in loads of effort here, you could prep them as you would for roast spuds-peel them, parboil them, drain and shake in pan to rough up edges-I don't bother. Add some oil to a baking tray and allow to heat in the oven. When oil is hot, tip in potatoes and season well with salt, pepper and lots of paprika. Add in 4/5 whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic. Shake around and put back in top shelf of oven, These will take approx 20 mins.
4. At this point you can make your mayo for the aioli, or, as in my case, discover that your OH and the dog had scrambled eggs for breakfast while you were at work and realise you have to use Hellmann's. If you were making the mayo though, you'd add the egg, a pinch of salt, a few drops of lemon juice and a half teaspoon of mustard to a bowl and beat. I use a hand whisk and s-l-o-w-l-y drop in your oil bit by bit as you beat. This will take a few mins. When it's come together, taste and adjust the seasoning, bearing in mind that you're adding your roasted garlic cloves to this later. Set aside.
5. Time to tackle the squid! I chop the tubes into rings about 1cm wide. Once all chopped, I add them to a bowl with the milk to soak for a few minutes. They don't need very long at all, 5-10 minutes is enough.
Take a large freezer bag and add a good handful of flour, some salt, loads of black pepper, and some paprika. I sometimes add a handful of polenta too to add a bit of texture. Drain the squid, add the the bag, and squash around until fully coated.
Check your timing of everything else-the calamari should be served ASAP. When the potatoes are nearly done, the garlic should be roasted enough to take out and squeeze out of it's skin and into your homemade/shop bought mayo. Blend your patatas bravas sauce if you want, and have a plate in a warm grill/oven with kitchen paper. Done? Frying time!
Heat about 2 inches of oil in a pan. Test if it's hot enough by throwing in a cube of bread-it should sizzle and brown. When ready, carefully fry your calamari in small batches. Calamari is quick, about 3 minutes usually does mine, when you see a lovely golden crust it's ready. Remove to your plate with kitchen paper on to keep warm until all your squid rings are cooked.
6. Plate up! Patatas bravas and generous dollops of sauce. Add a dollop of aioli or serve that on the side for dipping. Serve your calamari with plenty of lemon to squeeze over. Token vegetable to offset deep-frying guilt optional.
Sure it's a fast day, you may as well make your one main meal count
Enjoy! 40
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Now if I could only convince the people around me to try squid
My OH is a food thief... Sneaks into the kitchen when I'm cooking and grabs bits out of pots and pans when I'm not looking. First time I made these I had my first batch done and had to run upstairs for something, next thing I heard an outraged "THESE AREN'T ONION RINGS!" from downstairs. :pac: It's one way of getting people over the fear, he scoffs them now!0 -
I made that exact error with onion rings/calamari!
Calamari is something I keep trying, because in theory I should love it. However, only twice have I had it properly cooked and not rubbery. I might just try it again myself though!
Love patatas bravas and aioli
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We had this lovely meal tonight.
I prepared the potatoes this afternoon, boiled them, cooled them down and let them rest for a couple of hours in the fridge.
Next was the mayonnaise, which I had never made before. I used a stick blender to whisk it together, mind you. Turned out very nice!
As for the potatoes, I deep-fried them, just like the calamari. It just made sense to do so. Along with the fact that I bought a Tefal fryer just last week!
We washed it down with a nice Catalonian wine from Lidl and Estrella beer, from Tesco.
Salud!
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