Posts tagged fennel
The crab lost his house – Soft shell crab with almond crust on grilled fennel and radicchio salad, cream of chick peas and capers
Jul 5th
Le crabe a perdu sa maison – Crabes bleus en croûte d’amandes, sur lit de fenouil et trévise grillés, crème de pois chiches et câpres
Pardon my ignorance, I thought the soft crabs were a particular kind of specie…They’re apparently not. When I found out that they’re basically regular crabs that molted their hard shell, I felt a little bad to eat them. Poor little crab without his house…but I already bought them, so I had no other option that cook them…so the little homeless crab had to end up in my plate. I found a very useful site explaining how to clean them on ChefsLine.
Radicchio has two of my favorite features, colorful and bitter, which combined with fennel makes a very harmonious combination. The sweetness of the grilled fennel stands out beautifully, and complement the slight acidity of the cream of chick peas due to lemon juice and capers. So what about the crab?? I have been talking about everything except about our naked crab..and this recipe is not about fennel, nor radicchio BUT only about the crab!
This crab is such a treat, every bite is meaty and delicate, it is baked so not as crunchy as you would get it it was fried, but definitely healthier. So delicious! the topping makes it flavorful with a little sesame note and blends to perfection with the chick pea cream.
Ingredients for 4
- 8 soft shell crabs
- 6 tbs breadcrumbs
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 tbs almond meal
- 1 tbs sesame seeds
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tbs parsley, chopped
- salt and pepper
For the cream of chick peas and capers
- 1/2 lb cooked chick peas
- 4 tbs plain yogurt
- 1 tbs garlic, crushed
- juice of one lemon
- 1 tbs capers, chopped
- cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper
For the fennel-radicchio salad
- 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
- 1 radicchio head, sliced in 1 inches slices
- 1 tbs olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the salad
Grill radicchio and fennel on a grill pan, then place on a large bowl, add other ingredients and set aside.
For the crab
In a mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together except for the crab (of course). Top each crab with the breadcrumb/almond mixture, drizzle each crab with a little olive oil, and back in the oven at 400F until the top is golden brown and the crab is cooked.
For the cream of chick peas
Mix all ingredients except capers and yogurt in a blender. Remove from blender and add capers and yogurt. Mix well and set aside.
Serve with some warm salad in the middle of the plate, two soft shell crabs on top and spoon cream of chick pea on the side.
As cute as caviar – Black quinoa, adzuki beans salad with fennel, carrots and mushrooms
May 16th
Aussi mignon que le caviar – Salade de quinoa et haricots adzuki, fenouil, carottes et champignons
I had bought some adzuki beans a while ago, yes I know there are so many kinds of beans, and this one is one among many others. It’s a bean mainly grown in the Himalayas and used in Asia in sweet preparations, they’re mostly known as red beans. Of course, I am not Asian, therefore in my culture beans are prepared in savory dishes and I wanted to try to prepare them in a more Western way, because after all a bean is a bean. I love black quinoa, it tends to be more flavorful and earthy than white quinoa and its nuttiness in this dish allied with the sweetness of fennel and red beans make it a palate pleasing combination.
Honestly, I was not sure I would post this because I thought it will be another quinoa/bean dish which is not the first on on my blog. After the first bite, I definitely thought it was blog-worthy, the colors were so contrasting all together and it resulted in a delicious and harmonious blend of flavors.
After yesterday delicious snapper with kumquat sauce I had shot, which for whatever reason my camera decided to not “save”, and after I ate everything, realized that not even one shot was there. I was wondering if this would happen again with this red bean dish…It seemed like my Canon was in a good mood today, and decided to keep this one. It happened a few times before and tends to be frustrating, especially after the terrible week I had.
Sometimes to speed up the cooking process of beans that have not been previously soaked, I add a little baking soda, it does reduce cooking time.
You can eat this salad warm or cold, either way it’s delicious.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 cup black quinoa
- 1 cup adzuki beans
- broth (1/2 onion, 1/2 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 bay leaf, thyme)
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise then crosswise
- 1 fennel bulb, diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook beans in water with all carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme. Cook for about 45 minutes until the beans are soft. Drain and rinse.
Steam quinoa like you would do with rice.
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add shallot and let brown, add garlic and cook for another minute. Add carrots and fennel. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. When the vegetables are half cooked, add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir well and cook until the mushroom water evaporates.
Combine quinoa with beans, then add the vegetables. Let it cool.
For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients together mix well. Pour vinaigrette on the vegetable/quinoa mixture. Add cilantro, toss and serve.
Let's grill all of them – Grilled fennel salad with red onions, baby roma tomatoes – mustard capers dressing
Apr 22nd
On va tous les griller – Salade de fenouils grillés, oignons rouges, tomates romaines naines – vinaigrette de moutarde et câpres
I am just wondering when allergy season will end, I think this year it’s been a bad year and I have to chose between allergy pills that will stop the itchy eyes, sneezes and runny nose but make me so sleepy and drowsy or continue life being congested and still drowsy. At this point, I don’t know, I just want to function normally. I understand that complaining about something so minor is silly when half of the planet is dealing with life and death situations, so I will just focus on simple food that is easy to make and that remind me that delicious food can help alleviate some minor discomfort.
I usually serve this flavorful salad just simply the way it is, as a salad, or with melting potato bouchées or grilled fish. All the vegetables have been grilled and they blend together beautifully, they remain crunchy, and have their natural flavors enhanced by the hot grill.
It takes about 15 minutes to make including the chopping of the vegetables and grilling, so I consider this a “fast food” dish. Fast food literally meaning food that is prepared fast, in my kitchen, I don’t associate it with unhealthy and processed food.
Now if you want simple, quick and delicious, this is the one, but it’s also peu calorique! (low in calories) so even better. I noticed a lot of people are on a diet or trying to lose weight, I guess that’s a sign summer is on its way and that swim suits and light revealing clothes too. As far as San Francisco and its beaches are concerned, you might need a scarf and wind jacket instead of a swim suit…I just want to dream of a swim suit…and thinking about it, I don’t remember when was last time I wore one of those.
I love cuisine sur le grill, the beauty of it is that you can grill anything, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, just about anything you want while keeping all the flavors, the colors and shapes of your ingredients.
Baby roma tomatoes are perfect for grilling because they’re firm and slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes and a lot sweeter, so you can grill them easily, they will remain firm but need to grill them quickly at high heat so they won’t get mushy.
Ingredients for 3-4 as a side dish
- 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced
- about 10-12 baby roma tomatoes, cut lengthwise
- 1 tbs capers, chopped
- 1 tsp strong Dijon mustard
- juice of one Meyer lemon
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the vinaigrette
Combine oil, mustard, lemon juice, capers, salt and pepper. Stir well all ingredients together.
Using a grill pan, grill all vegetables, starting with the fennel, the onions and tomatoes. Place them in a mixing bowl.
Add vinaigrette on grilled vegetables and serve with favorite fish or savory galettes.
A happy match – Cream of fennel and cannellini beans with marinated feta tartine
Apr 8th
Un mariage bienheureux – Crème de fenouil et haricots blancs, tartine de féta mariné
Fennel and cannellini is a very Mediterranean combination, then if you accompany it with feta, there is no more doubt about it. Fennel is perfect for soups and purées, and of course in so many other ways too. When I make those purée types of soups, I cannot help it to accompany it with a tartine of country bread and with some kind of cheese, Roquefort, ricotta, feta, goat cheese, anything that will enhance a spoonful of that sweet fennel flavor.
My favorite alcoholic aperitif being pastis, I love fennel since its sweet anis flavor reminds me of Marseille and the South of France. If you ever end up in Marseille, you have to drink a pastis, it’s the local drink and incredibly refreshing during summer time…of course if you like anis.
Technically what is the difference between a cream, a velouté, a bisque, when talking about a soup? Their main common point is that they’re thick and blended soups. Yes, in the French language there are quite a lot of words to describe “a soup” but they all have very distinct and precise meanings, there are so many nuances that sometimes it’s intricate to explain them accurately.
The velouté is a blended soup, creamy and unctuous and enhanced by cream that contains meats and crustaceans. The cream is made out of pure vegetables combined with crème fraîche.
Bisque is a velouté in which its main ingredient is a crustacean and thickened by yolks and cream.
Then of course, we have the bouillon and the consommé, which are broth based and have a liquid texture. The word soup is a generic one, and does not give you any information on the type of soup you are eating…just a soup.
I did not add cream in my cream of fennel, so technically it cannot be called “cream”, you can add crème fraîche at the end like it should, I am just keeping things light, so au revoir la crème.
Ingredients for 4
For the soup
- 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
- 1 medium size onion, chopped
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1/2 lb cannellini beans, cooked
- vegetable broth
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs mint for decoration
For the tartines
- 4 slices country bread, cut in halves
- 4 tbs feta, crumbled
- 1/8 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp olive oil
- cracked black pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot and brown onions, then add fennel and thyme. Stir well to coat the fennel, then add broth (enough just to cover the fennel mixture), adjust with salt and pepper.
When the fennel is cooked, add cooked cannellini beans, and let the soup for about 10 minutes (adjust broth if necessary).
Remove from heat and blend in a blender into a thin mixture.
For the tartines, crumble carefully feta cheese in a container, add spices, herbs and oil. Mix carefully not to break the cheese. Toast slices of bread and top if with cheese.
The jealousy of the salmon – Salmon à l'orange on braised fennel
Feb 16th
La jalousie du saumon – Saumon à l’orange sur fenouil braisé
The salmon got a little jealous and was raving to be coated with a citrusy orange sauce too, because he thought that not only canard can be made “à l’orange”, he was the perfect candidate for the title too…and he was. On peut faire plein de choses avec des oranges!
The fennel at my local grocery store has been so round, and perfect looking that I could not resist and bought a lot of those beautiful bulbs. After the shrimp salad, now the salmon dish. You might think that fennel-orange and fish-fennel are two déjà vu combinations, it might be, but the secret here is the broth that makes this salmon a wonderful fragrant dish. Then when you love something, you can never get enough of it.
What I like about this dish is is the lightness of its fragrance, the salmon already has a strong flavor so I don’t like to add too many spices and powerful ingredients to a naturally strong ingredient, then I think it is confusing to your palate when you eat it, well mine gets very sensitive and does get confused easily if too many strong ingredients are combined. C’est la confusion totale! I served this with barley pilaf, whose little crunchy texture accompanied the whole dish very well.
I used some herbs to enhance the broth and that’s basically where the fragrance comes from. I was so happy I finally planted a bunch of herbs in the garden, so let’s hope the three semi-abandoned cats hanging outside the house won’t come and dig them, I am not too familiar with cats’ behavior but seems like they like to play with plants…and catch birds…and seriously have been scaring me a little due to their giant size and the way they are staring at me and my bird through the windows, I haven’t felt any love coming this way.
Ingredients for 2
For the fish and fennel
- 2 salmon fillets, skinless
- 1 fennel bulb, sliced thickly
- Juice of 1 orange + zests
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- flour for coating the fish
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the broth
- 1 leek, cut in chunks
- 1 carrot, cut in chunks
- 2 celeri sticks
- 1 onion, cut in quarters
- 1 tomato cut in quarters
- 2 bay leaves
- 6-7 basil leaves
- 1 tsp fish fumet
- 6 black peppercorns
- 2 cups water
Preparation
Start preparing the broth, by adding all ingredients together with 2 or more cups of water. Let it simmer for one hour, adding more water if necessary. At the end of cooking time, when broth has reduced, you need about 1.5 cups broth. Drain and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a pan, and add fennel. Let it cook at high heat until both sides are golden brown (about 5-7 minutes), add salt and pepper. Add crush garlic, stir for about 30 seconds, then add 2 ladles of broth. Reduce heat and let it cook all the way through (about 15-20 minutes).
Heat olive oil in a pan. Coat fish with flour and saute in oil. Let it brown on both sides, then add orange juice, 2 ladles of broth and wine. Let it reduce.
For the Sunday lunch – Arugula, Shrimp, fennel and chick pea salad
Feb 14th
Per il pranzo della domenica – Insalata di gamberi, rucola, finocchio e ceci
Happy Valentine’s day to everyone! Joyeuse St. Valentin!
Valentine’s day is not only the celebration of love but also of friendship, so I think everyone is concerned. It seems like the celebration goes back to antiquity in Greece where February was the month of love and fertility and when Zeus got married to Hera. Also during Roman times, this time of year, took place a celebration honoring Lupercus who was the God protector of fields and herds and February 14 was celebrated love and fertility. So we are perpetuating a very ancient celebration.
This Valentine’s day it’s muggy and grey and all you want to do is stay inside. After looking at what is going on on the the East Coast and the snow storms, I am thankful to have an overcast sky, and not be burried under the snow. I used to have really terrible cabin fever when I lived in Boston and I am afraid I cannot handle extreme weather.
On Sunday morning, Valentine’s day or not, I like to get my croissants and pains au chocolat, it just happens occasionally but when it does, it’s a treat. So when you have that type of breakfast, lunches are usually on the light side.
I somehow love the combination and texture of this salad, the sweetness of chickpeas and fennel, the crunchiness of the shrimps and the bitterness of arugula are blending harmoniously together…just like a happy couple. Valentine’s day for me is all about harmony, balance, and of course….love.
Ingredients for 2
- 1.5 cup arugula
- 12 large shrimps, peeled, deveined, and cut in half
- 150 g cooked chick peas
- 1/2 large fennel bulb, shaved
- 2 tbs red onions, finely chopped
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 garlic crushed
- orange champagne vinegar
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the salad, mix arugula, fennel, chick peas, red onion together. Saute shrimps in a little olive oil, add salt and pepper and let them cool.
For the vinaigrette, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Add shrimps to the salad, add dressing and toss well. Grind some fresh black pepper and serve.
Quick and easy – Lavender cod with grilled fennel and potato salad, roasted tomato
Dec 11th
Rapide et facile – Cabillaud au sel de lavande, salade de fenouil et pommes de terre grillées, tomate rôtie
I had a very little time for lunch yesterday since I had a doctor’s appointment early in the afternoon. I currently have no car, looking to buy one, so public transportation here I come…
I evaluated it would take me over one hour to get to the doctor, since I had to make a connection. I don’t know if any of you have ever taken public transportation in San Francisco, but some Muni lines are nice and clean and some others are packed, loud, people yelling, insulting one another and dirty…unfortunately I had to take that one. At that point, I wished I had a car…I think something should be done to improve the public transportation system and the quality of the streets. Better public transportation would help the environment and decrease the traffic.
Before my trip to hell, I found the perfect fast food plate. Honestly, this is fast food. It took me less than 30 minutes to put it all together and perfectly flavored and balanced. I like fresh herbs, and food that doesn’t cook for hours soaked in heavy sauces. I love fresh crisp flavors, and this fish dish fits that category. There are few simple ingredients such as lemon juice, herbs, etc…nothing too complex, so nothing overpowering to confuse your palate.
This dish smells and tastes comme la Provence with the fennel and lavender. This is perfect for one of those days when you don’t have too much time too spend in the kitchen but still want to eat a decent healthy meal.
Ingredients for 2
For the cod
- 2 cod fillets
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbs olive oil
- lavender salt
- pepper
For the vegetables
- 2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 3 potatoes, sliced crosswise
- 1 heirloom tomato, cut in half
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbs mint, finely chopped
- one pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- 1 tbs olive oil + 1
- salt and pepper
- Fleur de sel for the tomato
Preparation
First prepare the potatoes. Drizzle them with salt, pepper, olive oil and cider vinegar. Place in the oven and broil on both sides until golden brown and cooked all the way through. While potatoes are cooking, grill the fennel on a grill pan. Add fennel to the potatoes.
Drizzle cod with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Broil on both sides until cooked all the way through.
Grill tomatoes on grill pan.
In a small mixing bowl, mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, mint, cumin powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour on top of fennel, potato mixture and toss.
Add lavender salt on top of cod, drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil.
Add Fleur de sel and pepper on top of tomato halves and a little olive oil.
Serve each item in a plate.
Snapper or not snapper ? – Red snapper kebabs with orange and olive vinaigrette on fennel fondue
Oct 9th
Vous avez dit Vivaneau?- Brochettes de vivaneau grillé à la vinaigrette d’orange et olives sur fondue de fenouil
I went grocery shopping yesterday and again I went crazy with fish and seafood. I have always thought I knew what red snapper was in French…in my mind I had no doubt it was “rougets” because of the red connotation (rouge = red) and rougets are red and very trendy nowadays in France, they’re served in many new and hype restaurants. Snapper looked a lot bigger but I though, oh well, anything American is bigger anyway. Yesterday I could feel I was wrong for all those years and when looking closely at the fish, I started having doubts. You might think, ok what’s the big deal, if she doesn’t know the translation. The thing is that I like to know what I eat and find out more about the fish and what it’s called in my mother tongue, wouldn’t you? Some people might think I am weird, and maybe I am.
For a while I was just staring at the fish and could not make up my mind if I was going to buy it or not. I was somehow worried that snapper would be perche du Nil which I refuse to eat. It’s been exported in France from countries like Kenya, and other African countries and it’s one of the most invasive specie you can find; it destroys every other specie around and is somehow like a parasite. Since its introduction in some African lakes, the other species that lived there, are all extinct and it created many environmental issues in those regions. I am not sure if perche du Nil is grown or sold in the US, and would hope not.
After searching all over the place, I was releaved that Snapper is not perche du Nil, but it’s called Vivaneau. Honestly I have never heard that name before yesterday. Don’t you think it’s such a cute name? sounds like the name of a kid with rosy cheeks from the 18 th century, “hello, my name is Vivaneau, nice to meet you”. First I could not believe a fish would be called Vivaneau, then I had to come to the conclusion that it was its proper name, even though there are a lot of different species in that category.
Anyway, that mysterious snapper ended up in a skewer and I was glad I learnt Vivaneau is living among many in the ocean. Snapper tends to have a fragile texture, so if you overcook it, it will break.
Fennel, orange and white fish are some of my favorite ingredients, they blend beautifully together. This dish is so simple and quick but still delicious and flavorful, let’s not forget healthy.
Ingredients for 3 kebabs
- 1 lb red snapper fillets, cut in large cubes (about 2.5 inches)
- 1/2 red bell pepper, cut in large cubes
- 1 large fennel bulb, shredded
- 1/2 onion, sliced
For the marinade
- juice of 1 small lemon
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbs olive oil
- Szechuan pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 1 tbs dill, chopped
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of 1/2 large orange
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a mixing container mix snapper pieces with marinade ingredients, place in the refrigerator and marinate for about 2 hours.
In a pan, add olive oil and brown onions. Add fennel and cook at low heat until the fennel is tender, almost melting. Add salt and pepper.
Prepare vinaigrette, by mixing all ingredients together.
Start making kebabs using bamboo skewers, (previously soaked in water to prevent them from burning). Alternate a piece of fish with a piece of bell pepper. Sprinkle with Szechuan pepper and salt and broil under broiler. Do not over cook, fish is very tender and might break.
Serve with fennel fondue and kebabs on top. Drizzle with orange-olive vinaigrette.
Summer is just starting in San Francisco – Mâche salad with fennel, oranges and olives with citrus vinaigrette
Aug 15th
L’été vient de commencer à San Francisco - Salade de mâche, fenouil et oranges à la vinaigrette d’agrumes
I was wondering why americans are not too fond of fennel and anis, liquorice, etc…Maybe it’s a flavor they were not used to growing up. I don’t know. The first time I tasted a mango, a Cambodian friend of mine had me try it, I must have been 12-13 years old, and I hated it. I thought it tasted like detergent powder and I had to spit it out. Well, years have passed, and luckily, my tastes have changed, and I love mango now! Funny how the palate that had not been exposed to something, reacts in an “unfriendly” way.
I remember one summer in Italy at the neighbor’s house, she served a salad of oranges as appetizer and I was somehow reluctant to eat it since I never ate oranges that way, but I thought that would be a great idea only if this would taste good…and it did. The salad was fresh, with a nice peppery dressing. I loved it. I have seen a similar way to serve oranges in Moroccan cuisine, and I loved the idea.
Mâche salad is becoming trendy again, and besides from its pleasant flavor, it has lots of vitamin C, vitamin E, antioxydants and Omega 3! So a great nutritional little salad to be consumed without moderation.
Ingredients for 2
- 1 juicy navel orange, sliced crosswise
- 2 cups mâche
- 1 fennel bulb, cut in small cubes
- kalamata olives
For the vinaigrette
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp orange juice
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp raspberry vinegar
- 1/3 tsp cumin powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash fennel, and cut in small cubes. You can cut the stems as well, it adds some nice color. Peel orange, and cut crosswise, cut off the border. Wash mâche.
For the vinaigrette, mix ingredients together. Add some vinaigrette to the mâche and mix well.
Place some salad at the bottom of the plate, top with fennel, and oranges. Add olives on top. Sprinkle with remaining vinaigrette.
Mediterranean style – Grilled stuffed squid on mizuna salad with grapefruit and wild fennel vinaigrette
Aug 1st
A petit goût de Mediterrannée – Encornets grillés sur salade de mizuna et vinaigrette de pamplemousse et fenouil sauvage
When I go grocery shopping and I end up in the fish section, I cannot resist to buy seafood, especially when it’s fresh. I found those at the Berkeley bowl last week and they just made my day.
It reminds me of the open markets in France and Italy where you go early in the morning to avoid the late morning or noon heat, and you buy all fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood. Then you go home to prepare lunch with all the wonderful fresh products you bought. Sometimes, the neighbor drops by, to chit chat, or gossip about some other neighbor, have apéritif, and most of the time stays for lunch. Well, that’s how it works at my parents house. It makes me nostalgic, then I feel like going home.
I am not quite sure if this recipe is Italian with a French Flair or a French with an Italian flair, so let’s say it’s mediterranean, and that is certain, because it has many of those ingredients used in mediterranean cuisine.
I love wild fennel, my mom cooked with it very often, especially in her white meat dishes, so that might why I love it so much. Wild fennel is a kind of fennel that grows wild and that has a very long stem, sometimes can go over 5.5 feet in height. In California, it grows all over the place, and I just saw a huge stem peaking in the garden that was perfect for those calamari. Wild fennel is often used to flavor olives, fish and seafood.
When you buy calamari, they shrink a lot, so don’t be afraid to buy more than what you think you would need. For this dish which was for one person as a main course (or two as an appetizer), I used one pound. The other thing to keep in mind, is that if you have never cleaned squid or calamari, you might want to buy the ones that are already cleaned, since you have to remove the skin and eyes. Well that doesn’t sound too inviting but it’s not that complicated nor repulsive.
Ingredients for 2
- 1 lb squid
- mizuna salad or frisee
- Juice of 1/2 pink grapefruit
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbs olive oil
- chili flakes
- 1 tbs wild fennel, chopped
- 1 tbs kalamata olives, cut in halves
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp raspberry vinegar
Preparation
Clean squid by removing skin, detaching tentacles, and emptying the inside of the squid. wash under running water and place in bowl of water. Wash well, then pat dry and remove excess water.
Cut the grapefruit in half and collect the juice of that half. Peel the other half. Remove the skin of the half quarters and set aside.
For the vinaigrette, mix grapefruit juice, oil, vinegar, chili flakes, garlic, fennel, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Drizzle olive oil, 1/2 tsp of vinegar on top of squid. Add salt and pepper. Grill on a grill or under broiler for about 5 minutes, until lightly . Do not overcook or the calamari will be rubbery. They’re tender so they cook very fast.
Mix olive oil and lemon and add to the salad. Mix well. Place some salad on a serving plate, add calamari, and pour some of the vinaigrette on top of the calamari and decorate with a fennel leave.
