The Emperor Has No Clothes - Squid

OK, OK, we tried it, and calamari (squid with an upscale name) tastes like - not much - and chews like - rubber. The slaw was tasty but not worth the trouble and the calamari was ... rubbery. I had a lot of trouble with the fire this evening so it was not really a fair test. It may have been better had it been on high heat for 3-4 minutes instead of on low heat for 5 minutes and then no heat for 10 minutes then sort of high heat for another 5 minutes than no heat for 15 minutes then high heat for 5 minutes. All I can say is, we got through it and there are no leftovers. I really think that 99% of Americans who say they "love calamari" mean they love drinking beer or their favorite beverage, talking with friends and eating whatever deep fat fried thing is put in front of them dipped in ketchup or other sauces. When truly confronted with the rubbery texture of pure calamari, I think most would have to admit that they do not LOVE it. They may be able to get it down like we did last night, but love? I don't know, maybe I'm just more stingy with my emotions than others.

Luckily our friends, Mark and Jayne were over for dinner and Jayne saved the evening with a delicious lamb dish that made up for the calamari fiasco. Jayne also made two wonderful desserts. I will let her comment with the recipes if she likes. They were yum.

We also had the butternut squash soup with spicy peanuts. That is a huge hit and not too difficult to make.

As usual, we had lots of fun and good conversation. Ten people for dinner on a Saturday night. What could be better than that? (hint: not calamari)

- Mark

Caribbean Swordfish Steaks with Mango Salsa

Rum with Swordfish! Who'd a thunk it? The lime, cloves and rum marinade was excellent. When you take the swordfish out of the marinade, you pour the liquid into a sauce pan and put that on the grill next to the swordfish and brush some of it on the fish while it is cooking. The swordfish was nice and moist and full of flavor. I cooked it partially over indirect heat and for less time than the recipe said. It was yum. Emily cooked some rice with roasted slivered almonds which was a perfect side dish.

Our son Steve is staying with us for the weekend so we will try the calamari tomorrow. He loves it and everyone else in the house thinks it tastes like rubber. I'll have to make something else for them. The side dish with the calamari recipe is a slaw where you grill the Napa cabbage and red peppers, chop them up and then mix in with cucumber, green onion and a vinegar dressing. The dressing is rice vinegar, honey, ginger, olive oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper. I made this tonight and it will sit in fridge until tomorrow evening. It smells good. We'll see how it tastes with the squid.

Speaking of squid, since I had never purchased it or cooked it, I was not sure what to make of the little white ball looking things in the cookbook photo for this recipe so I went to Whole Foods to have a look. There, on display in the fish department, was something labeled "squid." It looked like a set of white tube socks made out of rubber. Hmmmmm? So, I went to YouTube for help and there were some pretty interesting videos of people taking something you could imagine swimming around in the deep and "cleaning" it down until it looked like ... white rubber tube socks. Since this "cleaning" process starts by pulling the head off and pretty much goes downhill from there, I thought I would skip that part. So I went to the Public Market where they have a very good fish counter and bought 1.5 pounds of white rubber tube socks which we will have for dinner tonight.

- Mark