The Saga of the Stuffed Squid

Nearly a month ago I pestered my mom’s sister for this recipe for stuffed squid, which my grandmother used to make. My grandmother died 26 years ago, and had oral cancer for 7 years prior to that, and towards the last 3 years (thereabouts) of her life, she was no longer eating solid food, so it’s been roughly 30 years since I last ate this.

My grandmother (Irish) married my grandfather (Italian, first-generation born here in the US) when she was 17. When they married, she didn’t even know how to scramble an egg. He taught her everything she knew. And when my aunt replied back and gave the “recipe,” she informed me that grandpa showed grandma how to make this, as it was something HIS mother (my great-grandmother) used to make.

Now back to the “recipe.” Well it was effing vague. All the ingredients for the stuffing, but no proportions or measurements, or additional information on what exactly to do with the ingredients. So essentially, it’s pretty much a shopping list, rather than a recipe. My aunt told me that’s all she had on the dish in question.

So three weeks elapses, and I’m still jonesing to know about this dish, and well, my grandfather passed in 2012, and isn’t here for me to pester for it.

When my grandfather passed away in 2012, at his wake and funeral, I was in a veritable OCEAN of first and second cousins. My grandfather was one of seven siblings. And due to some grudge between my grandmother and great-grandmother (daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, respectively), which is now nearing 54 years long (great grandmother died in 1976, and my grandmother passed in 1990), we have nothing to do with my grandfather’s family—which, as I said, IS EXTENSIVE.

So, I was told by my mother to seek out my great-aunt E. So I schmoozed her up and she was as pleasant as could be. And I became acquainted with her son, my first cousin once-removed. The last time I saw any of these people I was roughly 7 years old. ROUGHLY.  Sadly, all, strangers to me. 

I decided I needed to find out more about this recipe, so I zapped off an email to my cousin, and asked if his mom (great-aunt E.) knew anything about this elusive stuffed squid recipe. He emailed me back, informing me that not only did he know what it was, but that they eat it every Christmas eve. Ah! At last, I’m going to get the Rosetta Stone and DECODE THE RECIPE!!!

He photographed the recipe card and sent it along to me—and hilariously enough, it was EQUALLY VAGUE as my mom’s sister’s version of the recipe she sent me. 

In addition to the recipe card photo, he sent as an attachment in that first email, a photo of my great grandparents at what I suspect was either their 40th or 50th wedding anniversary. Emails with attached photos continued to pour in that first day. What a delight:) 

The final email the cousin sent that day, quite literally, yet temporarily, took my breath away. It was the formal portrait of my great-grandparents’ wedding day (which I thought was in Italy, but I could be mistaken).

So while I am not really any closer to my family’s particular version of this recipe, I ended up getting some great photos of my great-grandparents. Every other day or so, the cousin continues to send me photos he thinks I might enjoy seeing. 

Now about that recipe? I think I'll use the ingredients that were on those "shopping lists," and apply the ratios listed in this recipe I found online, and doctor the tomato sauce with a bit of anchovy, and I think between the two, I have a winner.   

Maven's Scrumptious Shrimptastic Kebabs

Maven's Scrumptious Shrimptastic Kebabs

Ingredients:

1 lb large shrimp, peeled, deveined, washed
8 slices good quality bacon, preferrably maple smoked
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons marmalade
2 tablespoons apricot preserves
Optional: Fresh pineapple chunks

6-8 wooden skewers soaked in warm water
Pam spray

Procedure:

1. Mix apricot preserves, marmalade and dijon together.
2. Toss in shrimp to coat. Marinate a minimum of an hour, however can keep up to overnight in the fridge.
3. Heat up grill to high.
4. Wrap each shrimp in bacon and skewer. Limit 2 shrimp per skewer.
5. Optional: skewer pineapple in between each shrimp.
6. Spray either side of kebabs with Pam.
7. Cook on hot grill about 2-3 minutes per side.
   

Sunny California Style Nicoise

Here is a link to a recipe to a traditional Nicoise salad, so you can tell the difference.

1 Short can of canned Salmon (tuna works, too)
1/2 Small red onion, diced
1/2 Cup Minced celery
1/2 Roast pepper or pimiento, minced
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
1 Tablespoon, mayonaise
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley minced for garnish

1 small tomato, wedged
1 boiled egg, wedged
1 avocado, sliced
Olives or capers for garnish
Salad Greens

Procedure:

1. Mix up all ingredients (salmon thru parsley). Mix well. Set aside.
2. For presentation, put a handful of salad greens on bottom. Add a helping of the salmon mixture. Adorn with wedges of tomato, egg and avocado, and sprinkle with a few olives or capers.

Maven's Blasphemous Gumbo Ya-Ya

Blasphemous? No roux! Only a northerner could think of that!

The lack of a roux and use of lentils (which end up cooking down to a mush to thicken) add more fiber and make this dish lower in glycemic index (lay man's terms: if you have sugar or insulin problems, this dish is great for you, as it takes longer for your body to digest).

In a large sauce pan, saute the following until golden brown:

1 Tablespoon Olive oil
1 Medium onion, chopped
2-3 Cloves garlic, minced
3 Ribs celery, diced
1 Bell pepper, diced
1 Jalapeno, minced
2 Links Andouille (or chorizo), sliced
4 Boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed

While that is cooking, throw these ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook for 2 whistles:

1 Cup pink lentils
2 Cups water

Once pressure cooker is de-pressurized, stir up lentils, add the chicken/chorizo/Trinity mixture to the pressure cooker, adding the following items and bring to a boil:

1 12 oz can (or comparable volume of fresh) tomato puree
1 12 oz can Chicken or Vegetable broth
1 Cup Okra slices
1/2 Teaspoon thyme
1-2 Tablespoons Old Bay
1-2 Bay leaf

Once to a boil, reduce heat to low, stir very well, and put the gasket/lid back on the pressure cooker and cook on low for two more whistles.

Once pressure cooker is de-pressurized, you can add raw shrimp in at this point, stir and re-cover. No need to have stove on. The heat from the gumbo will be sufficient to cook the shrimp.

Garnish with fresh parsley and scallions and serve over rice.

Sufficient to feed six adults.

Broiled Flounder

(This was dinner a la CrankyProf this evening. Oh, yum.)

You will need:

6 tbs (3/4 stick) of REAL butter
2 tsp finely minced fresh parsley
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 small to medium-sized flounder (cleaned, but left whole. Yes, eyeball in, too, you wuss.)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the broiler and broiling pan for 10 minutes -- the concentrated heat will cook the bottom of the fish, so it will not be necessary to turn the fish over.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, over low heat.
Turn the heat off, and add the oparsley, lemon juice and 1/8 tsp of salt.
Whisk the living Hell out of it -- the more you whisk, the less likely the sauce will look "curdled."

Remove the broiler pan carefully, and brush some of the butter sauce on it.

Rinse the flounder and pat it dry with paper towels.

Score the thick side of the fish with three or four X-marks, and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. (NOTE: some restaurants will use paprika, to disguise the fact that they do a crappy job of broiling the fish. DON'T BE THAT GUY!)

Slap that fish on the broiling pan, and brush about 2 tbs of the butter sauce on him.

Slinde him into the oven and broil the Christ out of him -- about 5 minutes for a small flounder, 6 for a medium-sized one -- making sure that the fish is 3 1/2 to 4 inches from the heat.

Check to see if he's done by poking him with a toothpick; if he flakes easily (like Courtney Love), he's done.

Slap him on a warmed dinner plate and drench him in the rest of the butter sauce.

Garnish with a few lemon wedges.
Do NOT besmirch the fish with tartar sauce!