Charred Calamari Salad

As I said last week, one of the new cookbooks I recently picked up was a new one from Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. He’s a big proponent of open-flame cooking, and I think he deserves special recognition for including a recipe that lists “one cow, butterflied (about 1400 pounds)” as an ingredient in his book. Anyhow, for my first effort at making some of his food, I skipped the cow and went for calamari instead. This one feeds 6 people as an appetizer at $2.55 per serving.

Ingredients, from Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, by Francis Mallmann:
4 lemons, halved
4 medium Hass avocados
8 ozs cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 small red onions, very thinly sliced
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves removed and minced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
coarse salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 lb cleaned baby calamari, tentacles separated from the bodies

First, make the salad: peel and cut your avocado into 1/2-inch cubes, then put them in a bowl with the tomatoes, onions and parsley. Then add the dressing ingredients (the lemon juice and the oil) and mix. Do this bit by bit, rather than all at once, to make sure you get it right for your taste. Then season and add the chili flakes.

Next, cook your calamari. Mallmann says to use a chapa, a flat piece of metal over a high-heat fire. He recommends a griddle if you don’t have any chapas laying around, so I used one. It worked fine, but I think next time, I’d be inclined to use a grilling basket. The calamari parts were too small just to put on the grill, so the basket would be good. I also think it would cook a little better and char a little more nicely than when cooking it on the griddle.

Once your calamari is cooked, put the salad on a serving platter, and then put the calamari on top and dig in. I’d also recommend squeezing some lemon directly over the calamari while it’s hot!