An EWWW recipe that you can de-ewww: squid salad

Years ago, I remember reading something on the blog of one of my favorite tv cooks, Maryanne Esposito. She was answering a question as to what happens to the food she cooks for a show. The somewhat obvious answer was that the staff polished it off, unless of course she was cooking squid, in which case, no one would eat it.

Well, I happen to hang out with a whole crew of squid eaters. The Guyman and I love it. On one level, I can understand the dislike, which borders on repulsion for some people. But on other levels, I want to tell people to GET OVER IT!!! I wonder how many people actually dislike squid, as compared to how many dislike the idea of eating squid. It comes down to "if you ate it with your eyes closed, how would you react?" Squid is the biggest fish catch in the United States, and it has not even come close to being overfished (squid apparently have a very active sex life and procreate in numbers that are legion). It's low fat. It's low cholesterol and you know what, it's ridiculously cheap.

But, if you must... in the recipe that follows, substitute shrimp. Don't use the enormous ridiculously expensive ones. The "large" shrimp will be perfectly fine here, but Annalena begs you to make sure that your source is one that is sustainable. Try to buy American shrimp, and if you can, wild shrimp. You may not be able to do so, but try to keep it in mind.

This is a terrific, fast, easy recipe, one I adapted from a magazine. You can have this on the table in half an hour, with either shrimp or squid. In fact, the seafood is the fastest and easiest part of this preparation.

Here we go. You are going to need two somewhat exotic ingredients: sweet Spanish smoked paprika (you can find it as "pimenton dulce" at a good spice store), and also a hot paprika of any kind. Start getting to know good spice vendors. It will not be hard to find this stuff if you do. And you will come back to that smoked paprika. It is GOOD.

So, mix together 2 teaspoons of the smoked stuff, and half a teaspoon of the hot stuff, with 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, and a quarter cup of olive oil. GOOD olive oil. If you are so inclined, add some salt to this, but keep in mind one of your ingredients is going to have salt in it (and it's NOT the fish)....

Peel about a pound of potatoes. I used red norlands, but you could use any potato at all here. Cut the peeled stuff into bite sized cubes, and cook them in salted water until they are tender enough for you.

While this is going on, preheat your broiler, and on a tray that is big enough to hold all of the squid, or shrimp in one layer, lay the critters out. You're going to go back to these after you prep your vegggies....

which are a red bell pepper, and half of a green one. Cut them into cubes. I like larger ones, but you can dice to your heart's content. Put those peppers into a bowl, and mix them with about 1/3 of the dressing you made above. When the potatoes are cooked to your liking, drain them and toss them with the peppers, and add a bit more dressing. The hot potatoes will soak up some of it, and that's a good thing.

Now, take a brush or your fingers, or whatever you use for this kind of thing, and brush some more dressing over the seafood. Be generous, you have enough. Get the seafood into the oven, about four inches from the broiler, and let it go to work for two minutes, no longer. Take these out and toss the hot seafood in with the peppers and potatoes.

Last, but not least, get some baby greens of some kind: mesclun mix, baby spinach, arugula, whatever you like and toss it with the remaining dressing. You may want to add a bit more salt here, too. Put the salad greens out on plates and then evenly distribute your fish and veggie mixture. And you've got dinner.

This served the Guyman and myself really well for our supper last week. You can probably get as many as six servings out of it if you do it as a first course, or three if you're not a hog like we are, for main dish service.

Try it with the squid, if you can handle it, or just go with the shrimp. Guarantee you. You'll enjoy it.