Chorizo Risotto Stuffed Squid with Garlic and Cayenne Roasted Harlequin Squash

As we have had such amazing weather this weekend I only thought it right for todays recipe to include grilling. Unfortunately however we now live in a flat with no balcony or garden so barbecues are out but we have a Foreman grill so I've just used that.

Seafood is always something I associate with summer, especially squid as it's something you usually eat on holiday. I remember walking through Spetses when I was younger with my parents and seeing rows and rows of squid and octopus - ofcourse then I thought that was disgusting but now it conjurs up thoughts of calamari and octopus salad and lots of other delicious dishes!

The little tubes can be pretty fiddly to fill if they are too small - I ordered the squid with our online shopping order so didn't get to pick which tubes I wanted and consequently got the smallest ones I've ever seen! Stuffing them sure was a task, but worth it. Like I said they were the smallest I've ever seen, the size I usually get would be much easier to fill.

This was also the first time I have tried harlequin squash. I've always eyed them up in the supermarket, bright orange and speckled and striped with green, but seem to end up getting the butternut variety, mainly as it's one of Pete's favourites. This time though I picked up a few, they seem to be the same density as butternut but smell just like pumpkin with the ubiquitus seeds and string to remove before cooking. The skin was harder to peel also, I ended up hacking it off with a knife rather than a peeler!

Garlic and Cayenne Roasted Harlequin Squash
Serves 2

Ingredients
600g harlequin squash
2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 335 F.

Peel the squash, remove the seeds and stringy innards and then but into slices about 1cm wide. Spread over a deep sided baking tray, strew over the chopped garlic, then sprinkle over the oil, salt and cayenne pepper.

Roast for half an hour, tossing halfway through.

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Chorizo Risotto Stuffed Squid
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
50g chorizo sausage, diced very small
1 small red onion, diced very small
1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped
6 medium cleaned squid, tentacles diced small
50g arborio rice
2-3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
300ml boiling water - infused with a little saffron if you have it

Method
Fry off the onions, garlic and chorizo in the olive oil for about 3 minutes until the onions are soft and the chorizo has let go some of it's fat. Add the arborio rice, parsley and diced tentacles and fry for a further 3 minutes before adding a quarter of the boiling water. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the water has soaked into the rice. Repeat this step three more times with a quarter of the water each time.

After this taste the rice, it should now be softened. If not, repeat the above steps with 75ml water each time until the rice is cooked through. Remove from the hob and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Take a clean squid tube and using a teaspoon stuff them with the cooled risotto up to around 1cm from the top of the tube. Take a cocktail stick and push it through the top of the tube at the open end as shown in the pictures above and below to stop the risotto from spilling out.

Grill on a barbecue, indoor grill or grill pan for 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the size of your squid. Don't overcook or you will get very rubbery results!

Serve with the roasted squash and a lemony vinaigretted salad.

Is it just me or do they look like strange little slug/bull hybrids? Just me? Ok...

Pete said this was one of his favourite dinners yet, so I suggest you all try it soon!

Chicken and Chorizo Stew

So obviously, I like to cook. It relaxes me, makes me feel accomplished when I come up with new recipes and improvements to existing recipes... and then you get to eat. Eating is good. Yes.

But sometimes after a long day at work, I'll get home and think 'Bleugh... I really can't be bothered to cook tonight'. Now I'm not saying that I never buy ready meals, as I am usually on some form of diet I do get low fat frozen meals but they never taste great and they have all those nasty little additives and preservatives and colourings in that we could all definitely do without. So the solution to this? Make your own ready meals!

This is quite a big thing around the blog community at the minute, there are lots of OAMC (Once A Month Cooking) recipes and planning tools popping up all over the place. I'm not that dedicated to the cause, most nights I do like to get home and potter about in the kitchen cooking up dinner listening to some good tunes or one of my many, many, MANY Vincent Price radio recordings. However, I know a lot of people have much harder jobs than I and spending one day cooking up a months worth of meals that will save hours for the rest of the month will be very appealing to them, so here is a recipe to add to the plan.

Chicken and Chorizo Stew
Makes around six 250g portions

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
300g onions, cut into fairly large chunks
3 medium cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
225g chorizo sausage
400g mixed coloured peppers, cut into around 1" chunks
800g chicken, cut into around 1.5" chunks
Large pinch of Maldon salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
150ml single cream
1 chicken stock cube
400ml boiling water
2 tbsp cornflour

Large soup/stew pot or casserole dish
Six foil food containers with card lids
Permanent marker

Method
Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil on a medium heat until soft and then add the chorizo and cook for a further five minutes - the chorizo will release its fat and tint the onion a lovely orange colour.

Tip in the mixed peppers and fry for another five minutes, then add the chicken and cook until the chicken is coloured all over. Season with the salt, white pepper, cayenne and smoked paprika and let cook for ten minutes stirring quite often before adding the cream and mixing thoroughly.

Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and add to the pot, stir well and turn the heat down to medium low. When the pot comes to a strong simmer stir again and leave to cook through for 30 minutes. You want there to be a good amount of liquid left and it will seem quite watery - you now stir in 2 tbsp cornflour to thicken the sauce, mixing well so you don't get any lumps.

When combined, take off the heat and leave to cool for half an hour. Decant the stew into the food containers and mark on them the date that it will be in one month - this is your use by date.

Leave to cool completely and then freeze. To reheat straight from frozen place the container on a baking tray and cook at 160 C / 320 F for 45 minutes. Serve over rice or pasta or for a more special meal with some cheesy roasted potatoes.

Notes
I get my foil containers from Wilkos, they come in packs of ten for about a pound.

If you don't like spice, just leave out the cayenne pepper - the smoked paprika doesn't add heat, just a smoky sweet flavour that emphasises the chorizo really well.

This could easily be made vegetarian - I think replacing the chicken with mushrooms, aubergine pieces, tofu or sweet potato would work wonderfully.

The meats could also be changed, pork should work well as would a fairly firm fleshed fish such as monkfish or even some nice big prawns.

Please don't forget to write the use by date on the containers, we don't want anyone getting ill from eating a nice dish of year old zombified stew!!!