I found a nice squid salad recipe at eryv’s journal, some time ago, and remembered it again relatively recently. Since I didn’t look at the original recipe and made the salad from memory, it turned out as a surprise that the result was very similar to the original. (A case of “Great minds think alike? ) The salad is very fresh, ideal for summer days. If you have fresh home-baked bread, the go just lovely together.

Ingredients:

2 large red bell peppers
3 medium-sized tomatoes
1 medium-sized red (purple) onion
5-10 parsley branches
2 basil branches
1 tbsp. capers (salted)
Juice of half-a-lemon
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 kg calamari (tentacles for this salad)

Preparation:

1. Bake the bell peppers (preferably, on open fire/grill). If you don’t have access to a grill, here’s how to do this in a regular kitchen:

• Just bake them in the oven, 15 to 20 minutes on each side.
• Remove them from the oven, and then using a regular culinary burner (just , char them from both sides) You should do the charring from a close distance, in order to get to the state where the vegetable skin is charred very quickly. The charred skin is important as this prevents the vegetable itself from continued cooking, as the vegetable flesh should remain a bit “crunchy”. When done charring, please put the bell peppers into a nylon bag and let them chill. Then remove the skin and cut into thin strips. Put the vegetable flesh on a colander and drain the extra fluids.
  The photo below demonstrates the usage on this technique on eggplants. Just do the same with bell peppers.

2. Now lets take care of the calamari. In my case, I used a pack of frozen squids that I unfroze on a colander and then cooked in their own natural juice (just put them in a pan, bring to boil and cook for 2 more minutes). Usually, the amount of liquids in calamari is sufficient and there is no need to add water to prevent them from burning… When the calamari are cooked, put them on a colander as well (yes, we are using this tool a lot for this recipe).

3. Take the onions and the tomatoes and cut them into small cubes

4. Chop the basil, the parsley and the capers finely ad mix with the rest. No need to add salt, as the capers should be salty enough… Let the salad “rest” in a refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to mix and serve. Don’t forget the fresh home-baked bread idea…

Read the original on: Dos Gatos Kitchen