Pulled pork for 100. That was what I was asked to come up with. I’ve never had to make that much food for one event before. I think the most number of portions I’ve ever done was something like 272 pieces of assorted makizushi for a Taiwanese Association event (with one woman loading up her plate with about 25 pieces but complaining that they were only so-so), but this time, it was enough pork to serve 100 people, and it was going to be the “main” dish to boot.

So, pulled pork, coleslaw, onions, dill pickles, sauce. For 100.

The challenge (aside from controlling the urge to keep squealing and wailing) was to see whether I could stop panicking scale up earlier attempts (adequate for 10-14) into adequate quantities with a standard refrigerator and a standard single oven (…eeeek).

The first thing to do was to work out how much raw protein I would have to start with. Assuming 100 g meat went into each sandwich and a loss of 50% following cooking, my quickie calculation indicated that 20 kg of pork shoulder would be needed:

That’s a freaking lot of shoulder. It’s worse when the realization hits that there’s only a single 27″ oven, meaning that it would have to be done in two batches and cooled and reheated to avoid nasty food safety issues. And because the batches are larger, it’s going to take a h*ll of a lot longer for each batch to finish. And… that amount of pork needs to be pre-ordered. Nice.

After the counterstaff at Boucherie Claude et Henri finished laughing, I eventually worked this out for prep; times and specific ingredient quantities are documented.

Ingredients

• 17.6 kg pork shoulder (this is the approximate weight of 2.5 shoulders)
• 2 L bottle of Dr. Pepper (the regular stuff, not diet)
• 6 x 150 mL tubes harissa
• cabbage
• sea salt
• granulated sugar
• cider vinegar
• sweet onions
• dill pickles

Preparation

Mix Dr. Pepper and harissa together. If using two ovens (either a double oven or two separate), or if one has access to a Gaggenau EB 385 oven, set the unit(s) to 150ºC / 300ºF. Place equal volumes of the Dr. Pepper solution into two roasting pans. Salt the pork shoulder and place one shoulder into each pan. Ladle the solution over the pork and place in the oven(s). If using a single oven, set the unit to 150ºC / 300ºF. Place half the Dr. Pepper solution into the roasting pan. Salt one pork shoulder and place into the pan, ladle the solution over the pork and place in the oven. The second shoulder will be cooked after the first one.

At the 3 hour mark, remove the pork and baste with the cooking liquid. Continue to baste the shoulder on an hourly basis, and roast until shoulder is done (verification by thermometer to 82ºC / 185ºF, or by checking if shoulder blade will extricate cleanly and easily). This is approximately 10 hours for a single shoulder in a single oven, and slightly longer in a Gaggenau EB 385 due to the increased mass.Remove pork from roasting tray and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

“Pull” the pork, shredding the pork, while removing the rind, bones and remaining fat and connective tissue. If serving on same day of preparation, keep warm, using a little bit of the cooking liquid to moisten the meat. If retaining for next-day service, cover meat and place under refrigeration until service. Reheat in low oven with some of the basting liquid for steam.

Finely chop the cabbage. Mix with 1:1 sugar and salt (as in 1 tablespoon sugar to 1 tablespoon salt), with quantity dependent on the amount of cabbage being processed. For 1.5 heads (approximately 2.5 kg), this is approximately 3 tablesspoons each of sugar and salt. Let cabbage stand for 5 hours. Squeeze out extruded water. Add cider vinegar to cabbage, mix well and let rest until pork is ready. Finely slice the sweet onions. Place slices in cold water for 20 minutes, then remove from water and pat dry. Retain until pork is read. Slice the dill pickles.

Defat the cooking liquid with a fat separator. Heat the cooking liquid to evaporate some of the volume. Adjust for seasoning (I used honey and cider vinegar this last time, but have used more ingredients in the past) and thicken with corn starch or veal glace de viande if required.

Service

It’s a pulled pork sandwich: cheapo white hamburger bun piled up with pulled pork, onion, coleslaw and pickle, and slathered with sauce.

Notes and aftermath

Too much meat!

Not that my calculations were wrong, it’s just that there was ultimately too much shoulder as it competed with what appeared to be 2 gross of hot dogs, 200+ ears of corn, 100 chicken drumsticks, coleslaw (another one), couscous salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, dozens of bags of assorted potato chips, and a hotel pan-sized tourtière de Lac Saint-Jean. And pie.

The 68 people who were present (a tad short of the 100 mentioned to me during planning) had a go of it and did finish about half before calling it quits. I was impressed – that was a pretty good performance on their part since they had pre-loaded on corn and hot dogs while I was still reheating the pork and finishing the sauce.

Where I did screw up was underestimating the volume of sauce required: should have made up additional volume with extra Dr. Pepper and harissa. The volume of cooking liquid was inadequate as I hadn’t anticipated that those going for seconds would just ladled the stuff on.

So, successful scale-up. I think the crowd at least liked it, but I don’t think I personally want to repeat the exercise any time soon.

I want one. I want this jamón. Never mind the estimate of approximately USD$1800 per ham once they’re ready for delivery in 2011, I want one to call my very own.

I don’t mind that José Andrés would get some of the money – he’s a good chef and he works hard to promote and import the good Spanish products.

I want my own pata negra jamón ibérico de bellota from Cinco Jotas. I want to use a sujihiki to carefully cut dainty little slices of  jamón and eat them accompanied with an oloroso xérès until I’m in a porky stupor.

Maybe it’s the stress that’s pushing all the buttons for having me wanting something meaty every single day, but I’ve had this great recurring dream where retainers would peel me grapes while I’m carried around like Hedonism Bot through Huelva and other parts of Andalucía to sample all the various jamónes ibéricos de bellota while using a porró to drink Viñedos de Ithaca’s Odysseus PX Pedro Ximénez. Ah, nice to dream and I’m sure that would be a great thing to do one of these days.

Boy I can’t wait until this MAA is over.

Now to see what kind of fun to have with it.

Cloudberry is the name for both the plant and the fruit.

Okay, so that’s the botany lesson.

Why am I interested? Because I saw them in use during several episodes of New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad and the tartness and the unique taste piqued my interest.  That and his intentional disturbance of a beehive to to get honey to sweeten his cloudberry smoothie (“whoops” indeed) got me hooked. Wikipedia’s entry also describes their use in food:

“The ripe fruits are golden-yellow, soft and juicy, and are rich in vitamin C. When eaten fresh, cloudberries have a distinctive tart taste. When over-ripe, they have a creamy texture and flavor somewhat like yogurt. They are often made into jams, juices, tarts, and liqueurs. In Finland, the berries are eaten with “Leipäjuusto” (a local cheese; the name translates to “bread-cheese”), and lots of cream and sugar. In Sweden, cloudberries are used as topping for ice cream or waffles. In Norway, they are eaten with whipped cream and lots of sugar, or in cakes that often contain marzipan.

In Canada, cloudberries are used to flavor a special beer. Canadians also use them for jam, but not on the same scale as Scandinavians. In Alaska, the berries are mixed with seal oil, reindeer or caribou fat (which is diced up and made fluffy with the seal oil) and sugar to make “Eskimo Ice Cream” or Agutak. The recipes vary by region. Along the Yukon and Kuskokwim river areas, white fish (pike, whitefish) along with Crisco and sugar is used.”

Since I’ve recently started watching the New Scandinavian Cooking DVDs again, I am again interested in them. Viestad consistently describes Norwegians as obsessed people willing to take the secret locations of cloudberry patches to the grave rather than share with others who are not part of the direct bloodline, and Thomas Laupstad (the fellow who took the cloudberry photo) mentions that there have been fistfights over harvests.

Anyway, I continue my search for them, and that has already raised an interesting question: where exactly do Scandinavians shop for traditional foodstuffs? The most obvious stereotype place for North Americans to start looking – IKEA - certainly doesn’t carry cloudberry jams and preserves as part of routine stock.

I guess I could always go to Norway.

After posting about the opening I decided that I would go and have dinner there the same night as I realized that my chef-pal Mario would probably oversee the launch for a couple of weeks. It’s always interesting having an opportunity to speak with a chef who’s opening a new offshoot of his/her brand and I was curious to hear about the impetus for this specific restaurant and what his expectations were. And it only took me a  week to post about it.

As with Madre, Mario elected to stay away from the downtown core and move into other regions of the island. This time, he’s chosen Ahuntsic. Ahuntsic – not exactly the first neighborhood that comes to mind when I think of where I want to go and have meal but successful restaurants have managed to establish themselves in Rosemont and Villeray, so why not Ahuntsic. I do know that the restaurant was already getting a thumbs-up from me even before setting foot inside because apart from the fact that there is plenty of parking (with my getting a spot right in front), the parking is free.

Free is always good but free parking in front of the restaurant turned out to be particularly important as the evening went on, because the the torrential rain and hail that oh, came down about an hour after my arrival would have really sucked had I needed to go feed the meter or trudge back to the car after dinner (the precipitation did flood the Acadie circle [again - but that's not particularly difficult since they forgot to add a drainage system during its reconstruction]).

Anyway, À Table follows similar styling cues as Madre and Raza before it; a certain mimimalist esthetic in a long narrow room with the kitchen set up in the back. Like Madre, À Table is less formal than Raza and has uncovered wood tabletops and a smilarly-sized kitchen that diners can look into. Unlike Madre, À Table’s kitchen is fully open with one station actually jutting out of the kitchen space.

À Table’s concept is that the brigade also does the service, which is similar to what is found at local competitor Kitchen Galerie and David Chang’s Momofuku ko. The restaurant was staffed by a team of five: Mario, his executive sous-chef Rodrigo Flores, and three in the brigade who I didn’t recognize. One – Yasmine – has worked with Mario at Raza, so the team had good familiarity with his flavor and presentation habits.

Brigade as service had me expecting a round-robin service as each member of the brigade would handle something different during the meal but the odd thing, which I think had a lot to do with opening week and my being there, was that Mario elected to cook my meal and Rodrigo doing complete service honors. I think that’ll change in the future.

Like many bistros across the Big Croissant, the menu is scribbled on a chalkboard to offer both flexibilty and cost savings (since you don’t have to spend time printing menus). They’ve elected to use a big one installed over the entryway to the kitchen, which is pretty much visible from every table in the eatery. The handwriting makes me suspect that Yasmine drew the short straw to climb the ladder to write out the offering.

Dinner

Week 1′s inaugural menu consisted of:

• ceviche de thon
• soupe froide de mais
• salade de jicama et tomates
• carpaccio de canard
• filet mignon
• omble de l’artique et caviar (uh, I think that should be omble chevalier)
• pétoncles  pôelés
• risotto aux crevettes
• gateau chocolat, glace dulce de leche
• peches caramelisees, mousse orange/fenouil

So: four starters (ceviche, soup, salad, duck), four mains (beef, fish, scallops, shrimp/risotto), two desserts. Small to keep things manageable but pretty fancy (at least for that part of Ahuntsic) and somewhat surprising in terms of its use of some pretty expensive ingredients on launch menu (filet, scallops and tuna don’t grow on trees). Well, if you’re going to launch, put out your best.

I went for the following:

Carpaccio de canard (panais, amarillo, gingembre): that’s the description that was listed on the board. Little surprised to see parsnip since I equate the things with an autumn/winter offering, but I’ll get to it as it served a purpose. I thought this was the best dish of the evening. The parsnip was served warm as a rough purée (I got an intact parsnip tip that was either intentionally included or managed to escape the food mill – textural element I guess) and were overlaid with slices of very rare seared duck which had been sauced with the aji amarillo and ginger sauce. So, the duck warms up and cooks a bit more from the heat of the parsnip, and stays cool but cooks from the acid of the aji amarillo sauce. Microsprouts, edible flowers, haricots verts and lightly-pickled onions and brussel sprout leaves (the man loves his brussel sprouts) finished dressing the plate. So, we have a plate that has sweet (parsnip), savory (duck), acid (onions, sprouts, aji amarillo) and spicy (aji amarillo). I recognize all of Mario’s Nuevo Latino influences but there’s a Vietnamese intellectual twist here.

Risotto aux crevettes (persil, parmesan): a spicy surprise with grey shrimp, parsley oil, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and vegetables; I’ve included a photo of Mario spending the 20-odd minutes stirring the rice to make the risotto from scratch. The rice still retained a nice bite to them and the overall dish had the desired creamy unctuous cheesy consistency expected of a risotto. The dish arrived with the grey shrimp finishing off their cooking from heat of the rice; they were sweet and had that nice underlying umami. The same brussel sprouts are intended to help cut some of the richness but I’m not convinced they were necessary here. The spicy surprise? Chile has been added to it, which gives a slightly tingly aftertaste. This was the dish to order for those with really big appetites: the portion size was very generous in terms of the amount of risotto, the shrimp and the shavings of cheese.

Omble de l’artique et caviar (quinoa, avocat, encre): A nice piece of fish and a fish that I’ve been playing with. The fish arrived with a nice crispy skin that carried a slight buttery taste, and the fish itself was cooked to a nice medium which retained the delicate nature of the char. Nice fluffy quinoa, and textural and savory elements from the mullet roe, the avocado (guacamole) quenelle and the vegetables. As I said, the man loves his brussel sprouts and they’re on the fish as well, but they do work well here as the acid brightens the fish. I would have liked to have just a bit more of the broken ink vinaigrette because that really boosted the savoriness of the dish.

Soupe froide de mais (chair de crabe, pdt): I didn’t eat this but I mention it because I actually wanted to have this for dessert (it’s cold and savory). Unfortunately, they ran out. Boo… hiss… Them’s the breaks of cuisine du marché as the style generally implies limited quantities of everything and it’s not like I identified my dessert selection when Rodrigo took my order. I should have though, as I heard it was really good.

Pêches caramelisées, mousse orange/fenouil: The dessert that I wound up going – slices of caramelised peaches nestled underneath a foam of orange and fennel. Peaches are in season so always a good thing when it comes to market cuisine. Never would have thought that orange and fennel would work together but they kept it in check and it was primarily orange with an anise-y aftertaste. The slivered almonds and filberts added crunch and structure to what would have otherwise been a glass of squishy-soft and liquid.

Wine

Like the other two restaurants, the list is predominantly South American (mostly Argentine) but there are also two reds from Spain and Australia (!) makes an appearance with Yalumba’s Viognier and a Pinot Noir from Scotchman Hills. Reds and whites are available by the glass, but one has to ask what’s currently on offer since that’s not listed on the list. Pommery’s single-serving Pop! also made the list here, so I’ll have to tell them ahead of time to have a silly straw available if Ronny wants to go on her next trip to Montréal.

The house cocktail remains the pisco sour. I declined as I’ve been staying away from pisco since that unfortunate evening with the Colombians and the Peruvians a few years back in Bahia.

I think the list is going to change fairly quickly as they received their liquor license a few hours before opening night. I don’t know what the list will ultimately look like but as À Table deviates more from Nuevo Latino than Madre does, I expect it to eventually offer more regions but not necessarily a whole lot of private imports.

I would have liked to have a Grüner Veltliner since those pair with almost everything and have a nice crispness for summer, but went with a servicable Santa Julia Chardonnay.

Impressions

I have to admit that I’m somewhat of a masochist when it comes to restaurant openings. There’s always something that isn’t quite ready: at Pintxo (day 7) it was the menu and very shaky service, at Madre (day 3) the tables weren’t ready yet and the wine offerings can be charitably described as ”anything palatable we could grab at the Masson SAQ because the liquor license arrived 10 minutes before close” (and that on the day I showed to boot), and that steakhouse in Collingswood (11 days)… it was everything. I elected to risk another opening as I knew that Mario was going to be overseeing the kickoff and wanted to have him tell me his vision and expectations of the new eatery.

Going on day 2 had me dodge one major bullet – the air conditioning was installed and working whereas it hadn’t been fully operational on opening night. I felt this launch was smoother than Madre’s and most things will eventually iron out as they settle in. About the only two things apart from the weather than hampered them on day 2 were:

• no oven – they opened without yet receiving their oven, which isn’t a bad thing given this summer’s hot/humid nature; the flip side is that their own sweet potato rolls won’t be available until it’s installed
• coffee; they’ll need to work on that

That aside, once they get comfortable with the new layout, learn the idiosyncrasies of the neighborhood clientele and figure out what will work best from the market for the neighborhood, I anticipate good things for them, likely to the point where getting a table as a walk-up will probably only work on Tuesdays (so sue me for being lazy and not wanting to call in for a reservation).

What’s going to be of particular interest is Rodrigo Flores, who is tabbed to helm the restaurant. This kid cooks very well, and has demonstrated his ability to handle pressure at both Raza and Madre. While his immediate professional culinary influences have come from Mario’s Nuevo Latino references, his familial background is Mexico and Catalunya. I am hoping that he will bring in Mexican and Catalan elements into his offerings as he further develops À Table.

Successful launch, and people will go, but now the next question for me becomes, will LC uh, “borrow” my Québeçois Latino opening line for her column?

I actually received an out-of-the-blue recipe request from none other than Dr. McHappy.

For those with short memories and in need of a dose of omega-3 fatty acids (and perhaps a couple of rounds of bridge), Dr. McHappy was the one who asked for me to do a molecular gastronomy demo last XMas, which eventually resulted in the creation of the radish sandwich.

This time around, Dr. McHappy asked specifically for recipes but with the caveat that they be low-cost (hey! I can most certainly do low-cost; I just choose to add foie gras to everything) and easy/quick to prepare. And the magic ingredient for which she wants recipes? Those tasty members of the order Teuthida: Squid. Ika (actually that would be イカ). Calamari. 烏賊.

I know why: she’s  is currently walking about trying to transfer information but chances are excellent that she won’t see any demo I care to run this coming XMas period because there’s the little matter of the baby bump that will stop being a bump and shortly become a bundle well beforehand [aside: it's a really small bump - about the size of a small watermelon the last time I saw her]. So, recipes instead.

There is of course the somewhat sticky situation of not having actual recipes since squid to me is a great high quality protein that I can use pretty much anywhere. So rather than recipes, perhaps cooking methods and some ideas as to how to serve?

Eat it as sushi/sashimi

Excellent stuff as it has a slighly sticky yet crunchy consistency which tastes of the sea. Incredibly simple too since it boils down to a practice session for knife skills with one’s yanagi to place intermediate cuts into the piece of squid to make it easier to bite into.

My favorite is kanoko-giri (spotted-fawn cut) but matsukasa-giri (pine-cone cut) and naruto-giri (spiral cut) are equally applicable depending on visual and plating requirements.

An even simpler alternative is to just take that yanagi to make “squid noodles” to serve solo or perhaps with a steamed new potato. Mmm…

Oh wait – two problems here:

1. one needs *really* fresh squid, which is a perennial supply concern when it comes to the Big Croissant
2. Dr. McHappy’s baby bump means no raw seafood for her

Oops.

Boil/Steam

Yeah… that’s the ticket. Delicious, simply cooked squid that’s rapidly cooked under steam or at full rolling boil in salted water for a matter of seconds so that it’s still delicate. And the knife cuts really apply here (specifically matsukasa-giri). The squid can be served warm though it would still continue cooking so probably best to blanch in ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the squid tender. Once refreshed, it can be served:

• alone; with julienned fresh ginger, spring onions and a soy and sesame oil dipping sauce (great accompaniment to white rice)
• alone; drizzled with ponzu (nice clean app)
• as topping for cold noodles like hiyashi chūka (冷やし中華)
• as a component of a seafood salad (along with shrimp and scallop) and a nice light slightly citrus-y vinaigrette made with say Meyer lemons and a good-quality Spanish olive oil
• as the precursor for escabeche/ceviche/tiradito (see below)

I’ve also eaten squid prepared this way in a sandwich with a nice crusty roll, aioli and lightly-pickled cucumbers.

Since I didn’t have a nice crusty roll, aioli and lightly-pickled cucumbers handy for this particular post, I made an alternate squid sandwich with guacamole, tomatoes, red shallots and cilantro on a toasted mini-pita. Mmm… extra tentacle-y goodness.

Sauté the things

Another quickie since it doesn’t take a lot of time to cook (it takes more time to prep). Score the squid (matsukasa-giri is best if you can manage it) and cut into pieces. If heads are available, cut the heads in two.

Only a couple of ideas to start with, but the prepared squid can then be cooked in:

• vegetable oil with some minced grey shallots, and serve on arugula (the squid will wilt the leaves)
• vegetable oil (canola, sunflower) over high heat with fresh julienned ginger, garlic, spring onions and some chile peppers for an Asian style (add a touch of soy sauce for color if you want)
• butter over medium-high heat, adding fresh peas or fava beans right at the end of cooking and finishing off with a bit of soy sauce for color (this was a dish I had at a Japanese restaurant)

For a stir-fry that has a bit more to it, have a small bit of thinly-sliced pork (filet works well) and a selection of mixed vegetables which have been cut to the same size (e.g. ginger, garlic, green and red pepper, white onion, button mushroom, baby corn, water chestnut). Partially cook the squid, then remove from heat. Bring the same pan back up to heat and partly cook the pork, then remove from heat. Sauté the mixed vegetables (starting with aromatics then densest vegetables) until they are partially cooked, then return pork to the pan. Continue cooking until pork is almost completely cooked, then return squid to the pan. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately.

Grill!

Mmm… I love squidsickles. They were my favorite snack when cruising any of Taipei’s night markets because they were savory spicy chunks of protein goodness on a stick.

Grilling requires access to a very hot grill. A konro burning binchō-tan charcoal would be ideal because it produces an incredibly hot grilling environment, but good konro units start at a couple of hundred $ and binchō-tan sells for $50/bag. Propane grills with infrared burners are another alternative, but you can also get excellent results with a cast-iron grill pan that’s been given enough time to heat up (e.g. put the thing on an induction hob on “high” for 5 minutes and watch what happens).

Cut slashes through the squid hood without cutting through the hood. Pat the squid dry with paper towel. Grill until it is just cooked, remove and serve.

Japanese/Taiwanese grilling options could include shio-yaki (salt-grill; sprinkle with salt before grilling), or finishing with a glaze made of soy sauce, mirin and sake (watch for flames) or one of the special barbecue sauces.

There is of course absolutely nothing wrong with serving the grilled squid with a light sprinkly of salt, some Spanish olive oil and lemon. Café Ferreira used to serve grilled squid with tomato sauce (also nice, but the sauce has to be really good but not overpowering).

Plain-grilled squid also makes for a great sandwich or an interesting variant of the proverbial fish taco (you’ll need soft tortilla, a good salsa that’s preferably made from scratch and other toppings like lettuce and avocado).

Stuff the things with morcilla de Burgos

Did I ever mention that the Spanish are probably the best charcutiers in the world? While the French, Italians and Germans (among others) can make some fine product, the Spaniards’s charcuterie skills have them standing hoof and snout above all comers because they simply worship pork (one of my happy things to do is sit quietly and eat Jamón Ibérico de Bellota).

Anyway, everyone who does pork charcuterie makes a version of a blood sausage, whether it be called boudin noir, black pudding, blutwurst or mustamakkara. The best-known from Spain is morcilla de Burgos, and not only is it tasty in its own right, whether served in a bocadillo or as a tapa with pimientos, it’s great as a stuffing for squid hoods.

So here’s how you do it:

Get some sausage (if you can’t get morcilla de Burgos, try boudin noir but avoid British black pudding) and cook it. Once cooked, let cook and then dice into small pieces. Mix with a small amount of sautéed onions and breadcrumbs and then loosely fill the squid hoods with the mixture. Fasten the openings shut with a toothpick and either sauté them quickly in a pan or grill them until the squid is cooked through but still tender (this takes no more than a couple of minutes). Serve immediate with a small amount of a fresh tomato sauce.

Stuff the things with something else

Then again, North Americans as a whole are not exactly big fans of blood sausages, even if it were morcilla de Burgos. Squid hoods are squid hoods and they’re ideal for stuffing so long as they’re not overpacked (squid shrinks when cooked).

A sausage alternative is to use chorizo (either a Spanish or Portuguese one) in pretty much the same manner. A fancier way to do this version is to cook the chorizo, reserving the rendered oil. The squid is stuffed with a cooked rice and onion mixture (+ aromatics of your choice) and very finely-diced chorizo before cooking, but the finished squid is topped off with chorizo foam or air (you’ll need an immersion blender or an iSi whip and a little bit of soy lecithin to make this) .

A sausage-free version would be to stuff with a seafood rice mix (rice, onion/shallot, peas, the minced squid tentacles, some minced shrimp).

A very expensive version of this would be to stuff the hoods with shrimp paste: make some shrimp paste (whole shrimp and either a small food processor to pulse or a thick cutting board and a couple of cleavers) and mix with a brunoise of blanched vegetables of one’s choice (carrot, celery, water chestnut, jicama, pistachios, mushroom etc). Fill the squid hoods and seal with a toothpick and steam hoods until cooked (anywhere from 4-10 minutes depending on size and quantity of filling). Serve hot, or let cool and serve in slices. There is a variant of this which also adds salt duck eggs, but I generally don’t use them unless I know that the eggs aren’t from mainland China (I still have a phobia about their QC for food).

Make caldo de mariscos

Rick Bayless has a recipe for caldo de mariscos which he presented in his “Mexico One Plate at a Time” series on PBS. This is a freeform version I’ve made in the past which can be adjusted depending on the volume and available ingredients:

• 1 kg squid, cleaned and cut into pieces
• 500 g new potatoes (grelots), steamed
• 1 tin tomatoes, diced (I like using whole tomatoes)
• 1 onion, minced
• several cloves garlic, minced
• 1 kg mixed seafood (fish cut into cubes, shrimp)
• epazote (a Mexican herb, which can be omitted)
• oregano
• lime
• cilantro
• minced onion for garnish

Make a squid stock by simmering the squid in water until tender. Remove the squid from the stock (retain) and adjust to have approximately 3L final volume. Sauté the minced onion and garlic in a separate pot. Add the tomatoes, epazote (if using) and oregano; stir and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the squid stock and bring to a simmer. Add the new potatoes, seafood (dense fish first) and the reserved squid. Continue cooking until seafood is cooked. Adjust for seasoning and serve with lime, cilantro and fresh onion.

Ceviche and escabeche

You can’t really make a squid ceviche or escabeche starting with raw squid but you can do it with cooked squid. I’m not a huge fan of escabeche but I do like Peruvian ceviche/tiradito and I am particularly fond of the purist version, which consists of only five ingredients: lime, salt, fish, chile and onion.

• Make the marinating fluid with lime juice (mix of green limes and key limes), minced chile (traditionally ají amarillo but Thai chile or cayenne chile can substitute), white or red onion (not sweet onions!), and salt to taste. The proportions depend on personal taste and the volume depends on the quantity of squid to be prepared.
• Boil/steam squid until it is almost cooked (this can take less than 1 minute), and shock with ice water to halt cooking. Mix the squid with the marinating fluid and let sit (the exact time depends on how “cooked” one wants the squid, but I’ve done 10-30 minutes)
• Remove the squid and serve immediately (e.g. a martini glass with some bibb lettuce). The marinade can be filtered and served alongside as a leche de tigre shot.

Eat it as hot pot

• I guess the only real challenge with this apart from doing all the prep that’s required is being able to survive the eating experience during the summer (Taiwanese hot pot restaurants are heavily air-conditioned). One needs a hot pot (an portable induction unit with a paella pan works great as does an electric skillet), chicken broth (or kombudashi), and well, stuff to eat including squid.

Other potential hot pot ingredients: squid (hoods and heads) whole shrimp whole scallop and clams fishballs ganmodoki thinly-sliced meats tofu in cubes shiitake and enoki mushrooms Chinese cabbage (e.g. napa) spinach glass noodles

This is pretty simple: while the broth in the hot pot simmers, add pieces of whatever one wants to cook in the broth. Once cooked, remove from the broth, dip and eat. Once finished, the glass noodles can be added to the remaining broth to finish the meal.

The classic dipping sauce is made with a raw egg and one’s taste with soy sauce, sesame oil and Bull Head-brand satay sauce (maybe some Lan Chi chili paste too) but that raw egg is a problem if one is preggers. It can be substituted for pretty much any kind of other dip that doesn’t involve “raw” (ponzu is nice with fish).