15 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Cooking whole squid like this is so quick and easy and looks really impressive for a dinner party.
Ingredients
4 medium-sized whole squid, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger, cleaned and prepared, wings left on
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
zest and juice of 2 lemons
extra virgin olive oil
2–3 red chillies, deseeded and sliced
a handful of fresh mint, finely chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
Method
- Turn the first squid upside down so that its wings are flat on your chopping board.
- Push in a large knife and leave it inside flat on its side. With a sharp knife, slice the squid as if you were going to chop it into rings. The knife that is lying inside the body of the squid will prevent you from cutting right through it. You end up with a concertina effect with the squid sliced, but still holding together. Repeat with the other three.
- In a pestle and mortar, bash the fennel seeds into a light powder with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle this all over the squid, making sure it gets into all the cuts you’ve made.
- Place immediately on the hottest part of the grill, and grill, turning every 30 seconds or so or every time it starts to char, until the squid firm up and turn from opaque to white inside. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
- Add the lemon juice to a bowl with 3 times as much extra virgin olive oil and whisk together. Stir in the lemon zest, chilli, mint and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Drizzle this over the squid, then serve with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over.
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