Black Bean Stir-Fried Squid

Friday, October 28th, 2011 | posted by mike

Serves 2

All ingredients available at Monahan’s

3/4 – 1 lb. of cleaned squid, bodies and tentacles- use domestic, Rhode Island or Monterey, score and cut into triangles (follow directions on this video – be careful to lightly score so you don’t cut all the way through)

1/2 cup black bean sauce

1/2 cup sweet chili sauce

2 t sriracha sauce

1/2 T rice vinegar

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic- fine chop

1 bu scallions – thin sliced, use some of the green part

1/2 bu cilantro- fine chop

Optional – 1 bu bok choy (blanched) or1 cup broccoli (blanched)

Peanut oil or vegetable or olive oil, for frying

Steam your rice and have it ready to serve

Stir the black bean sauce, sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar and sriracha sauce in a bowl and set aside

Heat wok or heavy pan or skillet over high heat then add about 1/3 cup oil

When oil is sizzling hot, add scallions and stir fry for about 1 min.

Add garlic for about 5 seconds and then add the tentacles (they take a little longer to cook than the bodies) and stir-fry for 10 or 15 seconds before adding the squid bodies

Constantly stir-fry until squid triangles curl up, (about 1 to 2 min.)

Add sauce, and blanched veggies if desired, and keep stir-frying until sauce is bubbling

I use a slotted spoon to serve, to control the amount of sauce, and spoon

over or next to rice and top with chopped cilantro. Save a little sauce for your rice.

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Black Bean Stir-Fried Squid ~ Revisited

Friday, October 28th, 2011 | posted by mike

drawing by Mike Monahan

Last week our recipe was shrimp stuffed squid. I love it, a great dish to serve for guests with great flavor, eye appeal and WOW factor. The longer stewing in the tomato sauce results in a nice tender squid, but one of the great things about cooking squid is that most recipes are fast and easy.

The secret to making squid tender and not chewy is to cook it fast (2-4 min.) or slow (simmered or stewed in a sauce for 20-30 min.). Deep-fried calamari is an easy favorite, or try a quickie stir-fry over pasta or with rice. We have a great recipe for squid with anchovies on our website along with a black bean stir-fry recipe. The black bean recipe has always been a hit, but as our pantry has expanded to include more Southeast Asian ingredients I’ve experimented with adding a few new touches that add a new dimension with a nice kick. Black bean sauce is the base but adding Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha sauce and cilantro, this dish is less salty, spicier, and I think more interesting.

The squid bodies are opened up and scored to hold the tasty sauce. When stir-fried they curl up and make a gorgeous presentation that will really impress.

Add blanched broccoli or bok choy at the end for a one-pot meal and serve with rice.

Don’t forget to check out our popular squid t-shirt! Artwork above.

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Shrimp Stuffed Squid

Friday, October 21st, 2011 | posted by mike

Serves 4

12 med. size cleaned squid, bodies and tentacles (If you’re starting with squid that’s not cleaned check our squid cleaning video)

10 oz. wild gulf or Atlantic shrimp – peeled and deveined, tails off

1 t finely chopped garlic

2 t finely chopped onion

1/4 cup panko crumbs or dried bread crumbs

1 small egg

Drakes batter mix, or seasoned flour

Olive oil

1/2 bunch of finely chopped Italian parsley

toothpicks

For the tomato sauce

2  28 oz. cans of Italian plum tomatoes, San Marzano is a good brand.

2 T imported Italian plum tomato paste

1/4 cup olive oil

1 small onion chopped

4 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 T chopped fresh basil

1 t dried oregano

pinch of red pepper flakes

Splash of white wine

salt and pepper

Heat sauce pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil, when oil is hot add onion and garlic, stir ‘till they just start to brown. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stirring occasionally, bring to boil, add a splash of wine, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

For the stuffing

In a food processor, puree shrimp

Save squid tentacles to use as an edible garnish. (If you don’t want to bother with this step, puree them with the shrimp)

Transfer to a mixing bowl, stir in onion, garlic, egg and crumbs (use a rubber spatula and mix thoroughly)

With a small spoon stuff each squid. Push stuffing towards the tail end, to evenly fill the body leaving about an inch unstuffed at the end (stuffing expands during cooking)

Stick a toothpick in the ends and snip off a bit of length of toothpick so squid will lay flat in pan

Dust stuffed squid in Drakes batter mix

Heat pan over med. High heat, add enough olive oil to cover bottom and brown the squid, about 2-3 min. a side

Carefully transfer squid into pan with sauce, cover and simmer over low heat for 20 min. Check sauce on occasion and add a small splash of wine if it’s getting too thick and spoon sauce over squid while you’re at it.

Give yourself about 10 min. towards the end of sauce cooking time if you’d like to fry the tentacles for a garnish. Dip them in half and half or milk, dust in Drakes and in a small pan, over med high, heat enough oil to cover them. When sizzling hot, fry until golden brown (about 2-3 min. and drain over paper towel or paper bag .

Arrange squid over sauce on a nice platter, garnish with fried tentacles and sprinkle with parsley.

Serve with sharp knives (for even cuts)

If serving as appetizers, pre slice and serve with cocktail forks or toothpicks

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Stuff it!

Friday, October 21st, 2011 | posted by mike

At Monahan’s we love to stuff. Seafood stuffing for appetizers or the main course can add a lot of extra flavor, interest, texture and excitement. Something as simple as stuffing avocados or endive leaves with crab or lobster salad is always a crowd pleaser. Baked scallop stuffed mushroom caps, jalapeño shrimp stuffed poppers, stuffed mussels, Caribbean crab backs or classic Rhode Island “stuffies” (stuffed clams) are all so delicious. Stuffed shrimp, lobster, whole fish or fillets make for fantastic main courses. Whether it’s rice stuffing seasoned with savory Moroccan spices, Greek style with lemon, oregano, feta and spinach, or good ole all American crab or lobster stuffing, it’s fun to experiment with all the different flavors.

Out of all the fish and shellfish that we’ve stuffed over the years I have a favorite. Perfectly designed for stuffing, squid are like a natural sausage casing just waiting to be stuffed with whatever you want. We have a tasty squid rellenos recipe on this site.

Another winning dish is a simple shrimp stuffed squid in a rich tomato sauce. We use Rhode Island squid ‘cause they’re the best! Most imports are often dipped in preservatives and may be inexpensive but they’re tasteless at best. Monterey squid from California are sweet and tasty also but a little too small for a lot of recipes (including this stuffed recipe). The shrimp that we use are wild gulf shrimp from Texas. These shrimp have a great sweet flavor and a firm snappy texture. Maine shrimp, the little arctic gems that appear in December are also fantastic in this recipe. The stuffing for this dish is simple: shrimp, a little garlic, a little onion, a touch of breading and egg.

The flavors of the shrimp and the squid shine, complimented by the tangy tomato sauce. Serve as a main course or slice and serve with cocktail forks or toothpicks for a great appetizer.   Enjoy!

And if you love squid, you’ll love our squid t-shirt made famous by Anthony Bourdain! Artwork by yours truly.

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Cool Seafood Recipes for HOT Summer Evenings

Friday, July 15th, 2011 | posted by mike

The dog days of summer are upon us. It’s hot as heck and not all of us want to slave over a hot stove or grill. Quick, easy, healthful and tasty seafood salads are just perfect this time of year. And luckily, we have all the great seafood and fish on hand to put together a refreshing, simple dish that will be an ideal accompaniment to a glass of wine and a relaxing, sultry summer night.

It can be as easy as flaking some smoked fish over mixed greens with a simple vinaigrette. Poached salmon tossed with a little sour cream, yogurt, dijon mustard, lemon, chopped cucumber and fresh dill is perfect summertime fare. Try some boiled shrimp, lobster meat, or crabmeat and just add a touch of mayo, lemon, chopped celery and onion, maybe a little fresh tarragon and a dash of Tabasco, serve on a bed of lettuce or on a roll. Blacken a fillet of bluefish and serve it over a Caesar salad. Squid or octopus salads are always a hit. Simply boil (squid for 2 min.-octopus for 45 min.), cool, make a light oregano vinaigrette and serve with tomatoes and onions. Creating a great vinaigrette is a cinch. All you need is extra virgin olive oil and a good vinegar.

Pantry Essentials
Some of the essentials in our pantry are Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha sauce, Thai roasted chili paste, Thai red curry paste, Thai fish sauce (nuoc mam), ponzu (a citrus, soy, bonito sauce), Kikkoman ponzu is available at Monahan’s, pickled and fresh ginger, mango chutney, dijon mustard, Tiger sauce and Lizano sauce (from Costa Rica). We use fresh fruits, lemons, oranges, mangos and lots of limes in many vinaigrettes. Curry powder, cumin powder and a good assortment of dried herbs (we buy fresh herbs and chiles as needed). You can go for the sweet and spicy or the tart and tangy. For seafood salads I usually use white or rice wine vinegar.

From there you can get as wild and crazy as you want. Just experiment and have fun with it! If you still don’t feel like cooking, we usually have a few seafood salads ready to take home at the market.

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Festa de Sette Pesci (The Feast of the Seven Fishes)

Friday, December 10th, 2010 | posted by mike

For hundreds of years, La Vigilia di Natale (the Feast of the Seven Fishes) has been an Italian family Christmas Eve tradition. The meal of at least seven different fish and shellfish started in southern Italy, including Sicily, spread to northern Italy and is now enjoyed by Italians, and even some of us non-Italian fish lovers, all over the world.

The significance of this tradition is open to debate—some say seven fishes are served to symbolize the seven sacraments, some others refer to the seven deadly sins, the seven gifts from the holy spirit, or maybe the seven days of creation. Whatever the significance, La Vigilia is a wonderful tradition that ‘s had a strong religious and cultural meaning for a long, long time.

Every family has its own special menu usually handed down through generations. Over the 30+ years I’ve been in business, I’ve noticed a lot of common selections for the feast. Eel (we bring them in live for the holidays) is a biggy since it’s considered such a delicacy in Italy. Sardines are always popular and we get beautiful fresh whole sardines from Portugal. Bacala (salt cod) is a must for a lot of families. Our tiny sweet manila clams are very similar to the Italian vongole and are great in the classic dish Spaghetti con le Vongole. Smelt, squid, octopus are popular also. Often a fancy whole roasted fish or maybe swordfish would be served.

Chef Mario Batali says that La Vigilia is “What Italians do when they say they’re fasting,” which is kind of hysterical because this penitential fasting tradition has been turned into a major feast. For those of us who were born into less delicious culinary traditions, there’s no reason that we can’t have some fun and try our own feast of the seven fishes on Christmas Eve.

Italian food is some of the world’s best and they do amazing things with fish and shellfish. Give it a go, we can help! To get the feast started, here’s my secret stuffed clam recipe.

More great Feast of the Seven Fishes recipes in this excellent article from Saveur.

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Skate Wings and Slime Eels and Sea Robins...Oh My!

Friday, October 29th, 2010 | posted by mike

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When we opened our market in 1979, America’s fish diet was fairly limited. Mild white fish such as scrod (small codfish), sole, Great Lakes fish (whitefish, lake trout, walleye, perch and smelt), were popular. High-end items such as lobster and king crab were big. Brave souls might branch out and try something a little different like swordfish or halibut—but for the most part, the big sellers were pretty tame and mild. Tuna was just in the process of moving from a mostly canned product to a high-end sushi grade fish. Sardines and anchovies hadn’t yet found their way out of the tin. Squid and octopus were from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Being in a college town, people from all over the world would come in and request some pretty weird, wild but interesting stuff. We soon learned that no matter how small, fat or lean, or large, or ugly or slimy or pokey or bizarre— someone in the world knew just what to do with it and make it taste great. If a Japanese customer wanted raw sea slug guts or live sea urchin, herring roe on kelp, giant geoduck clams (with the foot long foot) or monkfish liver, we’d find it. Need a live eel for Italian Christmas dinner? How about a live 10 lb snapping turtle for turtle soup or a 6 ft. long octopus?

I began to realize all those years ago, that maybe there was no such thing as a “trash fish” or even an underutilized species. Fish that used to be thrown overboard by the U.S. fishermen include skate (very popular in France & Korea), Dogfish (sand shark, used for fish & chips in England), Sea Robin (a.k.a. French Rascasse, a key fish in bouillabaisse), Monkfish (which had to be marketed as “poor man’s lobster” in order to sell and get people to even try it).

Small bony fish like sardines, whiting and croakers and darker fish like bluefish & mackerel all are great eating fish. Carp, the ultimate American trash fish is loved in Asia and is a major sports fish in Europe. So, the next time you’re at the fish market and you see something a little unusual, take a walk on the wild side, try something new. We’ve got recipes for almost anything.

Here’s the classic French preparation for Skate with Caper Brown Butter.

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Grilling on "The Big Green Egg" at Downtown Home & Garden

Friday, July 16th, 2010 | posted by mike

Our joint grilling demo last Sunday at Downtown Home & Garden was fantastic! A beautiful day on the sidewalk on lovely Ashley Street in front of one of Ann Arbor’s coolest businesses, grilling some of our seafood favorites on The Big Green Egg. I was a bit nervous about doing a demo on a grill that I’ve never used before, but owner, Mark Hodesh assured me that there is nothing to it. And he was right!

This grill is amazing. It’s based on an ancient Asian clay oven kiln like a tandori…thick ceramic that holds in the heat and keeps a steady and easily adjusted temperature. A small amount of natural charcoal keeps heat for many hours because the grill is so thick and well-sealed. Mark started the grill at 9am and it kept a steady temp until 1:30.

Everything that we demonstrated and sampled came out great (and we cooked a big variety). Sardines with course salt & olive oil, barbequed oysters, squid satay with Thai peanut sauce, warm grilled octopus salad, mackerel teriyaki, cedar planked salmon with Irish whiskey maple glaze, swordfish with rosemary-orange marinade, and an herb-wrapped and stuffed whole black sea bass.

We were kickin’ em out and everyone really seemed to enjoy the flavors and learned how easy seafood on the grill can be. The Big Green Egg really impressed everyone too—it was a pleasure to use it and it achieved great results.

One recipe that really seemed to resonate with the crowd was the grilled mackerel. So many people expect the dark fatty little fillets to be too full-flavored or even “fishy.” While mackerel has a good amount of flavor, when it’s been filleted off the bone like we do here at the fishmarket, it’s a rich and buttery fish that holds up to flavorful sauces, rubs and marinade. It’s also inexpensive and sustainable and loaded with the miracle fats, Omega 3s. We used a teriyaki marinade, glazed the fish as it grilled with a teriyaki reduction, and garnished with some scallions and it was a hit! Mackerel is also fantastic with our Cajun rub and a kiwi-citrus glaze or a tomato-caper-balsamic relish…maybe even sweet Swedish mustard dill sauce and grilled new potatoes…the list goes on for this versatile fish, so ask us at the market if you want to try something new!

Big thanks to Mark Hodesh, Margaret Parker and the staff at Downtown Home & Garden for another fun event!

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Fresh Narragansett Squid are now in season throughout the summer!

Friday, June 4th, 2010 | posted by wendy

Flashing colors of ultramarine, pearl, ruby red, snow white and sky blue— the squids ranging in size from 1 inch to 70 feet are some of the most beautiful, smartest, most fascinating creatures in the sea. Squid have always been a culinary delight all over the world. 80% of this cephalopod is edible—An amazing yield, even for seafood which pound for pound offer considerably more edible ounces than red meat or poultry and the squid’s lean meat is 80% protein which makes it highly nutritious.  The tentacles — delicate and quite decorative — are a substantial portion of the squid’s edible flesh and should be included whenever possible.  Try it.  they’re a special “frilly” treat you won’t want to miss. It’s sweet and delicious and super-versatile. Even its relatively high cholesterol content is more helpful than harmful. Cooking Tips You may grill, broil, bake, blanch, sauté, stir-fry, deep-fry, braise or eat squid raw.  However you prepare it though, remember:  If overcooked, squid can become chewy.  It should be cooked hot and fast, no longer than 3 minutes.  However, if stewed or cooked in sauce, the muscle will break down and become tender again after 20 minutes. Marinating has a lovely effect on squid’s meat, but should not exceed 30 minutes or the meat will soften and acquire a bitter taste (especially if your marinade contains any lemon or vinegar). Fresh or Frozen Squid is the perfect seafood to freeze.  It freezes so beautifully because it has no blood to decompose and affect flavor.  We carry lovely fresh and frozen squid from small boats out of Rhode Island as well as perfectly lovely frozen Monterey squid, the smaller Pacific cousin.  Fresh is great when it’s available but either way, squid is exceptionally delicious and nutritious. About Cleaning… We’ll always clean your squid for you, but if you want to do it yourself, here’s a little video. Grilled Narragansett Squid with Thai Peanut Sauce Long-Braise Squid Tomato Sauce for Pasta Chinese Black Bean Squid Callemares Rellenos (Stuffed Squid) Squid in Anchovy Sauce Monahan’s Squid Salad

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Grilled Narragansett Squid Satay with Thai Peanut Sauce

Friday, June 4th, 2010 | posted by wendy

Right now we are experiencing the season for FRESH Narragansett Rhode Island Squid. Sweeter and more tender than frozen, it’s the best you’ll find in the U.S. We’ll have it all summer, but it’s best to call ahead to make sure we have it in the case.

This recipe serves 2
3/4 lbs. cleaned squid (mantles & tentacles)
bamboo skewers soaked in water for 10-20 minutes
4 oz. smooth peanut butter
4 T soy sauce
4 T rice vinegar
3 T peanut oil
1.5 T brown sugar
1 clove garlic
pinch of red pepper flake (to taste)

Cut squid bodies (mantles) in half lengthwise. Weave soaked skewer at 1 inch lengths through squid in segments with tentacles in the center.

Place skewers on a hot grill (white coals, no flame) and baste with peanut sauce…grilling 2–3 minutes per side. Serve with peanut oil dipping sauce on the side.

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