#ewew cooks Chargrilled Calamari Salad

After lots of 'sinful' eating binges during the Ramadhan period, I think I need to dial it down a notch and eat something a little healthier.....like a salad!  Anyway, I love salads....but not just plain greens, I like mine with a protein in it! ;)

And one that's pretty easy to whip up is my Chargrilled Calamari Salad.....for a more "atas" (high class) name or (otherwise) simply known as Squid Salad...kekeke ;)

Ever since I discovered Genting Garden's Classic Mixed Salad and used it in my previous Mixed Salad Recipe, it has been my 'go to' greens coz I get a variety of different salad leaves plus it's tripled washed...yay!

The previous bag of Classic Mixed Salad had about 6 types of greens and then I saw this one when I was at the supermarket the other day...it's a bag of Four Seasons Mix (also by Genting Garden).

This bag supposedly contains 12 types of greens (baby batavia, yellow frissee, red mignoiette, radicchio, red oak, red coral, red veined sorrel, wild rocket, lemon sorrel, land cress, red frills mustard and mizuna)....and it's triple washed (of course)!

Just out of curiosity, I checked the leaves to see if they did contain a minimum of 8 types of leaf (as claimed)...I think I managed to identify at least 7 types of salad greens in the bag (although I couldn't tell some of them apart)...anyway, it was quite a fun exercise to learn and link the different salad leaves to their names ;)

Enough of playing around with the greens...let's get down to making the salad, shall we?

Ingredients:

1/2 a 125g bag of mixed salad leaves
3 medium-sized squid
1 clove of garlic
1/4 of a small onion
Zest of 1/2 a lemon & a squeeze of lemon juice
A pinch of dried oregano
Virgin & extra virgin olive oil
Salt & black pepper

Preparation:

Clean and prep your squid.  You can leave the skin on (it's totally edible + it'll give your squid a nice presentation when cooked).  I usually do a combination of both, some with skin on and some without.  Score the underside of your squid in a criss-cross manner and cut each squid into 3 or 4 pieces.
 

Finely dice 1 clove of garlic and 1/4 of a small onion.  Zest 1/2 a lemon.

Marinate your squid with diced garlic and onion and the zest of half a lemon.  Add a pinch of dried oregano and a glug of virgin olive oil.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Put your marinated squid into the fridge for at least half an hour to let the flavours amalgamate.

Method:

Pan fry your squid slices in some olive oil in a fairly hot pan to get a nice char.  Just sear the squid very quickly.  It'll take only a couple of seconds or a minute at most coz you don't want to overcook the squid or burn the garlic.  The worst thing is overcooking your squid.  Perfectly cooked squid should have a slightly firm yet tender flesh with a bouncy texture...and not rubbery.  Once the squid curls up, it's a sign that it's ready to be plated up.

Make a quick and simple vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and black pepper for the salad.

Empty half a pack of the salad greens into a bowl and toss the salad with the dressing.

To serve, put your dressed salad onto a plate and top with the chargrilled squid.

And that's my simple Chargrilled Calamari Salad which makes a nice and healthy light meal for a change.

It also makes for a nice starter to a 3-course dinner party.  Or you can serve it as a side salad to your main course component.
 
Serves 1 (as a main meal) or 2 - 3 (as a starter or side salad)