Spanish-Style Braised Squid

Every once in a while, someone will ask me how we get Bug to eat the food I feature on the blog. Well, in this case, I will openly admit that she didn't eat this - she had her own "kid dinner" and then we ate this meal post-bedtime. Now, she loves calamari (code: fried food) but she wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. And as much as I would love to "expose" her to a new food, to be quite frank, that would have ruined my meal if I had to spend it cajoling and convincing her to take a single bite.

Right before I left on my summer vacation, I found a galley of Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh in the office and took it. One of the first meals I made was this Spanish-Style Braised Squid:

It was the type of dish that transports you to another place because it just doesn't seem possible that you're sitting in your apartment in Queens, tasting something so fresh and straight-from-the-ocean. In fact, it was sort of a cruel joke. I should have been enjoying it from some cozy vacation home nestled on some beach in Spain, right? Well, I was very much grounded in New York, on the 17th floor of my apartment building, and this was the next best thing to actually being abroad.

Spanish-Style Braised Squid

by Emeril Lagasse

1/4 c. olive oil

3/4 c. sliced onions

3 tbsp. sliced garlic

1/2 c. dry white wine, such as Albarino

1 lb. squid, tentacles removed and reserved, bodies cut into thin rings

3 tsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano leaves

1 1/2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp. nonpareil capers, drained (I omitted these - I don't like capers)

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

Generous 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. hot pimenton (smoked Spanish paprika)

Warm crusty bread, for serving

1. Combine the olive oil and onions in a large saute pan (I used nonstick) over medium heat, and cook until the onions are beginning to caramelize, 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes longer (watch it closely so it doesn't burn!). Add the white wine and reduce for 2 minutes. Add the squid (tentacles and rings), parsley, oregano, lemon juice, capers (if you want), salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook until the squid is tender, 5-6 minutes.

2. Serve with the crusty bread

4-6 tapas-size servings (I just made this 2 entree-size servings)

The only thing I would change about this is add another 1/4 tsp. or so of paprika next time. The recipe could have done with more smokiness, I think. Otherwise, this recipe was incredibly simple and easy...but you would never guess from the richness of flavor and texture.

Eat, drink, and travel vicariously through food.

The Red Balloon

As I mentioned earlier, I went out of my way to read non-kids books while on vacation recently. One of the books I read was Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook.

I don't have a full review but, rather, a Twitter review: So much fun but not quite as shocking or eye-opening as Kitchen Confidential.

What I insanely loved about the book was the following passage. Ever see the movie The Red Balloon as a kid? Well, I did. Repeatedly, every time we had a substitute teacher and it traumatized me every time. I blame my astrological sign (Cancer). Bourdain sums it up:

What exactly was the message of The Red Balloon anyway? Every time our teachers didn't show up, they'd haul out the projector and show us this supposedly heartwarming and inspiring story of a little French boy and his enchanted balloon friend.

But wait a minute. The poor kid is impoverished and clearly unloved. He wears the same clothes every day. Immediately on finding his balloon, he's ostracized by society, banned from public transportation, chastised at school, even ejected from church. His parents are either dead or have abandoned him - as the hideous crone who cruelly throws his balloon out the window at first encounter is clearly too old to be his mom. The boy's schoolmates are a feral, opportunistic bunch who instinctively seek to destroy what they don't understand and can't possess. In fact, nearly every other child in the film is depicted as part of an unthinking mob, fighting viciously among themselves even as they pursue the boy and his balloon through the streets, like a pack of wolves. The boy runs away, is assaulted, separated from his only friend - then reunites with it only to watch it die slowly before his eyes.

The happy ending? Balloons from all over Paris converge. The boy gathers them together and is lifted aloft. He drifts away, dangerously suspended over the city. The end.

Where's the kid going? To an unspecified "better" place - for sure. Or to a fatal drop when the balloons empty of their helium (as we've seen them do just previously).

The message?

Life is cruel, lonely, and filled with pain and random acts of violence. Everybody hates you and seeks to destroy you. Better to opt out altogether, to leap - literally - into the void, escape by any means necessary. However uncertain or suicidal the way out.

Hilarious and so true, right? After a couple mai tais on the beach, this was the funniest and truest thing I had ever read. In case you need a reminder, there's this:

It certainly isn't the first time I've disagreed with A.O. Scott. And to completely counterbalance that unjustified lovefest, there's this:

TV & Movie Spoofs
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Eat, drink, and put this on the shelf next to Love You Forever.

Thank god it's...

...Friday!

This is what Fridays are like in the Lutz household:

Any guesses what we're making?

Lillet on ice with a splash of seltzer and slices of lime

Nachos!

It's the one night a week we allow Bug to eat in front of the television. In fact, we call it Family Movie Night and we all have to compromise on something to watch. Lately, we all agree:

Eat, drink, and cheers to family!

The Anatomy of a Twinkie

I'm already in shock when I see food products and read their lists fo 30+ ingredients. But this photo montage takes it to another level:

Anatomy of a Twinkie

Wow. Where does one even find Thiamine Mononitrate? And did you know, according to this article, that 500 million Twinkies are made annually?!

Thanks to Ruta (@RutaRascal) for sharing the link.

Eat, drink, and put down the Hostess snacks.

Fill 'Er Up!

I don't know. What do you guys think? Is this all kinds of awesome...or a bit strange?

Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times

There's a kiosk in Chelsea Market called the Filling Station. And it's exactly what it sounds like: rows of olive oils and vinegars where you buy a bottle...and then you can return to refill it at a 10% discount. They also have salts and sugars treated similarly - they are sold in refillable containers.

Adam and I actually stopped by there (quickly) one night while we were on our way to the Biergarten at the Standard Hotel. It actually looked pretty cool. The thing I really liked about it was that next to each pump (is there another name I should call them by?) was a stack of tiny paper tasting cups and we were free to taste at will. Which reminded me of my beloved O & Co. where the purveyor wants to educate the customer as part of their business model.

We didn't have a chance to truly peruse, indulge, and enjoy - we had beer to get to! - but I'll definitely go back there. Adam works right across the street from Chelsea Market so it would be easy enough to get refills. And according to the blurb in the New York Times, the Filling Station is working on their license to sell beer. Which means growlers. Here is the conversation I foresee in our household -

Adam: I'm out of beers. Maybe I'll stop by Filling Station on my way home...

Laura: Faaabulous. And get me some olive oil while you're there!

[she ungracefully shoves an empty bottle into his hand]

Eat, drink, and kudos to yuppy green living.

Here is what some others are saying about Filling Station:

Food in Jars

New York Times' Diner's Journal

Wine-Marinated Grapes

Menu planning is difficult. Every weekend, I look through my cookbooks and notebooks to decide what I'm going to make for the week ahead. But even with the hundreds of recipes available, sometimes I want to change things up a bit.

I follow about a hundred food blogs so you can imagine how inundated I am with recipes every day. When I see a particular recipe I love, I email myself a link to that blog post. Then I tag it with "Recipes" in my Gmail. So anytime I feel dissatisfied with all the books and all the ripped-out magazine pages (I know, poor me, right?), I turn to my email. Which is how I discovered this gem: Wine-Marinated Grapes, which I virtually dog-eared from the blog Thursday Night Smackdown. I dog-eared it in 2008.

I was looking for inspiration this past Saturday. Adam was out of town, visiting his own Soul Twin (husband to my own Soul Twin), and Bug was wiped out from a 3-day camping trip. Which is code for she-was-going-to-sleep-a-lot-and-watch-lots-of-TV. So what to do with all that free time? Make drunk grapes!

Michelle at Thursday Night Smackdown got the recipe from Bon Appetit...and aptly, brilliantly named the post "The Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries". Come on, children's literature folks, you know where that line is from. God, the parallels of food and kids' lit never cease to amaze me.

ANYWAY, the recipe is ridonkulously easy. Click the Bon Appetit link above - you'll see. And here's where I might scare away potential dinner guests (and maybe even the ones in current rotation): the recipe requires a bottle of dry white wine and I used a bottle of white Zin that a guest had brought over for dinner. White. Zin. I am not drinking that. Ever. And this is the moment where everyone who ever comes over to my house for dinner (and reads this blog) panics. So, for that, I am sorry.

One thing that Michelle mentions is that you can strain the marinating liquid and save it for wine spritzers. I was skeptical. I mean, wine spritzers? With white Zin? A little froofy, right? Oh, no. This was soooo good:

The wine, the grape juice, and the lemon zest are rather sublime. Add a splash of seltzer and a couple of lime slices and you have the perfect summer apertif. Really wonderful.

This is a ridiculously long blog post about drunk grapes but I can't resist. What a fun way to spend my Saturday afternoon while Bug was watching Wizards of Waverly Place.

Eat, drink, and snozz some berries.

The Great Food Truck Race

Have you guys heard of this yet? "The Great Food Truck Race" on Food Network?

It premieres tomorrow night (Sunday, August 15) at 9:00 pm (ET, I think?).

I would normally dismiss this. It's too close to reality TV and the only reality show I watch is "So You Think You Can Dance"...and that's in large part because it lacks all that screaming, fighting melodrama you normally see. I don't like any show that brings out the worst in people - I want to see the best.

Anyway, I digress...

So I really wouldn't give a rat's arse about this...except that I read that Tyler Florence, in the NY Times, called this show "Cannonball Run with food trucks".

WHAT?!

Oh, yeah. I'm watching.

Cannonball Run?!?!

Brilliant.

Asparagus...Melon...Whatever.

Oh, Fresh Direct. This is NOT the asparagus I ordered.

Eat, drink, and flick that packing guy in the forehead.