I do not like the stories before recipe pages
This is not intended to be a personal attack. When there is a new ingredient or technique I love the stories in recipe blogs. But don’t make me work, don’t make me search. My sweetie had a 10 hour shift and I already started the pasta boiling.
a great dish for the summer beat the heat mostly with slow cook stewed squid
top with a marinated cucumber salad
finish with simple carbs or toast to savor the roasted flavor
Instant Pot Slow Squid with quick Slaw Summer Veggies
Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot / electric 6 Qt. sautéing on a stovetop then finishing in the oven, or slow cooker is also possible!
Ingredients
for the slow-cooked squid entree:
- 1 lb squid frozen, thawed overnight or fresh
- 3 ounces chopped sweet onion fresh
- 1 tbsp cooking oil to preference / at least an ounce but more may be needed to keep from sticking and saucy
- 5 ounces Soy puffs I used nature's soy cut in quarters or hand shredded. from the Asian / International market
- 1/2 tbsp Chili crisp from the Asian / International market
- 1 tbs Soy sauce
- 1 tsp Fennel seed
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 4 cloves Garlic fresh, peeled and minced
- 1 can Anchovies, packed in oil
- 2 tbsp Fried red onion hanh phi from the Asian / International market
- 1 bunch fresh Thai Basil maybe 1/4 cup when torn/chopped
- 1 bunch fresh Basil regular maybe 1/4 cup when torn/chopped
- 1 14 oz can Diced tomato with juice
- 1 pound Fresh tomatoes half skinned and smashed or cubed
- kosher salt to taste
- fresh pepper to taste
for the chopped salad topping (can be made in advance, 1-2 days):
- 1/3 cup Fresno chili or shishito peppers diced seeds included
- 1/2 pound Cucumbers skinned, seeded and chopped as preferred
- 1/2 cup Fresh parsley hand torn or roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp citrus juice, lime or lemon fresh or bottled
- 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar the sweeter the better, increase if you need swwweter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tsp italian seasoning
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- kosher salt to taste
- fresh pepper to taste
Instructions
prep the squid
- Thaw 24 hrs in advance or under constant running water if needed sooner. Cut the body into rings and separate the tentacles into bite size pieces to absorb the sauce. Rinse several times with cold water in a fine colander. Pat dry and set aside, keep in the fridge if this will rest longer than 45 minutes.
cooking the faux sausage, and starting the squid / sauce simmering:
- Chop the sweet onion first. Depending on your knife comfort you may want to chop all fresh veggie ingredients, peel tomatoes, etc in advance.
- In your Instant Pot turn on sauté / normal; put in the chopped onion with a dusting a black pepper to taste.When they have sweat a bit, just starting to get soft add the oil and push about with a spatula. Put in torn-up soy puffs. It is great working with these because they are already cooked, we just want them a bit browned and crispy.Once you see even a bit of browning, push the puffs to half of the pot. A bit of oil should still be in the bottom well of the pot. Add the fennel seed and cumin seed and push them about for less than a minute, they should start to get fragrant.
- Liquid-chorizo-fying time! Add the garlic, mix the pot in total to combine everything. The fragrance of the garlic should release to know the next ingredient is ready. The liquid begins: add soy sauce, the chili crisp, and water to make 1/2 an inch of sauté gravy in the bottom of the pot. We want to increase soy sauce/ pepper to mirror a cooked chorizo. The flavor should be full, and ready to eat on its own.
- This is where the instant pot convenience comes in! Hit cancel on the panel to slow the cooking. The browned soysage and oils should be ready to combine with everything else.Add both basils, the canned tomato, the fresh tomatoes, anchovies, and the other, crispy pre-fried onions. Add the cleaned, cut, and dried squid.Cap the instant pot, set the pot to slow cook, normal, and allow this to work for at least 2.5 hours. The squid should be buttery-tender, liquid reduced down. Any tomato sauce benefits with more simmer, but watch your squid! Over-cook can occur so taste your whenever needed after 2.5 hours.
The salad garnish / topping:
- With a fork or whisk in a small mixing bowl: combine the citrus juice, vinegars, olive oil, chopped parsley, and dry spices. Taste your dressing and tweak to preference with salt and pepper.
- In a quart jar or Tupperware add the peppers and cucumbers. Pour over the dressing and allow to rest.
Presentation:
- make toast with italian bread, pita, crackers of your preference, anything that bruschettas or makes a great scoop for dips.
- serve the salad and squid separate or put the salad on top to compliment.
Notes
- Depending on your knife comfort you may want to chop all fresh veggie ingredients, peel tomatoes, etc in advance so you can focus on the pot working. I like to start the onions first and let the sautéing happen As I cut down the rest of the ingredients for time but there is always a moment where I am picking basil, and possibly burning the onions!
- Sweat your onions and pepper without oil to start, let them brown just a bit on low heat. No oil sweating your onions releases the sugars better than an oil cook.
- Another benefit of the pot: you can leave the pot to keep warm! Select the keep warm setting if your family is running late, meeting later, etc.
- The cucumber salad could be in-fridge pickles if they are mostly covered with liquid up to 48 hours resting; or served freshly mixed depending on your tangy preference!
- These elements are so flexible! I can cool the top of the plate with yogurt, fresh scallions, or nutritional yeast. Make all the elements in advance and use them for snacking!
It is Summertime in Richmond:
the air is thick, mosquitos aggressive, time to stay inside and and let the Instant pot do the work
“Yo Siri: web search recipes frozen squid, slow cook.”
I was lucky to find Chris Morocco’s recipe here. The anchovies and squid with slow-cooked tomatoes pair with chorizo for smokey spicy. But I keep it pescatarian, and my partner gets home after 8. While I am showering after a workout usually they arrive tired and hungry! The pot has become a necessity I love their stay-warm setting after the cook-time runs out.
I found this chance to add my style, include a boatload of our fresh veggies coming in from the garden, and let the pot finish our simmer without burning.
I like to tear my soy puffs to make them more pulled-BBQ style. Sometimes fire roasting or rapid blanching/ice bathing the tomatoes makes them easy to peel. But if they are still a bit on the underripe side and my serrated is clean I don’t mind getting them mostly de-skinned.
The rain this year really hurt our first crops of tomatoes! We were getting some sort of rot and losing them before they could blush. Thankfully the sun has found balance again and we need eat a pound a day or share with our neighbors.
peeling garlic
sweating onions no oil
peeling garlic
toasting whole seeds alone before liquids
When the soysage is ready, the faux-rizo, it is difficult to carry on with the recipe. When the mix of the chili oil and the sausage seasoning is right I could eat this stuff like peppery popcorn shrimp.
pluck your basil before chopping: pull upwards from the base of a trimming for speed
salty squid and onion, funky anchovy, bright basil, oily fennel soy spice all pre-roast
