Grilled squid salad
Grilled squid salad is always a favourite at Wickedfood Cooking School. It is a feature in our Thai cooking class as well as our Portuguese cooking class. Raymond Blanc’s juicy and colourful summer grilled squid salad with provençal vegetables, from his new book, Kitchen Secrets, is simple, satisfying and bursting with the flavours of Provence. You will certainly be able to taste our interpretation of a grilled squid salad in a future French cooking class at Wickedfood Cooking School.
Provençale vegetables
- 1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, thinly sliced lengthways
- 1 medium courgette, thinly sliced lengthways
- 1T extra virgin olive oil
- pinch sea salt
- pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 200g sun-dried tomatoes
Grilled squid
- 3 medium squid, about 200g/7oz each, cleaned
- 2T olive oil
- 1t lemon juice
- 2 pinches sea salt
- 1 red chilli, seeds and pith removed, finely chopped, preferably Snub nose or Rio Grande variety
- 1t grated palm sugar, or 2t brown sugar
Rocket salad
- 1T balsamic vinegar, preferably 8-year-old
- 2T extra virgin olive oil
- pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 4 small handfuls rocket
Garnish
- Parmesan shavings
- Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Provençale vegetables
- Heat a griddle pan and cook the fennel and courgette slices for one minute on one side, then remove from the heat.
- Drizzle over the olive oil, season with the salt and freshly ground black pepper and set aside.
Grilled squid
- Slice open each squid lengthways, score a criss-cross pattern on the inside and
cut each into three pieces.
- Mix the squid pieces with the olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, chilli and sugar and leave in a shallow, non-reactive bowl to marinade for half an hour.
- Heat a griddle pan until it is very hot, then grill the squid pieces for 15-30 seconds on each side. (This will produce a lot of smoke so make sure your extraction is on and the kitchen is well ventilated.) It is important that the pan is extremely hot so that the squid cooks very quickly and does not boil in its own juices (or cook over the coals of a very hot braai). If it cooks for any longer than two minutes it will become tough and rubbery.
Rocket salad
- Mix together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and pepper and dress the rocket with the vinaigrette.
To serve
- Place the grilled squid and vegetables around each plate. Place the dressed rocket in the centre of the plate, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and garnish with the sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan shavings.
- Alternatively, mix the dressed rocket with the Parmesan in a large bowl and serve separately.
Serves 4
Click here to watch a video of Raymond Blanc making this salad.
For more recipes from Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets, click here
Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.
Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.
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