Hosted 8 of my amigas for a showing of When Harry Met Sally at my casa, as 7 of them had never seen the movie before. I’ve seen it multiple times, of course, but it had been a while, so I was very much looking forward.
The Detroit-style pizza place is on break while the woo people are away, so I decided to try my hand at chicken chile verde.
I roasted about a pound of tomatillos, a head of garlic, a couple poblanos & Anaheims, added thawed hatch chiles & TPSTO cilantro & let the FP have at it. All that green beauty was plonked into the liquid gold aka turkey broth I’d made from the xmas day carcass & froze.
The cats had to be exiled while I shredded the roti chicken into the pot. One of my gal pals was supposed to bring her fabulous hummus tonight, but she came down with something. Seasonal risk for planning anything, I suppose.
My PIC made rice, and toppings were sour cream, fresh avo, extra lime, Sinatra. No leftovers whatsoever from about half a gallon of chile verde, and the ladies greatly enjoyed what is surely the epitome of the romcom. Win/win
Needed something that would thaw fast and cook fast. Grilled jalapeño, cheddar sausages, onion, pickle relish and mustard on a French sandwich roll. Left over potato salad. Mexican coke.
Tonight’s dinner was another experiment. Brats, Beans & Bread Casserole. Unfortunately, Sunshine really didn’t like it, I thought it was OK, I’ll find out tomorrow if Neighbor #2 liked it or not. Any who, I won’t make this again. Next!!
What did you stuff the squid with? I just recently started making stuffed squash but that is easy peasy as far as stuffed foods is concerned. I admire your efforts.
My first effort was a bust because I neglected to let the dough rest (so make sure you do that), and it will take a fair amount of flour or semolina to prep it for the roller. But it comes out nice and springy and uses up a good amount of discard.
I was trying to avoid working on what I should have been working on. Success!
I don’t find it that painstaking. The main time issue for me is if the squid is a 2lb or 5 lb frozen box of squid that has to defrost, that takes a while, and then I need to remove the quills and ink sacks.
Intact squid are harder to find than the cleaned tubes in Canada lately, so the cleaned tubes takes care of that step. That said, I like the idea of frozen squid from Monterey, California, so when I see boxes of frozen Californian squid at Superstore or Loblaws occasionally, I stock up on those Californian intact squid rather than use Asian-sourced frozen squid which usually has been cleaned.
Sometimes Metro or Loblaws has thawed cleaned squid available at the fish counter.
The other issue with squid, is that you generally either want to cook them fast (deep fry or grill) or very slow. The Greek-style braised stuffed squid gets cooked slowly for a long time so that it becomes more tender. I usually braise for close to an hour.
The actual stuffing of them once the squid is clean is quicker than stuffing cabbage.
Wow thanks for the feedback! I will have to give stuffed squid a try. Our metro in downtown Ottawa was closed for awhile since a developer bought the lot and built an apartment building where it was located. But the store re-opened last August and it’s such a lovely store. They have a lot of different types of fish and seafood - quite a nice selection of for a grocery store. I should check for squid and if they don’t have any there is a fishmonger nearby. I will most likely keep an eye out for the tubes since I will only be making enough for one serving. I don’t think I’ve ever had squid before. Time to fix that!
Chinatown and Chinese markets in Ottawa will also sell squid, probably at a better price. I haven’t bought any at any Chinese shops in Toronto. If you know of a fishmonger, they should have it, too. Our Portguese and Greek fishmongers have frozen squid.
