Midweek Seafood Caesar - A Qorkz Kitchen Dinner Special

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Seafood Caesar by Gretchen Miller Neuman for Qorkz.

I tend to reserve cooking seafood for the weekends.  That is sad to say, because fish is so good for you.  I am often eating alone these days and it seems wrong to take the time and money on myself.  But it is a new year.  So, here I go.  Plus, I have been wanting to try to cook with squid steaks, which are nutritious, relatively inexpensive and something I would never be able to talk my husband into trying.

Squid steaks are are cut from the parts of the squid that are normally the rings you get in your fried calamari.  But in a larger squid.  The Humboldt Squid that lives in the cold currents of the Pacific Ocean from Tierra del Fuego to California.  They are big, aggressive and found increasingly in shallower waters.  And did I say aggressive?  Watch Animal Planet or NatGeo Wild.

My plan was to pan fry the squid, slice it and serve it over a Caesar salad.  So this is what I put together for the fish.  

• 1/3 cup of grated parmesan
• 1/4 of of Wondra or flour
• 1 T of fresh lemon peel
• Lemon juice to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

These ingredients were mixed together and layed on a plate.  I decided not to go through a traditional breading process to cut down on the fat, but rinsed the squid cutlets  in water then dredged them in the mixture.  They were then pan fried until golden.  I have issues with over cooked seafood so I was careful to remove them from the heat as soon as they looked golden. I then sliced them up and sprinkled them with lemon juice. They could have probably been recrisped in the pan after I sliced them up, but live and learn.  They were still delicious.

I am not going to insult your intelligence about how to make a Caesar salad.  I know a traditional Caesar salad is just greens, dressing and croutons, but I like to add more vegetables.  Are there rules here?  Ok.  There are.  So, sue me.  I like veggies.  The dressing should be made from scratch, but using a pre-made version is easier and safer.  And for an everyday kind of dinner, that is what I use.  I cooked the squid, people.  What more do you want of me?  Oh, and I served the squid bits over the salad and gave it a last zesting with parmesan cheese.  Yes.  I know.  There is another one of those rules about cheese and seafood, but I think parm still works.

This was awesome with white wine.  I recommend our wine of the day.