Grilled Calamari

With Michael D. Sargent

What you might find interesting about this recipe is the grill. There are a growing number of people who are buying the Big Green Egg for their backyard grilling and becoming fanatical about its qualities. Michael Sargent is a convert and has combined his past food experience with the Green Egg through a blog, Facebook page and weekly cooking demonstrations. This is one of a number of recipes for using the popular grill.

Calamari is the Italian name for squid, and the squid is a mollusk that is related to the cuttlefish and octopus. They range in size from an inch or so up to eighty feet, but the most common size for eating is less than twelve inches. The meat is white and firm with a mild, sweet and what some describe as a nutty flavor. Although you can eat the tentacles, the main body is the prime section of meat. It can be stuffed whole, cut into flat pieces, or sliced crosswise into perfect rings. Here only the main body part is used.

This is a simple recipe that takes no time to prep or cook. The thin slices look wonderful as they curl atop a bed of spring mix greens. And the flavor of the delicate calamari comes through without being overpowered by the usual ingredients or preparations, drowning the creature in breadcrumbs and hot oil, or smothered in pepper.The Weber grilling equipment used to produce this video was supplied by Foster's BBQ Grill Store in Gloucester, MA. You can see these and their other products on their web site - www.fostersgrill.com.

Ingredients

1 pound Fresh Calamari (bodies only)
¼ cup garlic oil (approximately)
Fresh ground pepper and salt

Instructions

1. Slide tip of knife through body to end and cut through side so it lies flat
2. Apply garlic oil to both sides and salt and pepper liberally.
3. Place oiled, seasoned bodies on hot grill a minute or so on both sides until calamari tightly curls into a tube
4. Cut in ½ inch slices for salads, appetizers or serve whole tubes individually

Recipe courtesy of Michael Sargent, blogger at The Green Egg and I, and BubaQlishus.com. 

Michael, a Cape Ann resident, has always enjoyed grilling and cooking, starting as youngster out on Long Island (NY), mostly enjoying the local fresh seafood from stripers, swordfish, steamers and mussels to a nice grilled blue fin tuna steak.

As a newlywed, he and his wife, Jennifer, worked with a high-end caterer in Fairfield County (CT). His interests in cooking grew both independently and as a couple, as his wife joined the staff of The Pleasures of Cooking, a magazine published by Cuisinart in Greenwich. In later years, Michael pursued his professional career in insurance brokerage. 

The late ‘90’s found Michael on Cape Cod, where he and Jennifer purchased a specialty foods store and established a high end catering business, both serving the Hyannis community successfully for 5 years. 

Michael in later years has focused on his passion for cooking, primarily on the Big Green Egg and running his catering business specializing grilled meats, pork,  beef BBQ and other grilling selections under BuBaQlishus catering services. He writes and illustrates his grilling experiences on the Egg through Facebook under The Green Egg and I and blog of the same name. Other cooking recipes and experiences are chronicled under his blog BuBaQlishus.com. Michael resides in Rockport, and can often be found grilling with Billy Aaron on the Green Egg most Saturday’s at Foster’s Grill Store in Gloucester.