Articles of Mastication

One-Skillet Snacking

I was thinking Mediterranean when I went to town on this one, but it looks pretty Asian. Well, Spaghetti Bolognese is Asian-Mediterranean fusion of a sort, what with the Chinese purportedly inventing the noodle a few days after the Big Bang. So I shouldn’t feel awkward for depicting this little Monday Night at the Improv routine: The Green Bean, Red Cabbage and Squid Tumble-Down. I’ll even reveal how it was done.

You need:

12 oz. cleaned, well-drained squid tubes and tentacles (as dry as possible)
8 oz. fresh green beans or haricots verts, de-stemmed
6 oz. red cabbage, ever so thinly sliced
2 giant cloves of garlic, fileted
1/2 tsp. red chile flakes
4 tbsp. roughly chopped Italian parsley
3 tbsp. your favorite olive oil
1 oz. dry white wine
salt, pepper and additional olive oil to taste

A word on “fileted garlic”: I recently bought a massive head of organic garlic, the cloves of which are roughly the size of a screaming infant’s clenched fist. By fileting, I mean slicing the cloves lengthwise to roughly a millimeter in thickness. When prepared in this fashion, the garlic behaves like another vegetable rather than a smattering of undiscernible vegetal fragments.

Do blanch the green beans in generously salted boiling water for one minute, then drop 3/4 of the sliced cabbage in with them for nearly a minute further. Drain these, then immerse them in a bath of ice water to halt further cooking. Once cooled, drain the cooked vegetables again, please.

Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over a high flame until it begins to smoke, then add the garlic and red chile flakes. The garlic will begin to brown quite quickly, so add the blanched vegetables to absorb the heat and prevent further browning. Toss it all in the skillet to evenly coat the vegetables with the olive oil. Once the pan and its contents have become quite hot again, add the squid. Toss this all about over high heat for nearly a minute and a half, or until the liquid from the watery squid has reduced. Add the wine. Season with salt and pepper, then add the parsley. After no more than a mere 20 seconds further of tossing over high flame, the contents of the pan are ready to be served. Garnish the plate with the remaining raw cabbage. Drizzling additional olive oil over the melange will cause it go down the hatch that much more easily and leave you with something flavorful for dipping with a nice bread.

The key to success in sauteeing is high heat, constant movement and short cooking time. Remember this always.

Tags: cooking, fish, food, green beans, Recipes, red cabbage, Seafood, squid, Vegetables