Take 6 squid and yank their tentacles out from their rubbery shells.
Slide their guts out and scrape their skin off...
... stuff them with a spicy lamb sausage mixture and skewer them closed.
Sear the outsides in olive oil and then throw in garlic, tomato,
a half cup of wine and some lamb stock.
Loosely cover and simmer. Let a delicious aroma fill the room.
Remove calamari, reduce sauce, plate like so - and fall in LOVE!
And then fall in love again....
and again!
And again.
What a day!
The above pictures are: Sausage-Stuffed Calamari Braised in White Wine
Sticky Pecan buns.
Stuffed and Wrapped Lamb Moraccan Style
The Moroccan lamb was a huge hit! Stuffed with dried apricots, pistachios and garlic and a balsamic reduction. Seared and smeared with dijon and wrapped in (industry secret alert!) a crepe before wrapping it in filo dough. (Keeps the dough from getting soggy!)
Scored high marks from the table, up there with Chicken Saltimboca!
As a follow up to the business side of things that we're learning, we did a costing exercise on the calamari dish. We guess-timated how much this would cost in a restaurant and came up with 8 or 9 dollars. And then worked out our actual cost, (excluding labour), and were shocked to realise this dish costs less than a dollar per portion!
(I asked the Chefs about the gamey taste of the lamb yesterday, as today was the SAME lamb and the SAME rack of ribs as yesterday, and there wasn't a trace of gamey-ness at all. The Chefs say if your meat is overdone, it'll smell and take on that strong mutton flavour. I didn't even try my lukewarm slabs of bleeding meat yesterday, but I had some well-done pieces offered to me which I ate and disliked. Today's meat was cooked perfectly, just a little pink on the inside - big lesson of the day.)
I would never guess that lamb and calimari would taste good together. But I will take your word for it!!!
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