Squid Pad Thai

There has been a radical change in the sale of fish at the Dartmouth Market stall. The previous fish man (who has been selling fish for about 50 years) has finally retired and handed the batton on to a new set of faces.

The style of presentation has changed from eclectic and quirky to organised and, if I'm honest, a little too clinical but the fish looks good. I think I am going to miss the availability of fish species that Mark had on offer but on a trial run for squid yesterday, the new guys came up trumps with some excellent and tasty molluscs.

So we went for squid pad thai because it was a quick preparation and cook even allowing for cleaning and preparing the squid. It also fits in with our revised eating habits of having our main meal in the middle of the day.

Purists will challenge the pad thai bit as we used samphire instead of beansprouts but we make no apologies.

Ingredients:

300g fresh whole squid ( roughly 3 squid)

a good handful of samphire

90g dried rice noodles

2 cloves garlic grated

20g piece fresh ginger grated

3 spring onions

2 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tsp nam pla

1 tbsp ketjap manis

30g crushed plain peanuts

1 tbsp olive oil

This provides two portions of about 430 kcal each (≈30 g protein).

Method:

Soak the rice noodles in hot not boiling water for about 30 minutes.

Clean and prepare the quid and slice into rings. Then fry the squid in the olive oil until opaque and set aside.

Mix tamarind paste, fish sauce, and kechap manis together in a small bowl.

Stir-fry the garlic, chilies, and drained noodles with the sauce until the noodles absorb the liquid.

Fold in the cooked squid and fresh samphire right at the end so the samphire stays crisp and salty, then top with crushed peanuts

Observations:

I didn’t clean the squid fully and so had sand still in the end of the squid tubes.

Also I didn’t check the samphire for woody parts and so had some tough pieces that were not consumable. Not had that before so will take more care in selection in the future.

Otherwise an excellent meal in line with our new dietary objectives .