Squid Ceviche

The Mount Pleasant Seafood Company had some great looking whole squid on sale, so I bought six of them, which seemed like enough for doing something with, but I had no idea what. Fried calamari was my initial thought, but last night I just didn't feel up to the mess of trying to deep fry anything and fill my house with greasy smoke (thanks to the poor state of my kitchen's ventilation system). I wanted something lighter, and thought to myself, "How about squid ceviche?"

Although squid is a very common ingredient in ceviche, it's usually just an accompaniment to the more prominent fish. A quick search of the web turned up only a couple of recipes for ceviche with squid alone. I borrowed ideas from these and more traditional fish ceviche recipes and came up with the following:

Squid Ceviche

6 to 8 whole squid, cleaned and sliced into 1/4-inch rings

1/2 cup onion, minced

8-10 jalapeno slices

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

1 clove of garlic

salt & pepper

(Some red or bell peppers would probably be good in this, too, but I didn't have any handy.)

Squeeze the lime juice into a small bowl. Peel and cut the clove of garlic in half and soak it in the lime juice for 10-15 minutes, discarding the garlic when finished. While the garlic is soaking, bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the squid rings for 1 minute, then drain and chill in ice water till cold (about 10 minutes). Combine the squid, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and salt and pepper in a sealable plastic container, then pour over the lime juice and mix well. Put in the refrigerator and let chill/marinate for about an hour. Serve.

The effect of the lime juice on the squid is remarkable, transforming it into something chewy and delicious and just perfect. The recipe above makes about enough for an appetizer for four people. And best of all, the squid was cheap, cheap, cheap--about three bucks.