The black garlic sauce recipe is from Simon Rogan’s book Rogan (The cookbook).
Serves 2 (starter or light lunch)
For the fried calamari
- 2 medium size calamari
- Juice of half a lemon
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- Extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil for frying (half and half)
For the baked potato
- 1 medium sized potato
- Wild garlic pesto or any other type of pesto
- 2 finely chopped cornichons
- A squeeze of lemon juice
For Simon’s black garlic dip
- 150g thick Greek yogurt
- 75g black garlic
- ½ tsp salt
- A squeeze of lemon juice
For the wild garlic pesto (makes enough for 6-8 servings but what is not used can freeze)
- 150g wild garlic leaves
- 50g pine nuts
- 50g parmesan cheese, grated
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- Zest and juice of ½ lemon
For the salad
- A few green leaves
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- A squeeze of lemon
To serve:
A few pickled wild garlic buds and wild garlic flowers, optional
Method
For the baked potato, preheat the oven to 2000C. Wash the potato, pat dry and prick a few times with a fork. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 60-75 minutes till soft to the touch.
For the pesto, wash the garlic leaves and put everything but the oil in a blender and blitz. Add gradually the olive oil till you have the desired consistency. Season, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
To make the black garlic yogurt, blitz all the ingredients in a blender and keep chilled till needed.
To prepare the calamari, reach inside the body and gently release the inners. Carefully pull the tentacles which should come away with all of the inners and the ink sac.
Cut just above the eyes and discard the inners and the head. Trim the two long tentacles to match the length of the others and remove and discard the beak of the calamari by pushing it out.
Remove the quill that runs along the calamari and the wings from either side of the calamari’s body pulling off the dark membrane that covers the hood. Discard all these.
Cut the body in 1cm thick rings, wash, pat dry with some kitchen paper and put in a bowl. Add the lemon juice and leave to marinate for about an hour.
Take out the potato from the oven. When it is cool enough to handle, cut the potato in half horizontally and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Add the garlic pesto to the potato flesh, season and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Mix well with a fork and keep warm.
After the calamari has marinated for an hour, pour out all the liquid from the bowl, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle with flour. Toss with your hands to coat fully adding more flour if necessary.
To fry the calamari, bring a saucepan with the combined olive and vegetable oil to a high heat. When the temperature reaches 1750C, dust off excess flour off the calamari and drop in the hot oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes until crisp and lightly golden. Drain on kitchen paper and drizzle with a squeeze of lemon.
In a bowl, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and season the salad leaves.
To serve, place a food ring in the middle of a plate. Spoon into it the potato. Top with the calamari and scatter the salad leaves around it. Decorate with some pickled garlic buds and garlic flowers.