My twitter followers might have been aware my Internet connection has been down for the last month and a half… Well, I’m back! And since we’ve been spending vacation in Andalusia with my Spanish family-in-law, I came back with a bunch of Spanish recipes in stock

Let’s start with this very easy to make garlic and parsley calamari recipe. If you have a great olive oil at home, use it. The better your olive oil tastes, the better this baby squid recipe will come out…

Preparation time: 5 mn – Cooking time: 15 mn

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

1.1 lbs (500 g) of baby squid (fresh or frozen)
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of olive oil (click here to buy online)
3 tablespoons of parsley
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Clean baby squid or defrost them if you’re using frozen ones.

2/ Peel garlic cloves. Clean and chop parsley.

3/ Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Pour olive oil and add garlic.

4/ Move garlic around the pan so the oil gets garlic flavor.

5/ Pour baby squid into the pan.

6/ After 10 minutes, add parsley, salt and pepper to the calamari and cook them for 5 more minutes or until they’re firm.

7/ When they’re done, serve baby squid leaving the garlic cloves and all the oil you can in the pan.

You can serve these garlic and parsley baby squid alone, as a starter or with wild rice as a main dish.

I hadn’t had cuttlefish for so long I almost forgot how good it was! This recipe was made with a fresh cuttlefish, but if you’re a beginner you might rather use frozen pieces… I must admit that cleaning it was pretty disgusting although the result was totally worth it

Preparation time: 20 mn  Cooking time: 1 h

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

3,3 lbs (1.5 kg) of cuttlefish
3 garlic cloves
2 1/2 cups of white wine (dry)
2 onions
2 bay leaves
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of thyme
1/8 cup of Cognac
Saffron
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Clean and dice cuttlefish.

2/ Pour olive oil in a frying pan and heat it over medium heat. Add cuttlefish.

3/ Peel and chop garlic and onions.

4/ When all the water from the cuttlefish has evaporated, add garlic, onions, bay leaves, thyme and a small amount of saffron.

5/ Add Cognac. (If you’re an advanced cook, you can ‘flamber’ which means setting the alcohol on fire for a short amount of time. In this case you need to warm Cognac before adding it to the pan, take pan off heat, then lit it on fire).

6/ Pour diced tomatoes and wine into the pan. Add salt and pepper.

7/ Get to a smooth boil for approximately 5 minutes then reduce heat and leave covered for 1 hour.

8/ Serve with rice or tagliatelle pasta.