Calamari steaks, curry coconut vegetables, and black rice

   If you happen to find calamari - which is to say, squid - steaks, here’s something to do with them. But first, you might ask, what is a calamari steak? It’s simply the body of a large squid, not the small ones out of which the ubiquitous fried calamari appetizers are made. The body is split and laid out flat; hence, the name “steak”. They’ll almost certainly be sold frozen. Best to thaw them overnight in the refrigerator. They might still be covered with some ice crystals, so scrape them off with a knife and blot the steaks dry with paper towels. The idea is to be sure they’re dry when they hit the heat so they brown rather than steam. If you’ve never cooked with it before, here is the most important thing to remember: Do not cook it longer than, at most, two minutes per side. Otherwise, it will turn to rubber. 

   Squid itself doesn’t have a great deal of flavor. Like tofu, it’s best considered a flavor absorber, and what better flavor to absorb than a curry-coconut milk sauce? The following recipe is quite easy. Thai curry paste in small jars is widely available in ordinary grocery stores. If it isn’t in yours, I suggest you take your business to a larger, better equipped one. I used red curry paste, but green and yellow would be fine, too. Black rice is also called “forbidden” rice because, as legend has it, Chinese emperors forbade anyone else to eat it besides themselves. It might be a bit more difficult to find, but I’ve noticed that it’s becoming increasingly available. It’s worth searching out because it’s both highly nutritious and tasty in a nutty way. Plus, as you see in the photo, it adds some aesthetic interest on the plate compared with ordinary white rice, which you may use instead if your search turns up empty-handed.

Thai red curry paste, 1 or more Tbs depending on your heat tolerance

Coconut milk, 1  13.5 oz  can

Baby corn, 1  16 oz  can, rinsed and sliced

Green beans, several, trimmed

Shallot, 1 large, minced

Red jalapeños, 2, seeds and veins removed unless you want the heat

White pepper

Salt

Scallions, 3 or 4, trimmed and sliced

Cilantro, chopped

Calamari steaks

Peanut or canola oil

Salt and pepper

Forbidden/black rice, 1 cup

Chicken broth

Place the curry paste and the coconut milk in a large saucepan and heat to boiling, toss in the corn, green beans, shallot, and jalapeños, and reduce to a simmer. Add the white pepper and salt. If you’re going to be serving the dish quickly, you should parboil the green beans before adding them to the mixture; otherwise, they may not be sufficiently done.

Cook the rice according to package instructions, using chicken broth instead of water.

If you have a ridged, stove-top grilling pan, heat it on high. Brush the steaks with some oil, salt and pepper them, and put them on the grill pan. Two minutes a side, maximum.

If you don’t have such a pan, use any other pan, although cast iron is preferred.

Throw the scallions and cilantro into the simmering vegetables.

Place each steak on a plate, with the vegetables and rice alongside.

Vegetable Thai yellow curry

If you purchase Thai yellow curry paste instead of making it yourself, the recipe for which I include here, then this is about as easy a recipe as you can make. I emphasize “make”, meaning not a frozen entree which you simply boil or microwave. 

If you opt for making the curry paste yourself, there are three ingredients which you may not have on hand. If you do Southeast Asian food, you will almost certainly have them or know immediately where to get them. They are lemongrass, coriander seeds, and shrimp paste. There’s even a shortcut for the coriander - ground coriander found in pretty much any larger grocery store in the spice section. There is no substitute for lemongrass. Either don’t make this recipe without it or use the purchased curry paste. As for the shrimp paste, you’ll have to go to an Asian market. Anchovy paste in the same amount makes a passable substitute, but, again, better just to buy the curry paste. The paste, along with red and green curry, is in most larger grocery stores, in either small cans (3 oz, I think) or in somewhat larger glass jars (4 oz).

In many Thai recipes such as this one, which has no meat of any kind, chicken, pork, or seafood such as shrimp can be tossed in with very good results.

For the curry paste:

Yellow chilies, 2 or 3. They’re the same shape and size as jalapenos. 

Garlic cloves, 5 or however many you like.

Shallot, 1

Fresh ginger, 1 tsp minced

Lemongrass, 1 stalk, minced

Shrimp paste, 1 tsp

Coriander seeds, 1 tsp, crushed

Turmeric, 1/2 tsp

Salt, 1 tsp

Vegetable oil, 1 Tbs

The vegetables:

Shallots, 3, sliced, or ½ onion, sliced

Potatoes, 3 or 4, or however many you want, chopped into pieces not as small as dice.

Green beans, quite a few, cut into 1” pieces

Coconut milk, 1 13.5 oz can

Basil, julienned

Red jalapenos (for garnish, optional), sliced crosswise

Jasmine rice or bamboo rice

If you don’t want to make the curry paste, as I noted above, just purchase it and use one or two tablespoons, depending on your tolerance of heat. If you want to make it, first decide if you want no heat at all. If this is what you want, know that you’ll be missing out on an important part of the preparation, but if you insist, remove the seeds and the veins from the yellow chilies. Otherwise, toss all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and puree. You may need to add a bit more oil to achieve the paste consistency. Set aside.

Heat about half the can of coconut milk in a wok or saucepan and add the curry paste. Cook over medium heat for five minutes. Now put in the rest of the coconut milk, the shallots, potatoes, and green beans. Cook for ten minutes.

In the meantime, you will have prepared the rice. You’ll see in the photo that I used bamboo or green rice, but jasmine is fine.

Put the finished dish on plates, spread around the basil, top with the sliced red jalapenos for color and for those who like some heat but had to tolerate the heat intolerance of others when the meal was made. Accompany with rice.