SQUID STUFFED WITH LOBSTER

Squid Stuffed with Lobster image

Fred worked at Toqué! in the early 1990s, and one of his many tasks was cleaning squid. Every so often, the Anglophone sous chef would order from the Quebecois fishmonger at La Mer, and one day "15 pounds" of squid was heard as "50 pounds." That week Fred cleaned 150 pounds of squid. He couldn't smell squid for about ten years without feeling sick, but he's back on the squid train now. The only way he can bear it, though, is filled with lobster and cooked in lobster juice.

Yield Serves 4

Number Of Ingredients 15

Ingredients

1 small live lobster, about 1 1/4 pounds (570 g)
1/3 cup (40 g) alphabet pasta
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Hellmann's or Best Foods mayonnaise
Few dashes of Tabasco sauce
Dash of Pernod or ouzo
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for sautéing and dressing
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 squid, head and body 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 cm) long (if smaller, use 8 squid), cleaned (see sidebar)
3 tablespoons escargot butter (see Whelks with Escargot Butter, page 131)
2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs
4 handfuls cress or arugula

Steps:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the lobster, and cook for 5 minutes. Pull the lobster out of the pot, discard the water, and chill the lobster.
Shell the lobster, keeping as much meat as possible. Dice the meat into 1/4-inch (6-mm) cubes, and keep the shells. Set both aside.
Bring a small pot of water to a boil, add the pasta, and boil for about 4 minutes, or until shy of al dente. Drain and transfer to a decent-size bowl.
Add the lobster meat, tomato sauce, mayo, Tabasco, Pernod, and parsley to the pasta and stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Crush the lobster shells into 1-inch pieces. In a sauté pan, sauté the shells in a film of olive oil over medium-high heat until the lobster water is gone from the shells. Add the water and unsalted butter and simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Don't let it become dry, but almost dry. You should have about 1/2 cup (125 ml) liquid. Strain the liquid and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Stuff the pasta mixture into the squid tubes, and seal the open end of each tube with a couple of nonmentholated toothpicks. Just stick them right across the opening, pinching the tentacles into the opening. Lay the stuffed beauties side by side in a baking dish or baking pan. It should be a snug fit so the pan is less likely to dry out. Pour the strained lobster juice over them, then top with a few pats of escargot butter and the bread crumbs.
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until bubbly. Remove the toothpicks and serve with a handful of olive oil-dressed cress (greens) on each plate.
Wear gloves; many people have contact allergies to squid. Clean the squid in the sink under cold running water.
Rip off the head. It's the part from which the legs hang down.
Pinch away the beak. It's on the center, nestled among the legs.
Slide out the blades. There are two of them, plasticlike, along the inside of the tube.
Peel off the dark skin.
Rinse the squid well, inside and out, to eliminate all traces of mucus and sand.