Here's one of those 'jazz' discoveries that comes from playing around with oldish food.
Some squid tubes have been in the freezer for a bit too long. So, I experimented with them this evening. I put about 1/2 cup of olive oil into a large pan, heated it to medium high, and then threw in a head of minced garlic, about 3 Tbs of sambal chili paste, one star anise, and a cinnamon stick. Once the mixture was warm and bubbling, I added 2 large squid tubes cut into rings about 1/8" wide stirred them for a few minutes and then turned down the heat to medium, tossed in about 4 Tbs of dried basil, gave the whole concoction a quick stir, and covered the pot. I stirred it occasionally and kept the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pot. As the squid cooked, it provided a bit more liquid. I kept this on for about 45 min and then removed the spice infused tubes and served them straight. Not only were they delicious, the entire house smelled great! I know they'd be good with white rice as well.
I then used the remaining oil and spices to quickly cook some tilapia fillets that I'd cut into 1" chunks. The flavor wasn't infused as much in the tilapia, but they were good.
Given my emerging realization about issues with all harvested sea food, I'm not sure that this will be regular item on our menu, but for special occasions...yum.
my dogs won't even eat tilapia
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