Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

OF COURSE I failed at posting in here... I've taken so many photos of meals I've cooked in the past few weeks meaning to post them here.... I was going through them today and honestly forgot what was in a lot of them... Oh well... We'll see what I can do...

I'm rarely ever home, so I never have time to sit down at my computer. I've downloaded the Blogger app on my phone, so I can try to keep up with this and do quick posts on the go :P

Anyways, here is one of the AWESOME dishes that I do remember. I remember everything that was in it because it tasted amazing and was so simple. My boyfriend came home with a GIANT squid to cook for dinner. Honestly, I was kind of scared of it.... So he gutted it for me and we sliced off the tentacles and cut the body into rings. I think this could also be done with smaller squid, but the large, meaty, giant squid did taste pretty good. :) We went for Thai flavors and served it with a dipping sauce similar to the flavors in Thai larb.

Grilled Squid with Thai-style Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

- squid

- dry vermouth (or white wine)

- fresh ginger

- fresh lime juice

- fish sauce (Thai fish sauce would be best)

- splenda

- serrano chili (or Thai chili would be better, I just had serrano already)

- cilantro

Directions:

1. Marinate sliced squid in vermouth (or white wine) and 1/2 to 1 inch of chopped ginger, depending on how much you like ginger - I love a lot. I marinated it for less than an hour.

2. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Squeeze lime juice and mix with several dashes of fish sauce, a light sprinking of Splenda, 1/2 of a thinly sliced serrano chili, and a few leaves worth of chopped cilantro. This can all be adjusted to taste. If you want more saltiness or savory flavor, add more fish sauce. If it needs more freshness or something to cut the flavor, add more lime juice. This came out very, spicy - and I have a pretty good tolerance for really spicy food - so if you have a normal person's tolerance for heat maybe only use 1/3 or 1/4 of the serrano chili. If you know you have a weaker spiciness tolerance, then maybe only put a one or two thin slices of the chili.

3. Let the sauce sit in the fridge while you cook the squid to allow the flavors to come out.

4. The squid is cooked simply and in a healthy way - GRILLED! Make sure to stand next to the squid and check often for doneness while you grill. Squid cooks quickly and overcooked, chewy squid is probably one of the worst things ever...

5. EAT! Dip grilled squid in the sauce, so you get a very thin coating - the flavors are very strong, so you really don't need anything thick.

Since I actually have some free time today, I'll post a few other things that I can remember a little bit about  :) but this squid was definitely the most memorable.