Shallow Fried Calamari Rings with a Twist

Squids or calamari is a widely popular seafood with a very rich flavour. These are cooked in a number of ways but the most popular variant, perhaps, is fried calamari rings. I found the recipe first in the BBC food blog. That recipe, in itself is quick and wonderful to taste. It has a simple yet rich sea flavour and is a wonderful hit among almost everyone. And if you are anything like my Dad, you are adverse to strong sea flavours. However if you are totally like my Dad and somewhat like my partner, you'll want a spicy twist on everything that comes within inches of your mouth (and/or nose).

Enter, my partner and his culinary experiments. He has an enviable spice cabinet, and an even more enviable sense of flavours and combination. I have given up counting how many times I have been sceptical about his experiments in the kitchen and then forgot about my health (diet) mission while tucking into it. But I think I am starting to trust his gut feelings. Also, we skipped the beaten eggs so that the rings do not get over-burdened. That's where I'll stop the trash-talking and take you to the calamari rings recipe with a spicy twist.

Salmon in Mustard Gravy

This is an unusual way of cooking salmon that my partner and I discovered (to be honest, he did, I was in fact, sceptical about the whole salmon and mustard combination, but played along anyway) during our MSc course in the UK. We were scouring Sainsbury's for Indian cooking ingredients which also included mustard paste. We didn't find any. The closest we could get was a mustard paste with ale in it, something we weren't very thrilled about. Use of alcohol in cooking is minimal in Indian foods, and judging by our taste buds, we wanted to stay as close to the rules as possible. Yet, the recipe was a success. We still didn't know about wasabi (thanks to our friends Michael Lu for introducing it to us and Kei Kudo for leaving some with us) and we never noticed the Scottish bonnets either. With time we learned about these ingredients and incorporated them, and we stumbled upon a variety of mustard with red chilli flakes and vinegar in it. That was a hit!