Squid in herb dressing with watermelon and halloumi salad
Barbecued squid is dressed with a vibrant, salty dressing and served with a fresh watermelon salad. These traditional Cypriot dishes are bursting with summer flavour.
Ingredients
For the watermelon salad
- 1kg/2lb 4oz watermelon
- 30g/1oz fresh red chilli, sliced
- 230²µ/8¼´Ç³ú cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 10g fresh coriander leaves
- 13g/½oz fresh mint leaves
- 2 limes, zest and juice
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 250g//9oz halloumi
For the squid
- 4 tubes of squid (including tentacles)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 25ml/1fl oz olive oil
- pul biber chilli flakes (Aleppo pepper)
For the dressing
Method
For the watermelon salad, cut the watermelon off the rind and into chunks. (However suits, triangles works well.)
Add the sliced cherry tomatoes and fresh chilli to a bowl and season generously. Add the watermelon and toss to allow the salty tomato and chilli juice to coat the watermelon slices. Add the herbs, lime zest and juice and the olive oil. Let the salad sit for minimum 15 minutes, the longer the salad sits the better it gets.
For the squid, trim the wider end off so it’s straight. If you look in the squid tube, you’ll notice there’s a little groove where its quill sits (the hard bit that allows the squid to stand upright) roll the squid so the groove is facing away from you and with one smooth motion run your knife against it. The squid will fan out, and more than likely there will still be a few bits of gunk, scrape the gunky bits out with a table knife and rinse under the tap.
Once all your squid is fanned out and clean pat it dry with a clean paper towel.
Score the squid with the same table knife on a 45-degree angle scoring in opposite directions, into a diamond pattern.
Marinate the squid and tentacles in a bowl with the grated garlic, fennel seeds and the olive oil. Leave to marinate in the fridge for an hour.
Meanwhile, to make the dressing put the fillets of anchovy into a pestle and mortar and break them down into a paste. Add in your chopped herbs and a good crack of salt. Grind the herbs down into a fine paste.
Add the lime juice, chopped pistachio and add enough olive oil to cover the paste. The dressing needs to be a spooning consistency, not drowning in oil, we just want the olive oil to bring everything together.
To make the tomatoes, season with salt and a little olive oil. Place them in a large metal sieve. Place the tomatoes over a flame and slowly cook until blistered.
Place a grilling pan on the barbeque flames and allow to heat for 5 minutes, until hot. Remove the squid from the fridge and stir to loosen the olive oil (it will have solidified under the cold temperatures). Salt each of the pieces of squid and tentacles individually to ensure each piece is well seasoned.
Add the tentacles first to the hot pan and cook for a few minutes then add the rest of the squid and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until the tentacles are crispy, the squid flesh is opaque. Then remove from the heat.
Chop the squid into little bitesize pieces and the tentacles in half. Put the cooked squid into a metal bowl, add the blistered tomatoes and the dressing. Mix together and season to taste.
Serve the squid alongside the watermelon salad topped with the halloumi slices and a generous pinch of pul biber chilli.
