Now y'all know I love to experiment, and I generally go into my experiments with a plan, an experimental design, if you will. But after playing for a few days with squid and not royally fucking anything up, I was feeling a little restless, so I decided to just say "yes" to whatever popped into my head.
Dry fried ginger, pattypan squash, and red onion? Sure, that sounds like a good combo.
Purple sweet potato, shishitos, and sweet onion dry fried? Why not?
What if I dump some some butter into that ginger/squash/red onion pan? I bet that will taste good.
How about I dust some chopped squid with salt and oat flour and squirt it with some fresh lemon juice? I'm sure that will be fine.
And I bet what will be even better will be tossing that squid into the ginger pan. That's when I remembered how much I loved that squid that was cooked low and slow. Unfortunately, I was out of white wine, so I looked in my fridge and saw some high pulp Simply Orange orange juice. I poured some of that in, let it all simmer for a while, then got bored and sprinkled a little xanthan gum in to thicken it up. When I say "a little bit," I'm meaning, like, a quarter of a pinch.
So with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds, that's the story of how I invented a new dish: Squid à l’Orange with Summer Garden Hash. Before you ask...
...yes, it was fucking amazing. The orange reduction's flavor was so rich, probably would have been too rich if it wasn't for the crispy potato, onion, and shishito cutting through it. And those potatoes, onion, and peppers would've been too dry if not for the juicy squid, squash, red onion, and ginger to fill them out. A meal in two parts, balanced on a razor's edge. If you have the opportunity to try this, do yourself a favor and plunge in. If you have the chance to experiment, try just saying "yes."
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