Yam Pla Muk Yang (Grilled Squid Salad)

As far as salads go, this one was pretty epic and has been voted in our house as ‘the best Thai dish so far’. The squid was lightly charred, smoky and soft (no rubber bands here) and the salad was crunchy, zingy with lime juice, salty from the fish sauce and had a cleansing heat from the red chilli and fresh herbs. Is it weird to be in love with one of your own recipes? It may still be winter and pretty cold but with this salad, a roaring fire and an ice cold Singha beer, you could 'almost’ be sat by the beach on a Thai island :)

For two people use:

• roughly 500g of baby squid (I used a frozen box of Fiesta del Mar brand, thawed)
• a few leaves of iceberg lettuce (enough to cover your plate)
• 3 or 4 small shallots, peeled and sliced fine
• 3 tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into wedges
• 1 stalk of celery, cut into thin slices
• a small handful of mint leaves, loosely torn
• a handful of coriander leaves, loosely torn
• 2 small red chillies, chopped
• a big splash of fish sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• vegetable oil

Prepare all the vegetables and herbs and arrange them on a serving plate/platter. Make the dressing; stir together the lime juice, fish sauce and chilli and leave until the end.
Prepare the squid- Pull out the head from the body, Cut off the tentacles above the eyes, discard the rest of the head. Peel off and discard the two fins/flaps on the side of the body. Peel off and throw away any speckled skin on the body; you’ll be left with a white body. Slide a sharp knife inside the body, and cut down one side then open out. Scrape and throw any remaining goo inside the squid and the long plastic-like quill. There’s probably lots of youtube videos for visuals but use your knife to lightly score diagonal hatchings on the inside of the squid- don’t cut all the way through. Then cut the scored squid into inch square pieces.
Heat a small frying pan until it’s very hot then add a very small amount of vegetable oil. When the pan starts to smoke, working in batches,

add in a few pieces of squid at a time (it’ll curl up, let it get a little charring but remove when the squid is no longer translucent (about 30 seconds). If it needs it add a drop more oil to the pan. Watch when doing the tentacles- they tend to spit when being pan fried.
When all the squid’s done, drop over the salad and pour the dressing over everything before serving.