Shopping in Strasbourg - I

While on a whirlwind shopping tour in Strasbourg this weekend, I managed to swing by the supermarket, and in the 40 minutes before they closed, I got wine, cheese, meat, fish & some veggies. The freezer will be full.

I've eaten baby goat, I've eaten snails, I've had oysters, cockles, lamb, quail, pheasant, ostrich; I'm not afraid of eating animals. Normally the rule is: if I'm not allergic, I'll try it. I know that I'm not allergic to crab; I know that I really like crab meat. As I saw the 3 pre-cooked crabs in the fish section, I selected the one with the least amount of barnacles, with the best colour, in short, the cutest crab available. Tonight, I pulled that crab out of my fridge & prepared to turn him into a seafood quinoa-isotto.

After having done my research on the best way to open a common crab, I set to work. But he looked so darn cute. I like to dive and if I saw this guy underwater, I'd stop for a while and look at him, maybe even have a little chat - he's that cute.Now, I know it's a little silly to be remorseful over the same food I was so excited about while in the supermarket.

1. crab is dead
2. if I didn't buy it, someone else would have - on sale!
3. he's here now and it would be wasteful to not use it

Good. I'll take it apart, make that quinoa-isotto I was planning & be more careful of my purchases in the future.

I took the shell apart, breaking the top off allowing me to get into the inside to pull out the meat & buttery bits. At this point, I realized that I was dealing with a female crab. This is the result of my meticulous meat extraction:

This is the plan for seafood quinoa-isotto:

take 200 g squid & 100g shrimp out of the freezer
sautee 1 onion (chopped) & 2 cloves of garlic (minced) in olive oil over low heat.
Add 1 cup rinsed quinoa & stir around.
Add safron-infused chicken broth (I had some in the fridge) bit by bit, allowing liquid to soak. Maybe about 2 cups.
Throw in cut up squid & allow everything to cook for 30 minutes.
At the last minute add shrimp, & both crab meat & crab red stuff (I think it was roe, but I'm really not sure - I was just squeamish).

The result was decent, my girlfriend came over & said it beat the pants off the salad she was about to make herself.

I still have a bunch of meat (& cheese & wine) from the shopping trip - I'll try to post about that as I slowly extract things from the freezer.

Looks Like Beef

Although my freezer requires a Tetris champion to touch anything without causing an avalanche, I bought frozen calamari. I know that fresh is better - I am not about to dispute this - but in the seemingly landlocked area I live in, fresh squid is not often a fiscally viable option. Thankfully, I am also aware that freezer space is incredibly precious real estate, so I am reducing the calamari, starting today. Had I known what I would cook for dinner, I would have bought the ingredients for a spectacular calamari ripini, taking me back to my diving week on the Italian island of Elba.

Squid are beautiful creatures, they posses majestic motion and, if they are not scared & swim away, look beautiful underwater - flourescent stripes down the sides, curious eyes, flapping wings. I had a wonderful dive in which I had barely gotten myself under the surface & I saw a squid, motionless, much more serene than myself or my dive buddies. Nonetheless, 4 of their kin are up for dinner tonight.

Calamari en Vino Rosso


3 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
200g squid, cut into bite-sized pieces, scored on one side
300ml questionable red wine (the kind that's good enough to buy, not good enough to drink)
100ml tomato puree
1 tsp herbs de provence
1/4 preserved lemon
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
salt & pepper

Sautee garlic in olive oil. Add squid, turn heat down to low. Add wine, tomato paste & herbs. Allow to simmer for 1 hour. Add lemon, season to taste. Add parsley right before serving, either on a bed of couscous or with crusty bread. It'll take on the colour of the wine & will look like beef. It will, however, be soft & succulent after having stewed for an hour.

Close your eyes, listen to the wave of the sea rolling in, and, if desired, imagine that squid, waiting for you to join his underwater world.