Calamari Potatoes in a blanket of peas

It started with a belated appreciation post for a good-looking dish posted on instagram by Mr Dini Nondumo – the senior executive in the insurance sector and former actor and producer. The Calamari potatoes with a blanket of peas was a huge hit and when I reposted it a few days later, I was overrun by public and private requests for the recipe, such is our lockdown culinary life. So here is the recipe, as requested. Enjoy, and tag us @notedmanza with your masterpieces.   

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes, peas, calamari (mix both squid heads and tubes, but cut open the tubes or else they roll up into rings under the grill), Thyme, savoury herbs, garlic, fresh basil and fresh chilli.

How:

1) Thinly slice (not too thin) the potatoes. About 1.5 to 2 bags. Leave on the skin.

2) Use a wide-base pan and heat olive oil on medium heat – not too hot because when the potatoes go you don’t want to brown too quickly.

3) Pre-season the slides potatoes with course salt and 1-2 spoons of each of the herbs above.

4) Cook the potatoes on medium heat in the pan with heated oil. Should be about 15 minutes. You want them al dente and not cooked-through yet.

5) Take out the potatoes and place in oven roasting dish and cover.

6) Full bag of frozen peas…pour out into the residue from the potatoes. They must be frozen. Add a full spoon of butter as the peas cook on medium heat. No longer than 5-6 minutes.

7) Season the calamari with course salt (not too much), garlic and finely chopped chillies (chilli flakes also work).

8) Lightly grill the calamari in same pan for 7-10 minutes. Again, al dente, not well cooked or else they’ll get rubbery.

9) Add the peas and the calamari to the potatoes. Mix up and add lots of olive oil. Drizzle on top so it glazes when in oven.

10) Place mixture into the oven. Oven must be preheated at 200° and when you put in the dish, reduce to medium top-grill – not too high or it’ll char.

Cook on this level for 15 minutes.

11) Take out and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Enjoy.

P.S. The calamari and the peas cook separately in the pan, not same time.