Grilled squids with lemon-garlic sauce

It's a loooong time since my last post...WOW... unbelievable. This summer was quite different from the previous ones. The major point is, of course, that Hamburg could not really enjoy the summer as there were about 5 really warm days since June in total. And then in a routine you get lost somewhere in the everyday problems between work, gym, home, cleaning, husband's birthday, wedding anniversary etc. And then you only notice - two summer months are gone :(

But nevertheless, I enjoy this season a lot. Summer is always full of fresh and local fruits, berries, meaning - a lot of smoothies, pies, desserts and even more. But today not about that. I will follow up with summer fruit recipes in my next posts. Menawhile I would like to stay in memories back in our vacation. 

Croatia, +45 degrees C, Biograd na Moru. When having such a nice grill near our apartments we could not keep away from it and ended up having grill-dinner everyday. Because it is just amazing - meeting sunset with a nice fresh grilled fish, veggies, local wine and calm atmosphere. This was the evening of squids. My grill-chef-husband was the one to cook them and I'm lucky to share the recipe with you. 

Ingredients:

4 big squids

1/2 lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp origano

1/2 tsp salt

6 garlic cloves

Firstly, the squids have to be prepared. To make it properly I (and my husband) recommend you to follow these steps:

1. Grasp the head, pull it carefully, twisting if necessary. The internal body and tentacles will come with it. 

2. Cut the tentacles from the head. They are situated below the eyes. There is a  beak in the center of the tentacles. Squeeze to remove and discard.

3. Set aside the the tentacles. Discard the head and ink sac.

4. At the top of the body, there is a clear piece of cartilage. Pull it out and discard.

5. If the squid has an outer spotted membrane-type skin, pull it off and discard.

6. Wash the tube an tenticles thoroughfully under cold running water.

Then they will look like you may see on the picture below.

It is time to prepare the sauce. Best combination for squids (and this is how they are usually served in Croatia), is lemon-garlic sauce. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, origano and mashed garlic. Pour part of the sauce as pregrilling marinade. The rest put aside for serving.

The best way is to grill the squids on the open fire grill. They will become firmer and loose their juice. So be prepared :)

As a side dish you may also grill zucchini or other veggies (pepper, mushrooms, tomato etc.)

Of course, you can also use baking oven instead of grill. You might need a bit longer time then.
On the grill you will approximately need 15-20 minutes until readiness, changing sides every 3-5 minutes. To make them really crispy, pour the water out of them as they get ready. You will notice that they are quite juicy :)

Immeadiately after taking squids out from grill, pour them with the sauce from all sides. Being warm helps them to get the most of the flavors from the sauce.

I used 1/4 of avocado to serve. It's up to your taste, what to choose as a side dish. But a good white wine is a must here :) We chose Malvasija this time.

Enjoy the summer.

Because good food is always a good idea.

P.S. Hopefully you also like fish and seafood. Otherwise I seem to be literally attacking you with such recipes during my last posts.