Chermoula Squid on the Big Green Egg

Fresh chargrilled squid with a spicy lemony sauce is bursting with bold flavours.

Chermoula is a pungent North African sauce, traditionally served with grilled fish and seafood. It’s a delicious blend of earthy spices, smoky sweet paprika with salty citrus notes and a hint of chilli, this also works well with chicken.

INGREDIENTS

Chermoula

• 2 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 tsp coriander seeds

• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

• 2 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 tbsp. sweet paprika

• 1 tsp. urfa chilli flakes or regular chilli flakes

• 2 preserved lemons, deseeded and chopped

• 1 tsp. salt

• ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

• 100ml olive oil

Squid

• 3-4 medium to large squid, cleaned

• fresh parsley, chopped to garnish

• lemon wedges, to serve

PREPARATION

Chermoula

Toast the spice in a dry frying pan then grind to a powder, I use a spice grinder which has a chopping bowl too, which is used to make the paste. Put the ground spices into a small chopper unit or pestle and mortar, add the preserved lemon, garlic, ginger, black pepper and salt, paprika, chilli flakes and grind to smooth paste. Add the olive oil to form a wet evenly mixed paste.

Squid

Take the body and lay flat on a chopping board and slice thru to the centre line along one side to from a series of cuts along the length, this allow for more surface for the paste and to get charred edges. Coat in the Chermoula and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

COOKING

Set the BBQ for direct cooking at around 200-220°c. Place the squid flat and even along with the tentacles and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side looking for the flesh to go white and opaque rather than translucent as when raw and hints of char on the chermoula paste.

Serve with the chopped parsley and lemon wedges.