Use Your Booty: Star [Shell]Fish

After a week of CSA cooking I had only a bunch of mustard greens left in the fridge. The original plan was to toss them in a pasta sauce. Then, on a whim, I went to Eastman Fish Market up in Seabrook, NH. Eastman's is run by the Carolyn and Ed Eastman. Ed's a fisherman and he is out on the boats while Carolyn runs the shop and CSF. I forgot my camera so I don't have a pictures for you of their cute seafood market ... soon, I promise.

In addition to all the gorgeous fish in the case, Carolyn was also stocking fresh squid from off Cape Cod. So I picked up some to make for dinner. I have to confess that I wasn't 100% thrilled with the stuffing I made for them, but I like the idea so I wanted to share it with you anyway.

I stuffed the tubes with a mixture of the squid tentacles, chickpeas, mustard greens and lemon zest. Next time I'll try adding some chopped olives or capers - the dish needed a little more zip.

What you've really got to try is the polenta business that's underneath the squid tubes. Take soft polenta, top it with kale pesto and some crispy onions (made with my CSA onions). The contrast between the creamy polenta, the kale and the crispy onions was addicting (in fact I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning).

For crispy onions, slice your onions (or shallots perhaps) super thin. Toss with Wondra flour and then fry in 3/4" of hot oil until brown and, well, crispy. I tossed in a few parsley leaves right at the end (there will be a lot of sputtering). Drain and toss with a sprinkle of salt.