Letter to Erin 20151020

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

I absolutely must teach you how to process seafood.  Ugh!  Now don't get me wrong, I love seafood.  But prepping seafood is so tedious.  And stinky.  And slimy.  It's not like chicken or beef.  Tonight's seafood is cuttlefish.  Cuttlefish is a squid and like all seafood, fresh cuttlefish shouldn't have any smell.  Until you open it up, and reveal what they eat.  Fresh squid should have tight skin with evenly distributed color: white squid may be because the skin was peeled off to give the illusion of fresh.  Squid is stinkier than fish, but the good thing is that cats hate the smell of squid, and they leave me alone when I'm working with it.  First I separate the heads from the bodies, by carefully pulling it out of the body with the guts still attached.  Then I remove the ink sacs, the beak, and the eyes.  I keep the stomach and liver if it doesn't smell bad.  If there's something in the stomach, then it would smell bad.  If you managed to pull all the guts out with the heads, then there should be nothing left in the bodies.  Remove the spines from the bodies, and they're good to go.  Just wash them off, and keep the heads and the bodies in separate Tupperware.  Squid freezes well, and keep for a long time in the freezer.

But it's not squid for dinner.  My Mom gave some tomato rice, with chicken in a spicy red sauce, and a mixed pickle.  This stuff is usually served at local weddings.  I would share it with you, but I already ate it all.  Plus, you're not here.  Wish you were here.  I love you, and I need you.