Squid is one of those things that I always associate with charcoal grills, holidays and blazing sunshine. I’ve only ever eaten it grilled or deep fried, so I thought I’d give it a go in a different dish to see how it changed the taste. I know that with squid the rules are that you either cook it as fast as you can, or long and slow. Anything in between and you have rubber bands, and nobody wants that.

I found Raymond’s recipe on the BBC website. As ever, a joy to watch. I didn’t have all the things that he used so, yes you guessed it, I winged it. I wanted to bulk it out more, too, so added chick peas in, and left the garlic out as I wanted a more gentle taste.

1 large white onion

olive oil

1 tbs tomato puree

1/2 cup Commandaria wine (use what you have. That’s what I had.)

1 400g tin of good quality chopped tomatoes

300g squid tubes, cleaned and skinned (thank you Ocado)

1 tin chick peas, drained

100g chorizo (mine was plain, not the picante one) cut into 1 inch pieces

Peel the onion, cut in half, and chop into thick ish slices.

Sauté off in some olive oil until it starts to soften, then add the tomato puree.

Stir and fry that until it is well mixed in with the onion.

Add the wine, turn the heat up so that the wine boils for a minute or so, then turn the heat back down to low.

Add in the tomatoes and the chick peas, then the chorizo.

While that’s simmering, slice the squid tubes open, lightly cross hatch the skin with the back of a dinner knife, then cut into large pieces.

Pop that in to the sauce, pushing down so that it is covered well, put a lid on and then leave it to cook on a very low heat for 1 hour.

After one hour, the squid will be tender, and will have soaked in a lot of the chorizo flavour, and vice versa.

I actually left mine overnight, and then gently reheated it the next day.

The flavour of the squid is very pronounced, a lot stronger than when you flash fry it, and I realised that it was missing that char grill taste that I loved so much, so I did what any normal person would do at 8am on a Sunday, and got the blow torch out.

Adding that charred edge to the pieces took it from a good dish, to an excellent one that I will most definitely make again. I might use white beans next time.