Vietnamese Squid Salad

I made this for the first time this weekend.  It was really quite tasty, but seemed more like a summer thing to me.  So, I'm pretty sure I'll be making it a lot this summer.  Very healthy. No fat, no carbs.

This recipe is supposedly from Jacques Pepin.  (Although I did no research to find out if that's true or not.)

Squid Salad a la Binh (as modified by me) 

(Makes 4 small salads)

1 pound squid, cleaned 

4 cloves of garlic, minced 

1/2 red chile pepper, minced

1 cup very thinly sliced onions

3 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

A few thinly sliced basil leaves

lettuce

Prepare dressing: mix garlic, chile, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and salt together.  Slice onions.  Mince a tablespoon or two's worth of cilantro stems and toss with the onions and dressing. (I use only the stems at this point because they have a lot of flavor and can stand up to the acidity of the dressing.)

Bring water to boil in a large pot.  Cut the body of each squid crosswise into 1-inch slices and the tentacles into 1/2-inch pieces.  Add the squid to the boiling water and cook for about three minutes, stirring occasionally, just until the water returns to a boil.  Do not overcook. Drain immediately.  

Add warm squid to the the dressing, onion and cilantro stem mixture.  Toss, cover and refrigerate.  (I made it the night before I planned to eat it.)  

To serve, add chopped cilantro leaves and the slivered basil to the squid mixture.  Toss.  Spoon on top of lettuce leaves.

Eat!