We recently visited the Crystal City Jaleo, to not only partake in watching the now famous “Iron Chef: America – Andrés vs. Flay in battle Goat” but also to support one of Andrés favorite charities, D.C. Central Kitchen. We certainly enjoyed watching José Andrés pummel Bobby Flay, but we got even more satisfaction from eating a couple (okay, more than a couple) of Jaleo’s delectable offerings. This left us with the difficult task of choosing one of our favorites to feature in this week’s column, never mind the pressure of re-creating a recipe of an Iron Chef champion.

Although a goat dish would be the most appropriate way to commemorate the battle, we did not have any goat items that night and apparently never will have the option again as Andrés, jokingly, swore off all goat in any of his restaurants. Instead we chose his “Calamares a la Plancha.” This tapas item was one of the last we chose and it ended up blowing all of the others away. The tenderness of the whole squid with the sweet and smoky flavors of pimentos just melted in our mouths.

Since there are only a few inexpensive ingredients in this dish we opted to invest a little extra in a good quality extra virgin olive oil, which we used to finish the dish. This recipe is our interpretation and it serves two “tapas” style portions.