Squid à la plancha with Preserved Lemons

Cooking à la plancha first beguiled me in Catalonia where, to the sound of the guitar, the chef at the Bar Madame Zozo could be seen – and heard – sizzling the most magnificent prawns on the plancha, a flat, iron griddle heated over a wood fire. There was dancing, flaming sambuca and the smell of prawn whiskers scorching – a great education in the art of joie de vivre.

All along the Mediterranean seashore, from Montpellier to the Spanish border, à la plancha<