Fried calamari and marinara from The Grand Central Oyster Bar Cookbook.

The Grand Central Oyster Bar’s fried calamari with house marinara

Few things make me as nostalgic for New York like the Grand Central Oyster Bar. Especially when we lived in Stamford and would take the train into the city, we’d often stop on our way back for a couple of beers and a dozen oysters, usually selecting a few East and West coast selections from the daily board. During our last hurrah in the city before moving to Baltimore we stopped in after a wistful day of visiting other favorites and actually sat down to enjoy their iconic oyster pan roast which was just what I wanted after a long, drizzly December day.

The bar area of Grand Central Oyster Bar

The restaurant’s cookbook has naturally been part of my collection for years, though I don’t cook out of it as often as I’d like because it’s not always easy to predict what the Teet will have available in its fish department. I pulled it out recently because my original plans for one of our dinners fell through and I suggested getting some crab cakes over at Fenwick Meats in the Cross Street Market, and Michael said that we should make a sauce for them. Flipping to the Oyster Bar’s crab cake recipe, I saw that they paired it with what they called Baltimore Red Sauce which was their house marinara punched up with more Old Bay (obviously) and some dashes of Tabasco. 

Clearly, my question was answered.

Fenwick Meats house-made crab cake with Baltimore Red Sauce

The GCOB’s marinara is one of the more interesting ones I’ve encountered because it calls for whole plum tomatoes, tomato puree, and a small can of tomato sauce. It’s also seasoned with Old Bay–unsurprising given that the sauce is meant to pair with fish and shellfish–but it’s still quite versatile. While I made a batch of the Baltimore Red for the crab cakes, I saved some in the fridge to go with GCOB’s fried calamari and froze the rest to go with meatballs a week later. (It might seem odd to pair pork with a seafood-inspired sauce, but to me it feels very much in the spirit of Catalonian mar i muntanya.)

View of the lounge area of the Grand Central Oyster Bar

The main issue I had with the sauce was that it relied on Old Bay to provide all of the seasoning; while the blend contains celery salt, we added about two teaspoons of kosher salt to the pan which did the trick. The calamari, meanwhile, was extremely straightforward: the tubes are cut into rings and dredged with rice flour seasoned with kosher salt. You then put them into a colander to shake off the excess, fry them in oil, and the squid rings emerge covered in a light, lacy crust. We devoured these as a first course before I set about making my pasta dish, and it really hit the spot. Michael ate the leftover sauce in the ramekin with a spoon.

If I can’t sit and slurp oysters under the Catalan vaults and Guastavino tiles in Grand Central station right now, this at least provides a worthwhile alternative.

Fried calamari with The Grand Central Oyster Bar’s house marinara

Lightly adapted from The Grand Central Oyster Bar Cookbook by Sandy Ingber and Roy Finamore

Serves 2

• 1 lb squid bodies, sliced into rings. (If you have some tentacles, cut large ones in half)
• 1 cup rice flour
• ½ tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• Canola oil for frying
• 1 cup Marinara sauce (recipe to follow)

Place the squid rings on some paper towels and blot them as dry as possible. Add the rice flour into a shallow bowl and season it with the ½ teaspoon of salt.

In a small saucepan, heat the marinara and keep it on low, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add the oil to a Dutch oven to about three inches high and heat it to 360 degrees. Have a draining rig next to the oil on a counter by placing paper towels underneath a cooling rack with the cooling rack flush to the towels.

Dredge the squid rings into the flour and add them to a colander. Shake out any excess flour by shaking the colander, and then lower them into the oil in batches using a spider or strainer. Cook the squid until the rings are light brown, about one and a half minutes. Fish out the squid rings using a spider, add to the draining rig, and lightly season with additional kosher salt. Repeat until all squid have been fried.

Serve with the marinara and enjoy!

The Grand Central Oyster Bar Marinara

Makes 6 cups

• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 large shallots, coarsely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2 fresh basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 28 oz can plum tomatoes in puree
• 1 28 oz can tomato puree
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped or ½ tsp dried oregano, crumbled
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper
• 3 tsp Old Bay seasoning
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ tsp red wine vinegar
• ¾ tsp Worcestershire sauce

Place the onion, shallot, garlic, and basil into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to a fine mince. (I have a small food processor so I did this in batches, first with the onion, and then with the garlic, shallot, and basil and mixed them all together.) 

Add the oil to a large saute pan and heat to medium-high heat until the oil shimmers, and add the minced vegetables. Cook, stirring often, until they become lightly caramelized–about 10-15 minutes.

Pour the canned tomatoes with its puree into a bowl and carefully break them up with your hands. Add the tomatoes, the puree, the sauce, the oregano, the stock, the pepper, the Old Bay, the vinegar, the salt, and the Worcestershire sauce and bring the pan to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer, partially cover, and let the sauce cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. The sauce will keep for five days in the fridge covered or in the freezer for 3 months. Be sure to bring the frozen sauce to a boil before consuming it.

To make Baltimore red sauce: per cup of sauce add an additional teaspoon of Old Bay and 4-5 dashes of Tabasco.