A light interlude

There is nothing that I like more than calamari - a common enough but slightly tricky dish as the squid have to be pristine and fresh, the batter crisp on the outside and the squid soft and succulent on the inside. My previous attempts were a little challenged to say the least, as I often found my batter falling off the squid or being too doughy for comfort.

So here is the perfected recipe for calamari that Ben has labelled as "very finger-licking delicious"!


Fried Calamari Recipe

Ingredients
1. 4 - 5 medium to large fresh squid, cleaned and sliced into 1/2 inch width rings
2. 1 1/2 cups of rice flour
3. 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
4. 2 tbsp light soy sauce
5. 1 tbsp white rice vinegar
6. 1 tsp vegetable oil
7. 1 tsp sugar
8. 1 tsp salt
9. 1/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper +/- paprika (to taste)

Method
1. Dry prepared squid with some kitchen towels
2. Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of rice flour, soy sauce, vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper with approximately 1 cup of water. The batter should be thick.
3. Mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup rice flour and toss squid into the flour mixture. Give a few good grinds of sea salt and black pepper over the mixture, and place in a sieve to shake off the excess flour.
4. Heat up a pot of vegetable oil (at least 1 inch deep)
5. Mix flour-coated squid to the batter and fry till golden brown.
6. Drain on kitchen towels, then serve immediately with salad, a lemon wedge and some garlic aioli.