This is a Cantonese style crispy salt and pepper squid that's paired with a sweet and sour sauce. This recipe will guide you through preparing your squid to make calamari and how to add a good amount of flavour without overpowering it. Light, crispy and fried - the best way to make crispy squid (or calamari) at home.
Category
Lunch
Servings
2
Prep time
30 minutes
Cook time
15 minutes
This is a Cantonese style crispy salt and pepper squid that's paired with a sweet and sour sauce. This recipe will guide you through preparing your squid and how to add a good amount of flavour without overpowering it. Light, crispy and fried - the best way to make crispy squid (or calamari) at home.
Ingredients
- 500g squid, cleaned
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- 300g rice flour
- sea salt and ground white pepper, to season
- peanut oil (or other neutral oil) for deep frying
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 long red chillies
- 6 spring onions
- 12 cloves garlic
- 2 long red chillies
- 2 long green chillies
- 50g caster sugar
- 100ml rice wine vinegar
- 2g chilli flakes
- 10g sea salt
- 1g MSG
Squid
Sweet & Sour Sauce
Directions
Make the sauce
Finely chop the garlic and chillies and place in a medium saucepan. Add the sugar, vinegar, chilli flakes and sea salt and place over a high heat.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Transfer the sauce to a sterilised jar and set aside to cool.
Prep the Squid
Separate the squid tubes from the tentacles. Cut the tentacles off just below the beak. You can feel the hard little nub where the tentacles meet. Discard the beak and anything above it.
- Reach inside the tube and pull out the clear plastic-like quill (also called the pen). Discard it. Peel away and discard the thin purple membrane from the outside of the tubes. It should pull off easily with your fingers or the tip of a knife.
- Run a sharp knife through the tube to open it up flat. Pat the inside dry with paper towel.
- Score the inside squid tubes with a diamond pattern 3-5mm wide. Slice the tubes lengthways into 3 long thick strips, then into 5cm (2 in) wide pieces. Slice the tentacles into bite sized pieces, scraping away as many of the suckers as you can so they fry cleanly.
- Add the squid to a bowl with the egg and Chinese cooking wine and mix well.
- Place the rice flour in a large bowl and season with salt and white pepper . Toss the squid slices in the rice flour, until they are completely coated. Leave on a wire rack over a tray until ready to cook.
Cook the Squid
Preheat the peanut oil to 180°C (355°C) in a deep fryer or deep pan.
- While the oil is heating, finely chop the garlic, and thinly slice the red chillies and green onions.
- Heat a dry wok over high heat. Add the garlic, chillies and green onions and stir fry briefly until fragrant, then leave in the wok.
- Deep fry the squid in batches for 2-3 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. Drain on a wire rack over a tray.
- Add the squid to the wok with the garnish. Season with salt, white pepper and MSG. Toss quickly to coat, then serve immediately with the sauce on the side for dipping.
Recipe notes
Sourcing
Whole squid can be sourced from your local fish monger and they can do the messy cleaning process for you. You can also buy just the squid tubes pre-cleaned if you don’t want to cook the tentacles.
Cook support
Although squid and calamari hail from the same family, their textures differ. Squid can have a tougher bite, but the names can also be used more broadly as “squid” for the general species, whilst “calamari” is the culinary term used by Italians for the dish.
Scoring the squid increases the surface area, which increases the crunch. It is best to do a fast cook and avoid overcrowding the pan, thus overcooking.
Serving ideas
This dish is often served with lemon and aioli in Australia, which is based on the Italian version Fritto misto. Our preference is to serve with the tangy spicy sauce, in the Cantonese style.
FAQs
Is this dish spicy? A little bit. The sauce brings heat from fresh chillies and chilli flakes. You can dial it back if needed.
Can I air-fry instead of deep-fry? You can, but you won’t get the same crispy texture.
Is this gluten free? Yes, as long as your rice wine and other ingredients are certified gluten free.
What oil should I use? Any neutral oil with a high smoke point will do.
Why score the squid? Scoring helps it curl up and crisp faster. More crunch, better texture.
