Salt and Pepper squid

[The Incredible Hull]

As requested by Groper, here is the receipe:

Salt and Pepper Squid

Ingredients:

The seasoning mix:

1 tbsp Five Spice powder

1 tbsp Salt

1 tbsp Chicken Powder

1 spring onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

5 tbsp self-raising flour

Vegetable oil

Cornflour or potato starch

Your favourite beer

STEP 1: Preparing the Squid

Holding the hood with 1 hand and holding the head with the other, pull them both in opposite directions. Once head is removed, lie the squid with its wings flat down, so when you're looking down the squid you'll be looking at the round part.

Using scissors, cut along the hood, all the way up to the tip. Open up the hood and find the back bone (clear hard plastic thing). Lift the back bone with 1 finger and gradually pull it down whilst holding the squid hood down. You should be able to get it out (along with the guts) all in 1 nice and neat tear.

Now to remove the wings. From the top of the hood, insert your finger in between the skin and you should be able to separate the hood with the wings and you'll be left with a nice white hood. I also use the wings... to use the wings, you need to use a sharp knife, and cut along the hard section of the wing. The hard section is the long straight section of it, if you feel the wing you'll know what I mean; it’s thin, about 5mm wide. After cutting it off, you can then peel the skin off the wings.

Using a sharp knife, score the squid, diagonally and repeat and reverse the other direction, so you'll end up with little diamonds. Place in bowl and set aside.

STEP 2: Preparing the Batter

Use about 5 tbsp self-raising flour, possibly more. Then slowly pour your favourite beer (only use beer that you would enjoy drinking). Mix it with your hands. You're looking for a pasty (not too runny) texture, so add flour or beer as needed.

Now add all of your squid pieces in and have your corn flour\potato starch next to you. Start mixing up the squid pieces with your hand to coat evenly. Now, with the corn flour or potato starch, start to slowly add this in while mixing it with your other hand. You do this a bit at a time as it's like mixing cement, you don't want unmixed powder. You're looking for a sticky dry texture. This will make it crispy on the outside.

STEP 3: Deep fry the Squid

Using vegetable oil, deep fry the squid. As you drop them in, try to drop them in separately or they end up sticking together. On high heat, I would fry them for a maximum of only 1 minute, even less...

STEP 4: Preparing the Wok and seasoning

Chop up about 1 clove of garlic. Doesn't need to be fine, I like it more rough so they don't burn in the wok. And chop up a good handful of spring onions.

Combine the seasoning mix into a small bowl.

When the wok is on high heat, put a small amount of oil in, throw in the garlic and spring onions and fry for 20 seconds. Then throw in all the deep fried squid pieces. Using a spatula (or if you toss the wok like a chef), mix the squid whilst grabbing the seasoning mix in your other hand and sprinkling it in. You do this repeatedly to even coat the squid pieces. The important thing here is not to over season it. The seasoning mix is very salty, so perhaps grab 1 squid out to taste test before adding more seasoning.

Serve with a nice cold beer and that’s all folks!

Edited April 16, 2013 by The Incredible Hull

[cameldownunder]

Great info, always wanted to know how. Might try this weekend. Maybe not with a Budweiser ;-)

[Basil D]

Thanks for that, I thought your receipe might be different to what Im using, will give a go.