Salt & Pepper Squid
Maria is an elderly and persistent Portuguese fish-lady who has hawked her wares around Freo for years. When Pearl answered our frontdoor to her recently, Maria exclaimied in her usual fractured and rather limited English, “Frash! Frash!” as she lifted a couple of glutenous squid out of a plastic bag for my wife to inspect.
Feeling sorry for Maria once again, Pearl bought the squid, then told me she couldn’t bring herself to touch them and if we were going to eat them, I’d have to cook them! This posed a bit of a challenge as deep-frying is something of an extreme sport for blind people! Notwithstanding, I found a recipe and set to work. We managed to deep-fry the squid without mishap and both agreed it turned out very well … delicious in fact. It’s quite simple, so why not give it a go?
Salt & Pepper Squid (Cooking Time 4 mins.)
Ingredients (serves 2 – 4)
3 (about 600g) large cleaned squid hoods
1L (4 cups) vegetable oil
40g (1/4 cup) plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1/2 tsp chilli powder
Lemon wedges and soy sauce with sliced fresh red chilli, to serve
Method
Use a sharp knife to cut through 1 side of each squid hood lengthways. Open out flat with inside surface facing up and score surface diagonally. Cut into 3.5cm squares and pat dry with paper towel.
Heat the oil in a large wok over medium heat until it reaches 190°C on a confectionary/oil thermometer. (Or, add a 5cm cube of bread to the oil – it should turn light golden in 10 secs.)
Meanwhile, combine the flour, salt, pepper, Chinese five-spice and chilli in a medium bowl. Add the squid and toss gently to coat.
Remove half of the squid from the flour mixture and shake off any excess. Add to the oil and cook, turning with a slotted metal spoon, for 2 minutes or until the squid just turns golden and curls. Use the slotted spoon to transfer the squid to a large plate lined with paper towel to drain. Reheat the oil in the wok to 190°C. Repeat with the remaining squid.
Serve immediately with the lemon wedges and chilli soy sauce.
