Recipe: Jess' Salt & Pepper Calamari

Today's post is by Jess from A Little Part of The World

I have been using this recipe for years. It is dead easy and super yummy. You just have to be ok around hot oil. One NYE hubby was cooking it (we were having it as a starter for a dinner we were having with friends) and got some splash back from the oil and burnt one of his fingers. He is fine but it was painful at the time. So please… with any dish that uses hot oil, please use caution.

This is the perfect started for an adults dinner party, as a great addition to a seafood buffet, or great nibbles plate for a cocktail party. It’s great for lunch served with a salad and chips or even for dinner. I cook it a lot for the kids as they love it and serve it with homemade oven baked potato chips.

JESS' SALT & PEPPER CALAMARI

INGREDIENTS:
2 x Squid hoods
3 x Tablespoons Flour (enough to cover your plate to toss the squid in) You can also use Rice flour
Vegetable oil (enough for shallow frying - covering the bas of you frying pan about 1cm deep)
Salt & Pepper to season to taste

METHOD:
1) Cut down one side of the squid hood to open it up to be one flat piece. Make sure it’s clean enough and if need be tidy it up some.
2) With your sharp knife score the inside of the squid diagonally one way (make the cuts about 2cm apart) being careful not to cut it all the way through. The cut diagonally in the other direction which will make little diamond shapes on the squid.
3) Cut the squid into strips. (1-2cm wide) it really depends on your preference
4) On a separate plate cover the base with the flour. Season the flour with the salt and pepper. An option for adults is some dried chilli added to the mix if you like some added spice
5) Lightly toss the squid in the flour so it has a light covering. Do this right before cooking so the flour doesn't become too soggy on the damp squid. I tend to do this piece by piece as I find it gets a great light coating. It’s a little more time consuming but I think it gives a great result
6) Cover your frying pan with about 1cm oil and turn on the heat
7) When the oil is hot enough place the squid in small batches being careful not to splash yourself or overcrowd the pan
8) Toss the squid gently and then golden remove from the oil immediately and place on to paper towel to dry and absorb the excess oil
9) Cook any remaining squid
10) Serve hot with some lemon wedges or some aioli and ENJOY!

To pin Jess' recipe for later simply click the title and pin this image

"I’m Jess. Wife to 1. Mother to 2. Blogger at A Little Part of the World. I write about all things lifestyle & parenting… you’ll see lots of lovely photos, stories from the parenting trenches, yummy and easy food, fashion and beauty items I love and bits and pieces from our home that we have completely renovated over the last 3 years. I love my family, nutella, wine, sleep and people who make me laugh!! I dislike people who are fake, when the nutella jar is empty, ironing and toys everywhere.”