Cooking for the Two of Us!

Salt & Pepper Squid

So, when my daughter tells me she is staying over at her boy friend’s house I do two things:  #1 try not to think about it and #2 take comfort in food and alcohol.

I’ve written before about how she will devour crumbed calamari rings, (but only if I make them) but dish up salt and pepper squid to her and she’d rather stick forks in her eyes than eat.

I made this on Saturday night, drank a nice bottle of bubbly and danced around the living room to the strains of  Van Halen!

Bubbly will make me do that!

Ingredients

Five-spice mix

1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp celery powder
1 tbsp chicken stock powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp five-spice powder

Squid
500 g fresh whole squid
2 tbsp self-raising flour
peanut oil
cornflour
4 spring onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
½ tbsp rice wine

Method

Combine the ingredients for the five-spice mix and set aside.

Clean the squid by pulling the tentacles from the body. Wash out the tube and remove the clear ‘backbone’. Peel off the skin if you like. Cut the tentacles from the head and discard the head. Cut the tube into triangles, which helps the squid to curl during cooking. You can score the triangle pieces if you like. I did this time but don’t always.

In a bowl, mix the self-raising flour with 1 tablespoon of peanut oil and a little water to make a paste. Add the squid pieces and tentacles and coat well. Sprinkle and toss with enough cornflour until the pieces are dry.

Heat enough peanut oil in a wok for deep-frying. Add the squid in batches and cook until golden and crisp. Remove with a  slotted spoon. When all the squid is cooked, drain most of the oil from the wok.

Add the spring onions, garlic and chilli to the wok. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Return the squid to the wok, add 2–3 teaspoons of five-spice mix and toss well. Add the rice wine, toss and serve immediately.

I served the squid with stir fry veggies consisting of corn, red capsicum, onion, snow peas as well as coconut rice with thai basil and coriander.

loving the colours!

Too good!

Winning combination!