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What’s cooking today: Calamari rings, deep fried

What’s cooking today: Calamari rings, deep fried
Tony Jackman
By Tony Jackman
7 Feb 2022
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The tightrope act of getting fried calamari just right, neither rubbery and chewy nor undercooked, is one of the greatest kitchen challenges.

Calamari and I have a chequered history. Too hot and it’s ruined, not hot enough and it’s ruined. Cook too long and it’s rubbery, but too little time can spoil it too. In the worst-case scenario, a calamari ring that starts out the size of a bangle comes out the size of a hair scrunchy.

(If anybody has the Chapman’s Peak Hotel’s method for cooking its famous calamari, please do whisper it in my ear at [email protected].)

Googling brings you a host of tips:


  • Cook it either very quickly or for a long time; either up to two minutes at a very high heat or 30 minutes to an hour and low. In the latter method, the idea is for it first to become tough and then to tenderise again over time.

  • Soak it in milk first, to break down the elements that cause it to toughen in the pan.

  • The Spruce Eats advises measuring the critter’s body first. Five inches or less, cook it quickly, any bigger, take your time.

  • Par boil rings in rapidly boiling water for less than a minute, plunge into iced water, then marinate and fry later. (That also comes from The Spruce Eats.)

  • Don’t overcrowd the frying pan. Like pieces of beef, they need space between them; elbow room if you like.

  • Pound the rings gently before cooking. That’s Martha Stewart talking, Not for me: I don’t pound anything in the kitchen. (And how can anything be pounded gently anyway?)

  • Soak in lemon juice for five minutes before cooking.

  • Get someone else to cook it for you, pull up a seat at the table and put a bib on while you wait. That’s probably my best advice.


Or try it this way…

Ingredients

700 g calamari rings

160 g bread flour

100 g semolina

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 Tbsp oregano leaves, chopped

Grated zest of 1 small lemon

Milk to cover the calamari rings, as much as needed

Cooking oil

Lemon wedges

For spicy rice: rice, olive oil, onion, bell pepper, garlic, chilli and lemon juice

Method

Soak the calamari rings in milk, enough to cover, for a few hours.

Rinse and pat the rings dry, lightly.

Mix the flour and semolina together and stir in the seasonings.

Dip the rings into this mixture and leave on a tray or board near the stove.

Heat cooking oil (I used canola) in a deep pot. Don’t use a chip basket; that’s for chips, whereas calamari rings or fish will stick to it and become a collective mess.

I use the same method as for chips when assessing when the temperature of the oil is right. Hold one floured calamari ring with a finger and lower the other edge of it into the oil. The bubbles need to shoot off in all directions immediately but not too violently. Adjust the heat as necessary after doing so.

Fry the rings in batches, dropping them straight into the oil, for up to but not more than two minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl lined with kitchen paper and get on with the next batch.

Before cooking them, boil and drain rice. In a pan with a little oil, lightly fry chopped onion, red and green peppers and garlic (chilli too if you like), season with salt and pepper, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and stir the rice through this. Serve the calamari with the rice and lemon wedges. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop. Buy it here. 

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

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