Ingredients
- For the Asian dressing:
- 1 red chilli, seeds removed
- 1 small piece of ginger, peeled
- 1tbs vegetable oil
- 50ml rice wine vinegar
- 50ml soy sauce
- 2tbs fish sauce
- 1tsp cornflour
- 1tsp honey
- 1 lime, juice and zest
- 2 large squid tubes, cleaned
- About 80g self-raising flour
- About 80g rice flour
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Vegetable oil
- Handful fresh coriander leaves, picked
- Handful fresh mint leaves, picked
- 1 red chilli, thinly sliced
- Start by making the dressing. Finely dice the chilli and ginger and add to a small pot with the vegetable oil. Cook over a medium heat for three minutes until softened, stirring regularly, then add the vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, cornflour and honey. Stir together and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Allow to cool before finishing with some lime juice and zest, then set aside.
- Slice the cleaned squid tubes into rings about 1-1½cm thick. Add the flour and rice flour to a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and mix together with a spoon.
- Heat the oil in a wide-based pot (you want about one inch of oil in the pot). Test the oil is hot enough by dropping a bit of flour in; if it sizzles straight away, it’s ready. Place the squid rings in the flour blend and dredge well until evenly coated, then place on a plate, ready to fry.
- Carefully place them in the oil using a tongs and shallow fry for two to three minutes until golden brown and crispy on the outside, then remove the calamari from the pot with a tongs and place in a bowl.
- Add a few spoons of the Asian dressing to the calamari to evenly coat in the sauce, then place in a serving bowl. Serve alongside a small salad bowl of the picked coriander and mint leaves and garnish with some thinly sliced red chilli.
