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Salt & pepper squid
Serves 4 as a starter or as a main alongside other dishes
More effort
Prep:
Cook:
Crisp, spicy coating and hot, tender squid make an irresistible combination
Skip to ingredients
- 85g cornflour
- 85g plain flour
- 2 tsp black peppercracked
- 2 tbsp ground Szechuan peppercornsroughly crushed
- sunflower or vegetable oilfor frying
- 400g squidcleaned and cut into strips (see tips, below)
- finely sliced spring onionand green chilli, to serve
For the dipping sauce
- 1 red chillifinely chopped
- half cucumberfinely diced
- 1 small red onionfinely chopped
- 100ml rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tsp fish sauce
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal380
- fat14g
- saturates2g
- carbs48g
- sugars7g
- fibre1g
- protein20g
- salt3.29g
Method
step 1
To make the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved, then set aside. Mix the cornflour and plain flour with both peppers and 2 tsp sea salt in a large bowl, then set aside. Line a tray with kitchen paper and make sure you have more salt to sprinkle with.
step 2
Heat about 7cm of oil to 180C in a deep fryer, wok or deep pan. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can test it with a cube of bread – it should brown in 20 secs. Coat the squid well with the flour mix and fry in batches for about 2 mins each or until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to lift out the squid, then drain on the kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little more salt. Serve the squid scattered with the spring onion and chilli, with the dipping sauce on the side.
