Ultra Crispy Salt and Pepper Squid
It only took us 3 years to crack the ultimate, truly crispy Salt and Pepper Squid! Hand on heart, this is crispier than any fried squid I’ve had in a restaurant, ever. And I have tried a lot. Once I had my sights set of creating a great Salt and Pepper Squid recipe, I would never pass up an opportunity if I saw it on a menu. 95% of the time, they just weren’t crispy at all which is so disappointing, and all too often they were really greasy. The 5% of the time that they were crispy, the crispness really only lingered for just enough time to eat the bowl of squid – provided you ate very quickly! Well, our hunt for crispy squid is finally over. It is here today, and it’s incredible! The fry batter is light, super crunchy and not greasy at all. In fact, it’s so crispy it stays crispy even when it’s stone cold! ** If you’re interested in the recipe development process, see the blue box below the ingredients section for more information where I’ve indulged in some background information!**
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Crispy Salt and Pepper Squid.
The squid
You can use either squid tubes that are sold already cleaned (right, below) or whole baby squid (left) which needs to be cleaned before use (ask your fish monger or do it yourself). Baby squid is nicer because the squid flesh is thinner and more delicate so it’s softer. Plus, the tentacles are the crunchiest! But by no means are cleaned squid tubes a poor cousin.
Baby squid is sold whole with the head and tentacles attached, and the skin on, as pictured. They range in size but the ones pictured have a body and head about 20 cm / 8” long and tentacles roughly the same length. The body (the tube part) and the tentacles are the edible parts. You can either ask your fish monger to clean the squid for you or do it yourself, see my separate tutorial here. It involves: removing the skin, cleaning out the guts, removing the cartilage and beak, and removing the head. Squid tubes – Sold pre cleaned, sparkling white tubes ready for use! Handier, but it is less tender than baby squid simply because the meat comes from a larger, older squid so it’s thicker. It’s just like animal meat – younger, smaller animal = softer meat, but meat from older animals is by no means tough and chewy if cooked correctly. (And yes, we cook the squid correctly!!)
The crispy batter for squid
We found that the key to the ultra crispy batter for squid came down to using the right flours (cornflour + regular flour), the perfect ratio and the clincher: refrigerating the batter for 30 minutes. If you’re a food nerd like me who is interested in the logic of the why this batter works, read below for more information! The body (the tube part) and the tentacles are the edible parts. You can either ask your fish monger to clean the squid for you or do it yourself, see my separate tutorial here. It involves: removing the skin, cleaning out the guts, removing the cartilage and beak, and removing the head.
Flour and cornflour/cornstarch – Just regular plain flour (all-purpose flour). We use a very specific ratio of each to achieve the right level of crispiness and golden colour. This is because cornflour makes things crispy but won’t fry up golden, and if you use too much, the batter is chewy and gets stuck in your teeth. On the other hand, flour batters fry up beautifully golden but are not as crispy, and they soften so quickly. So I use both! Baking powder – This makes the batter puff up a bit to make it lighter rather than dense. Regular tap water – I use ice cold soda water in other fry batters as a secret trick for crunch. But for this recipe because we need to refrigerate anyway, there’s no need to use cold water. And there’s no point using fizzy water because the fizziness would not last for the refrigeration time. Salt and pepper – for seasoning.
How to make salt and pepper squid
Cutting the squid
If using cleaned squid tubes (pictured above), you can start with these steps immediately. If you have whole baby squid (with the skin, head and tentacles, you will need to clean it first. See the separate post on how to clean and prepare baby squid here. The starch is the biggest variable When it comes to fry batters, the thing that affects the crispiness the most is the starch used. Regular flour will make batters that clings to food well and it fries up into a lovely golden crust. But it does not go as crispy as cornflour (cornstarch) and other gluten-free starches such as rice flour and potato flour. After eliminating rice flour, potato flour and others we tried such as tapioca, we landed on cornflour as the best starch to combine with regular flour. Why not just use cornflour, if it fries up so crunchy? Because the crust will not fry up golden (it stays white which is not as appealing) and though crispy, the texture is tough and gets stuck in your teeth. So basically, we had to play around various ratios of regular flour and cornflour until we came up with the right combination that delivered a light, very crispy crust with the right amount of crunch, the right golden colour and an acceptable crunch staying-power. Early iterations we made were either too tough, too chewy, too fragile and many, many versions we made were simply not crispy enough! Fridge batter resting And the final key to unlock the door to the world of ultra crispy salt and pepper squid was to refrigerate the batter. Most of my other fry batters rely on ice cold soda water to chill the batter (leading to crispy crust when shocked by the hot oil) and for the fizz to provide some lift. However, for the squid batter, we found it was best to rest the batter for 30 minutes to allow the gluten to rest and develop so the batter would cling to the slippery squid better. In doing so, this chilled the batter so using cold soda water wasn’t necessary, just regular tap water was fine. And a smidge of baking powder took care of the lift part! PS “We” is RecipeTin’s Chef JB and me. It was mostly JB who did the groundwork with me beside him on the crispy squid journey, eating and analysing and problem solving. For recipe development projects like this we approach it in a very methodical way, changing one variable at a time and doing lots of research, like the frying characteristics and liquid absorbency of different starches. I know, I’m SUCH a dork!
### BATTERING & FRYING
This is actually a good recipe to start with if you are new to oil frying because small pieces of squid are easy to handle and it cooks in just a couple of minutes. Much easier than, say, Southern Fried Chicken!
Pick up a piece of squid and let the excess batter drip off for a second.
The fry time is short because squid cooks really quickly, and nobody wants chewy squid.
You can do this step in 2 batches, it’s ok to crowd the pot.
Look how happy I am! It is, of course, because the batter is so incredibly crispy and the squid is so tender!!!
This recipe makes a fairly large batch using 500g/1 lb of squid which, once fried up, will fill a tray. As with most fried foods, I figure if we’re going to make it, let’s make plenty!
It’s a meal for 4 to 5 people or a great appetiser for sharing for 6 to 8 people. And though at its prime freshly cooked, this remarkable fry batter crust will stay crunchy even when the squid is cold and it reheats incredibly well. Just pop the squid in a hot oven for 6 minutes just to reheat the crust and warm the squid inside. Take a bite and marvel at the re-incarnation of the crunch!! – Nagi x
## Watch how to make it
See separate tutorial for how to clean baby squid referenced in the video here.
## More crunchy fried goodness
## Life of Dozer
There is no limit to how low I will stoop for him. 😂
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