Chilli Salt Squid (or variation thereof) is a dish I often order in Chinese or South East Asian restaurants. I haven’t quite got the hang of replicating it yet, but it didn’t taste bad at all, nonetheless. The prawns got done at the same time as they were in the fridge and I was worrying about them going off if I left them any longer.

Squid is pretty easy to prepare, if you can get over the squeamish factor of handling it. First, you need to pull the head and tentacles away from the body. This will bring the guts and internal shell with them. Peel off the wings and outer skin and discard.

I then slice open the squid before washing thoroughly, although you can wash it easily enough without having to cut it open. If you want to do the calamari style rings, then don’t slice open. Pat dry and score in a crosshatch way to prevent it curling up too much when cooking. Then cut into about 2 cm pieces. You can use the tentacles as well, but I was running late, so just discarded these with the entrails and head.

I then put the pieces in with a mixture of flour (100g), salt (1 Tbps), chilli powder (1 tsp) and some dried chillies. Removed the pieces from the flour mixture and place in hot oil to deep fry. I covered the pre-cooked prawns in the same mixture.

Heat vegetable or corn oil until it’s shimmering and then fry the squid for a couple of minutes,  taking out to taste to see if it’s done. Drain on kitchen roll and serve with a nice salad.

I think I made need to make more of either a batter type mixture or add breadcrumbs to add more of a coating for the squid, as it seemed a little bare. It still tasted good, but isn’t quite up to restaurant standard, yet.