Deep Fried Calamari (simple)

Submitted by canarygirl

"This is so easy! Just like the restaurants in Spain! The coating is crispy though not overbearing, and the calamari will be tender. The trick here is that the Calamari needs to be cooked either super quick, or for a long time on a simmer for it to be tender. If you like fried calamari, you are going to love this recipe! Makes 2 mains or 4 appetizer portions"

 

• Ready In: 16mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 453.59 g cleaned calamari, cut rings (and their tentacles too, if you like them)
• 118.29-177.44 ml cornstarch
• salt
• lemon wedge, for serving
• oil (for frying)

directions

1. Dredge calamari rings in corn starch and shake off excess.
2. The rings may be prepared in advance up to this point, and refrigerated.
3. Heat oil to fairly high heat.
4. Deep fry rings about 1 minute or until golden.
5. Drain on paper towels, and sprinkle lightly with salt.
6. Serve with lemon wedges and garlic mayo or marinara sauce for dipping.

Reviews

[Jangomango]

This is the best! You have two recipes for calamari and I chose this one to try because it looked lighter. It is very easy and very delicious. The coating is so light that you can still see that it is calamari you are eating, rather than wondering that the heck is the mystery fish under the batter. It was important to shake off the excess cornstarch. If there is much left on, it tends to come off anyway and float about in the hot oil. Then you get blackened little nasties to deal with. I heated the oil to 370, and that seemed about right. It turned golden very quickly. I serve this garnished with preserved lemons and a chopped parsley/garlic mixture, with a green salad and foccacia. Thank you Canarygirl. Your recipes look very authentic and I'm very excited to discover them.

 

[Lopaka]

I found the recipe fine but I believe I made it better by just deep frying the calamari without any cornstarch and serving with wasabi and lime instead of lemon. It must be patted dry or it splatters and I use small squid that are not cut into rings but fried whole they are more tender to begin with....

 

[iris5555]

This is so good. I added some cajun seasoning and plenty of salt for lots of flavor. Love the lightness of the cornstarch rather than a heavier batter.

 

[Oolala]

We all liked this! I added Emeril's Essence plus some extra salt and it was great. Used lemon too and my DH dipped his in some bottled red sauce.

 

[Jenn5820]

I too found this recipe OK, it was alright but I found that the cornstarch really didn't stay on the calamari when cooking, most of it stuck to the pot, the I sprinkled them with salt and used tartar sauce for dipping.