Salt and Pepper Calamari

This is a very quick recipe, that makes for a great starter, you can turn this into a main meal by upping amount of squid and serving over Asian vegetables and adding a couple of red chillies to really spice it up. There are so many versions of this very simple dish, I prefer not to add too much flour as I do not like my calamari to be to batter coated in this recipe. I prefer it to be more salt and peppery as I only like it battered when I am deep frying it and serving it with my favourite plum chili sauce.

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Ingredients

500g Prepared squid
2 Tablespoons of sea salt
1 Tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 Teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 Tablespoon corn flour
1 Tablespoon oil
2 Teaspoons sesame oil

Method

1. Combine salt and peppercorns in a fry pan over medium heat and toast for 3 to 4 minutes until fragrant. Add the chili flakes.

2. Cool, turn into a mortar and pestle and crush to a coarse powder. Place half the pepper mixture in a large bowl and add the corn flour. Toss the squid in the pepper mix to lightly coat.

3. Combine oil and sesame oil together add to wok or large pan fry calamari in batches until cooked, about 2-3 minutes a time. Add more oil if needed. Serve calamari with reserved pepper.

I served mine over salad greens tossed in an Asian dressing and served sweet chili dipping sauce on the side.

All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.