Deep-Fried Calamari

Introduction:

Calamari is a dish commonly severed at seafood restaurants. It is made of squid, which is not a fish. What sets it apart from a fish is it’s tentacles. With this dish, if not cooked properly, the squid can turn very hard or rubbery. We are aiming for a chewy yet edible texture.

Materials:

3 Egg yolks

1 ts Dried Oregano

Oil; for deep-frying

150 ml Single cream

1 clove Garlic; crushed

2 tb Plain flour

Salt

2 tb Grated Parmesan; fresh

6 Squid; cleaned and bodies cut into rings

Deep-Fried Calamari Preparation

Pour the cream into a large bowl and set in the egg yolks, cheese, flour, garlic and oregano to make a smooth batter. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Heat enough oil in a deep pan for deep-frying. When hot enough the oil should be 160-180?C (325-350F); a piece of bread dropped in the oil will sizzle and become golden brown in 30 seconds. Dip the squid rings and tentacles into the batter, one at a time and put into the oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately, sprinkled with salt.

As opposed to just dipping the calamari in the wet batter, it is also necessary to dip it in dry bread crumbs, this will keep the batter on when you fry them!

Results:

On our test run, we came into a problem that made it so that the batter fell off and the calamari would shrivel up and burn. To make up for the lack of batter, I decided to not only do a wet dip but a dry dip as well. This created a nice thick batter that was easily friable. As opposed to just dipping the calamari in the wet batter, it is also necessary to dip it in dry bread crumbs. For the future, I would also like to bring more oil to class so that we could change out the burnt old oil.     http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/144135/Deep-Fried-Calamari