Salt and Pepper Squid

While this recipe is a keeper, the most time-consuming task of the recipe is cleaning the squid if you are using fresh squid. I don't know of any seafood counter at an Asian grocery store that cleans squid before packaging it for sale. This is the third recipe attempt from a collection of Fuchsia Dunlop cookbooks. This recipe comes from her book Every Grain of Rice, which won this year's James Beard award for international cookbooks. The photo of my dish doesn't even look remotely close to the pretty squid shapes in the photo of her book. It was tasty regardless.

Salt and Pepper Squid

This is a dish that you could order at a restaurant and not think twice about how long it takes to prepare it. Between cleaning the whole squids, slicing, then deep frying them, it took about an hour from start to finish. I doubt that starting with cleaned squid tubes would have helped all that much; besides those are usually sold frozen. Fresh squid just has a different taste and texture.

The cookbook has a vegetarian option for this recipe where instead of the squid, you use 14 oz of plain white tofu cut into bite-sized cubes then deep fried until golden.

Note: there is no black pepper nor white pepper in this recipe. The pepper here is Sichuan pepper, commonly referred to as Sichuan peppercorns. Also, two stalks of green onions were plenty for this dish. And, when deep frying the squid, watch out for the oil.. it will splatter and spit and crackle when moisture from the squid hits the hot oil.

Ingredients

1 lb squid, cleaned

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

3 tbsp potato flour (for deep frying)

1 1/2 c neutral cooking oil, such as peanut oil

2 tbsp olive oil, for frying

2 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

2 tbsp spring onion whites, minced

2 tbsp spring onion greens, minced

1 fresh red chili, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp toasted Sichuan pepper mixed with 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

1. Clean squid. You'll only be using the tentacles and the body. Trim the tentacles from the head, then slice in half lengthwise. Score the body using diagonal cuts with a knife.

2. Toss the squid body and tentacles in a bowl with Shaoxing rice wine. Let this marinate while you prep the other ingredients.

3. Drain the liquid from the squid and dredge in potato flour. Deep fry in a wok (or other appliance for deep frying) at 350 degrees F. Use a metal slotted spoon to remove the squid when it has reached a light golden brown color. Drain the oil from the squid on paper towels.

4. Drain off all but one tablespoon of oil from the wok. Add garlic, spring onion whites, and chili to the wok and stir fry over medium heat. Raise the heat to high and return the squid, Sichuan pepper, and salt to the wok. Stir and toss for a minute.

5. Add the spring onion greens last, mix well and serve.