INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup squid
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup 00 flour or AP flour
1/4 cup rice flour
4 tbl cornmeal
salt to taste
1/3 cup whole leaf Italian parsley
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 ea garlic clove
2 tbl Huy Fong chili garlic sauce
1 tbl chopped Italian parsley
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
grapeseed oil, enough for frying
DIRECTIONS
To get things rolling, make sure to rinse your squid under cool running water and remove any hard piece of chitin found inside the mantle. Cut the mantle a.k.a. the tubes into half inch rings and mix back with the tentacles.
Take your now cut tubes and tentacles place in a bowl and pour the buttermilk over to marinate. They shouldn't really be swimming in buttermilk, just enough to coat. Put the marinated squid back into the fridge and let chill for at least 30 minutes.
While your squid relaxes in the fridge, break out another mixing bowl and combine your flours and set aside, make sure the bowl is large enough to have room to mix in. Start heating up the oil in a high walled, heavy bottomed skillet. There should be at least at inch and a half of oil so that you can achieve a deep fry. Use a thermometer and heat your oil to 350°F, be sure to take it slow and be super careful.
We are also going to whip up our sauce real quick in the middle her too. In a mixing bowl, add the mayo, chili sauce, chopped parsley, and lemon juice. Then, grab a microplane and zest the garlic into the sauce. Mix all together.
Once your oil is up to heat take your squid out of its marinate and place it into the flour mixture. Now, here's the fun part, mix the squid into the flour mixture making sure that the flour gets into every little nook and cranny of the squid. Make sure none of the little tentacles are sticky together and all the insides of your beautiful rings are generously coated.
Now for the frying. Take the squid out of the flour and shake off any excess flour. Using a slotted spoon or a kitchen spider gently lower the squid into the super hot oil. After 15 seconds make sure that the pieces are not sticking together. Allow to fry for 2-3 mins or until the squid becomes golden brown. Have another mixing bowl ready and as soon as the squid is looking good and ready, strain it out of the hot grease and allow the excess grease to drip off and then dump into your mixing bowl. Quickly season with salt and the whole leaf parsley.
Plate your fried calamari in a beautiful serving dish and serve it alongside your sauce and maybe a few lemon wedges immediately.
