Seafood Made Simple: How to rustle up calamari with Vietnamese chilli sauce

Calamari with Vietnamese Chili Sauce prepared by Aishling Moore. Picture Chani Anderson.

When fresh squid is available, Calamari is my favourite way to eat and prepare this cephalopod.

To avoid a rubbery end product, squid cookery needs to happen one of two ways; very quickly or very slowly. 

Braising squid is great if you're serving groups and want to avoid the most vital stage of cookery happening just before serving. 

Slow-cooked squid's buttery texture is great in stews, soups and pasta sauces.

This weekend’s recipe of calamari with Vietnamese chilli sauce requires 1-2 minutes of squid cookery, very fast food indeed.

Having everything else ready to go before the cooking begins is essential.

Another necessity is temperature regulation, keeping the oil at 190°C, so be sure to preheat your deep fryer and work in batches to avoid overcrowding the basket, which will cause the oil temperature to drop.

You can ask your fishmonger to prepare the squid for you if you wish, I’ve included a step-by-step below if you'd like to have a go at tackling this yourself - it's the perfect fish to have a go at preparing yourself if you're nervous of whole fish preparation as squid have no bones.

This Vietnamese chilli sauce is a winner and a wonderful sauce to have on hand. It's great with fried foods but also excellent with vegetables or grilled fish and shellfish.

The balance of sweet, salty and sour makes it utterly addictively for dipping and dunking. You can also serve this sauce with stir-fried vegetables or noodle dishes.

The herb salad dressed in a little lime juice really makes this dish sing. Use a combination of soft herbs for this salad to produce the best results.

Calamari with Vietnamese chilli sauce

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This recipe of calamari with Vietnamese chilli sauce requires 1-2 minutes of squid cookery, very fast food indeed.

Servings

4

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the calamari:

• 500g squid

• 200g potato starch

• 40g rice flour

• 80g corn flour

• 1tsp baking powder

• 1tsp salt

• Herb Salad:

• 1 shallot, finely sliced in rounds

• 1 red chilli, finely sliced

• 2 sprigs mint

• 2 sprigs coriander

• 2 sprigs basil

• 1 lime juiced

• For the Vietnamese chilli sauce:

• 300g caster sugar

• 100ml water

• 75g fish sauce

• 3 garlic cloves minced

• 3 limes juiced

• 3 red chillis, finely diced and deseeded

• 1tsp rice vinegar

Method

1. For the Vietnamese chilli sauce:

2. Place the caster sugar and water in a small pot on a medium-high heat and bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar.

3. Once this comes to the boil, add the fish sauce and remove from the heat. Stir well and finally add the garlic, chilli, lime juice and vinegar.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning; this sauce may require another squeeze of citrus depending on how juicy your limes are. Allow to cool before serving.

5. For the herb salad:

6. Pick the herbs and place in a small bowl with the sliced shallot and chilli. Dress and toss with lime juice just before serving.

7. To prepare the squid:

8. Peel away the outer membrane on the tentacles.

9. Trim the longer feeding tentacles to the same length as the other tentacles.

10. Cut the mantle of the squid into 1cm thick rings and place in a colander.

11. Rinse to remove any lingering innards, drain well.

12. To cook the squid:

13. Preheat a deep fryer to 190°C.

14. Combine the rice flour, potato starch, cornflour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well.

15. Toss the sliced squid rings and tentacles through the flour dredge and shake off the excess. Do so, working in batches, making sure all the surface area of the squid is covered.

16. Fry the squid in batches so as not to overcrowd the fryer, which will reduce the temperature of the oil.

17. Fry for 1 minute before draining on kitchen paper and seasoning with sea salt.

18. Serve with the dressed herb salad and chilli sauce immediately.

CHEF'S TIPS:

If preparing the squid from whole:

• Pull the tentacles away from the main body, gripping with your thumb and forefinger just above the eyes. Discard the internal organs attached.
• Remove the quill from inside the mantle of the squid.
• Detach the wing-like fins by pulling them away from the torso carefully, removing the purple outer membrane of the squid at the same time.
• Cut directly beneath the eye to remove the tentacles from the internal organs and discard the beak.
• The flour dredge is gluten-free, but you could use plain flour instead of the potato starch and rice flour if you prefer.
• You’ll find potato starch and rice flour in most health shops or Asian food stores.