Spicy Squid Chips

Spicy Squid Chips

Awesome with a Spicy Dip!

Ingredients:

• About 2-3 cleaned Squid Tubes
• 1/2 Cup Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Paprika
• 1/2 Teaspoon each of Salt and Pepper
• 1 Small Egg, beaten
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• Lemon wedges to garnish
• Fresh Parsley to garnish

Instructions:

1. Preheat your deep fryer to the manufacturers suggested seafood temperature, or a medium-low temperature.
2. Whisk the milk and egg together in a medium bowl, set aside.
3. Clean and rinse the squid tubes by slicing open one side of the tube, removing the glass looking fin if there is one, and scraping away anything that looks like a membrane or slime. Leaving a flat piece of squid meat. Pat the squid dry with paper towels. Slice the dried squid meat into one inch by one inch squares.
4. In a large ziplock bag combine the flour, paprika, salt, and pepper. 
5. Toss in the squid chips and shake to coat evenly. Empty the bag out over a large bowl into a strainer, gently shaking the excess flour off. You could also do this step in a large bowl and toss and dredge the squid pieces.
6. Working with only a few pieces at a time, dip the squid in the milk and egg mixture, then carefully and by only cooking a few at a time, fry the squid chips for about one and a half minutes, until it is just fried and turning a nice golden color.
7. Do not crowd the pan! even cooking is prefered and they will stay warm on a plate warmed up in the oven a bit while the rest cook. Or use two pans to be super fast. But do not crowd them, squid and all seafood is delicate, it has lived a life without the gravity pulling down constantly. 
8. Over crowding leads to a rubbery feeling squid and its not nice to eat.  A quick fry is also key as squid will quickly overcook.
9.  Repeat with all squid chips until done, while keeping the cooked squid chips hot in a just warmed oven or on a warmed pate. 
10.  When done, garnish with lemon and parsley.

Enjoy!

Notes:

I grew up in a lovely little town that had a lot of great things going on. One of the best things was that it was right next door to the Atlantic ocean and some of the best fresh and local seafood in the world. One of my favorite places to go was a small restaurant right on the wharf where fisherman came to dock with their catches of the day. This of course meant that the seafood shop was supplied right from the Ocean with the fish only needing to travel about 20 meters from the ocean. It was the freshest and most flavorful seafood that I'm sure I will ever get in my life. I miss it dearly but at least it introduced me to the best seafood life has to offer.

But let us return to us actually cooking food, one of my favorite things to eat at that restaurant were the squid dishes. Squid gets a pretty bad reputation as being rubbery and very fishy smelling and just not very good. But local, never frozen or quick frozen squid is delightful. In fact if your fish or any seafood smells strongly fishy than that means it is older and very likely about to spoil and go rancid. Fresh seafood should just smell like clean ocean water. Quality is key with seafood where the proteins are much more delicate than say beef, if you skimp out on quality seafood you are much more likely to notice it. So talk to your local fishermen and get your hands on some fresh squid tubes because this recipe is one of my favorite snacks.

PS October 2013, I was just on vacation and had calamari that came with tzatziki  sauce, which I do not like but the plate was garnished with a Red Pepper Aioli on the calarami plate, and myself and soon to be husband much prefered the calamari with the red pepper aioli. Try making it some time because I know I will be making it here for us sometime soon.

PSS August 2014, try dicing a fresh jalapeno pepper and frying that along with the squid. You could even make a thin batter of water and flour  or egg and some of the remaining spiced flour used for the squid to make some nice spicy crunchy pepper bites.