Salt & Pepper Squid

Name: Salt & Pepper Squid
Total time: 35 min
Yield: Serves 4 as a starter
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 700 g whole squid, cleaned (or the cleaned tubes, 500 g), cut to 1.5 cm rings; the tentacles' crowns halved; ¾ tsp (4 g) salt, tossed through, then patted thoroughly dry; 100 g cornstarch, 40 g plain flour, ½ tsp (2 g) baking powder; 1 tsp (5 g) salt, 1 tsp (3 g) white pepper, ¼ tsp (1 g) five-spice; 120 ml ice-cold soda water, plus more if needed — the batter's thin-cream consistency; 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil; 3 cloves garlic, minced fine; 2 red chillies, minced (or the dried flakes' 1 tsp); 1 tsp (5 g) salt; 1½ tsp (4 g) white pepper, the freshest grind; 3 spring onions, sliced; the coriander's handful, optional; 1 litre neutral oil, for the deep fry at 180 °C

Chinese · Medium · Serves 4 as a starter

The Cantonese fryer's crisp argument and the salt-and-pepper doctrine's own crescent: squid rings in the lightest batter, fried to the shell's shatter at the fierce oil, and tossed through the salt, white pepper, chilli and garlic's scatter — the salt and pepper squid that arrives at the table as the beer's own companion, the crunch's first argument before the tender ring's second. The technique is the squid's scoring and the batter's featherweight, the fry's ferocity doing the rest.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The squid

The batter

the batter's thin-cream consistency

The salt-and-pepper toss

The fry

- The squid's dry and the batter's cold: the salted rings drained on the towel's pressure (the wet ring the oil's fury and the batter's shed) and the soda water straight from the fridge's cold — the ice-cold batter's steam at the fry is the crisp's own engineering, the warm batter's crust the soggy argument. - The batter's thickness's honesty: the batter must run thin — the ring dipped and lifted wears a translucent veil, not a coat. The thick batter's fritter is another dish's honest argument; this one wants the squid's own shape at the crisp's thinnest shell.

Step 1. The fry — 90 seconds a batch at the fierce 180 °C. The oil at 180 °C (the batter's drop bubbling to gold in 8 seconds), the rings dipped at the batter's thin veil and lowered in batches of eight (the crowd's steam the crust's enemy), fried 90 seconds to the pale gold's shell, and the spider's lift to the paper. Checkpoint — the first batch's ring: the shell's audible crack at the bite, the squid's ring within still tender and just-turned — the 90-second clock the tender's own ceiling, the over-fried ring the rubber's crescent.

Step 2. The toss — 45 seconds at the fierce wok. The wok at the full flame, the oil's film, and the garlic, chilli, salt and pepper fried 20 seconds to the fragrance's first rise (never the garlic's colour) — the fried rings thrown in with the spring onion and tossed twice through the perfumed salt, the pan emptied to the platter at the third turn. Checkpoint — the platter's proof: every ring wearing the salt-and-pepper's fine scatter, the garlic's perfume rising off the crisp — the dish's whole life measured in minutes, the crunch's argument won at the table's first reach. Chef’s Note — the salt-and-pepper toss after the fry (not the seasoning within the batter alone) is the doctrine the salt-and-pepper family shares — the shrimp, the tofu, the squid's own record here — and the garlic-chilli's 20 seconds at the fierce wok is the scatter's whole preparation: the garlic's perfume lifted at its first fragrance, before the mince's colour turns and its argument bitter. The restaurant's platter runs the toss at the pass's speed and serves inside two minutes; the home kitchen's same speed is the dish's own contract, the squid that waits on the platter loses the shell's first argument to the steam's slow apology.