Calamari Special

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 25 mins
  • Servings: 4

    • About This Recipe

    “This is one of the nicest and best tasting calamari recipes that I have eaten. I find that the calamari is not tough as I have experienced in many restaurants. A friend Chef and I developed this marvelous recipe that is so easy to prepare.”

    Ingredients

  • 1/2 lbfrozen calamari or 1/2 lbfresh calamari
  • 1/2 cupwhole milk, homogenized
  • 1/4 cupall-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cupjapanese panko or 1/4 cupregular fine dry breadcrumb
  • 1/2 cupvegetable oil( for frying)
  • 2garlic cloves, minced
  • 1tablespoonsambal oelek( red hot pepper flakes sauce)

    • Directions

  • Firstly, prepare a deep-fryer with a good vegetable oil and heat to 375 degrees F, or use a medium size deep frying pan on high heat.
  • Defrost calamari and rinse under cold running water.
  • Cut calamari into 1/4 inch strips.If using fresh calamari, just cut into 1/4 inch strips.Pat dry calamari with paper towels.
  • In a medium size mixing bowl, mix together flour and Panko bread crumbs.
  • Add milk to a bowl and dip calamari in the milk.
  • Toss calamari strips in flour/crumb mixture just to coat.You do not want to have a heavy coating as it could drop off when frying.
  • Flash fry coated calamari in prepared deep-fryer or frying pan for about 15 seconds, deep frying in small amounts.
  • In a frying pan, heat 1/2 cup of vegetable oil to medium-high heat.
  • Add garlic and Sambal Oelek and stir well, cover with a screen to prevent oil from spattering or splashing.
  • Sauté flash-fried calamari for about 1 minute or until nicely light brown.Do not over fry as it could get chewy.
  • Serve calamari with your favorite dip.

    • Reviews

  • “This recipe guided my first attempt at home-made calamari.I made several alterations, but I thought that one observation was important enough to share.I used fresh calamari, and like others, found that the breading stuck, but was rather fragile and easy to knock off while frying.I would try the milk bath next time.I don’t have a deep fryer any more, so I just increased the cooking time in the frying pan by about 30 seconds-1 minute.This yeilded nice golden brown breading.A note of warning- do to the heat of the oil, I would wait to add the chili paste and garlic till the last say, 30 seconds of frying.Also, I very much recommend using a splatter guard, as the oil goes crazy when you add the chili paste.An excellent recipe, I look forward to trying this one again.Thanks!”

  • “I was pleasantly surprised.Made this as written except for hot sauce didn’t have any.It was so quick and easy and delicious.I used frozen calamari and had no problems.Now my hubbie can stop ordering it in restaurants and paying a lot for it.”

  • “Awesome recipe.Alot of the breadcrumbs fell off though – I would try the egg substitution next time, or a combination of the two.I used regular breadcrumbs and red pepper flakes.Came out really good and completely disappeard!”

  • “Tried this recipe but substituted egg for the milk only because I had a similar experience with chicken wings where the breading stuck to the pan.After reading highplainsdrifter review made this adjustment and it came out fine.Everyone loved it . . .will make this again in the future.”

  • “This is just the recipe I have been looking for. It’s wonderful. We didn’t use the red hot pepper flakes because of the kids. We made Recipe #49186 to dip in (marmalade sauce).Thank you!! 5+ stars”

  • “I’m not rating this because I must have done something wrong. I flash fried them, then when I reheated in the oil/ sambal oelek all of the coating came off and it was a big clumpy mess. Squid is pretty inexpensive around here, so I may try again.”

  • “Wow! Another great recipe. These turned out much tastier than what we usually get in restaurants. Thanks for sharing.”

  • “*8 Jan 2007 review:* I love calamari The flavours an texture of this dish didn’t let me down. I halved the vegetable oil for frying as I thought it was a bit to much. The flour/crumb mix didn’t stick to the calamari as much as I expected to stick. However I would make it again maybe dip it into a liquid first then the flour/crumb mix. I didn’t need to serve it with a dip as the garlic and sambal oelek flavours was excellent. Thank you Uncle Bill*Update*I finally found wonderful calamari and I wanted to try this recipe again, this time I used a milk wash to make the breadcrumbs/flour stick better and it worked! I also didn’t fry the calamari just added a little oil in the pan but kept everything else as written.The flavours were still outstanding..Thank you again Uncle Bill.”

  • “WOW, This is a great easy way to prepare calamari, the result was superbly tender and delicious. I served this at a b-b-q and got rave reviews. Thanks”

  • “Great calamari!I made this for a Greek party.They loved dipping the calamari in the Tzatziki.Thanks for posting.”

  • “Uncle Bill, thank you for this wonderful recipe! I made this for an appetizer dish for a small get together over the weekend. I increased the ingredeints for 3 pounds of calamari, I followed your directions exactly, and fryed them in batches then kept them warm in the oven. I did add in some onion powder in the flour/panko mixture. The calamari was absolutely wonderful! I can’t wait to make this again! thanks so much for your wonderful recipe!…Kitten:)”

  • “I enjoyed this. I found I needed only about 1/2 as much flour and panko as indicated. The sambal oelek added a nice flavor.(Editing as I left off the stars!)”

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