Calamari Rings
Squid rings dusted in seasoned flour and fried for a few minutes until crisp, served with lemon and aioli.
Photograph credit: Deep-fried Calamari Rings by Ceeseven · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Where This Goes Wrong
Dry the squid.
Fry in small batches.
Do not fry for longer than 2 minutes.
Serve at once.
Cooking Calamari Rings
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Pat the squid very dry. Mix the flour with the paprika and salt and toss the rings in it, shaking off the excess.
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Heat the oil in a deep pan to 190°C / 375°F.
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Fry the rings in small batches for 1 minute 30 seconds until pale gold. Drain on kitchen paper.
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Stir the garlic and lemon juice into the mayonnaise and serve with the calamari and lemon wedges.
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What's Going On Here
Fry squid for either 2 minutes or 30. That is the whole of the science, because squid is tender when seared quickly and rubbery in the middle distance, and only becomes soft again after a long, slow braise. A quick fry is what calamari is.
Pat the rings very dry, since water makes the oil spit and the coating soggy. Toss them in the seasoned flour and shake off the excess in a sieve. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 190°C / 375°F, so that a pinch of flour sizzles at once. Fry in small batches for 1 minute 30 seconds, until pale gold, no longer. Do not crowd the pan. The oil cools, and the squid steams and goes tough.
Lift out and drain on kitchen paper, season with salt and serve at once, since calamari softens as it stands.
Stir the garlic into the mayonnaise with a squeeze of lemon for the aioli, and serve with plenty of lemon wedges.
After You've Cooked It
Best eaten straight away. Do not keep seafood leftovers.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Good With
- Lemon wedges
- Aioli
- Green salad
- Cold white wine
What's in a Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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