Salt & pepper squid with dipping sauce

This is one of those dishes that everyone loves, yet few cook at home! This crisp, spicy coating and hot, tender squid make for an irresistible combination!

Serves 4

Cook

25M

This is one of those dishes that everyone loves, yet few cook at home! This crisp, spicy coating and hot, tender squid make for an irresistible combination!

Ingredients

Main

85 g cornflour

85 g plain flour

2 tsp black pepper, cracked

2 tsp ground peppercorns, roughly crushed

sunflower or vegetable oil, for frying

400 g squid, cleaned and cut into strips

finely sliced spring onion, to serve

finely sliced green chilli, to serve

FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE

1 red chilli, finely chopped

½ cucumber, finely diced

1 small red onion, finely chopped

100 ml rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp caster sugar

2 tsp fish sauce

Method

1.To make the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved, then set aside. Mix the cornflour and plain flour with both peppers and 2 tsp sea salt in a large bowl, then set aside. Line a tray with kitchen paper and make sure you have more salt to sprinkle with.

2.Heat about 7cm of oil to 180C in a deep fryer, wok or deep pan. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can test it with a cube of bread – it should brown in 20 secs. Coat the squid well with the flour mix and fry in batches for about 2 mins each or until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to lift out the squid, then drain on the kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little more salt. Serve the squid scattered with the spring onion and chilli, with the dipping sauce on the side.

Alison Pickel