Fried Squid in Sichuan Sauce

I thought I'd finish off my little 5 day Chinese meal event with something a bit special. So I managed to hunt down a recipe that I was able to adapt slightly to use a bit of everything I've been posting about for the past week. Obviously I'm biased, but I think the Sichuan sauce may just be the tastiest sauce I have ever made.

My first job was to get to work on these 2 beautiful squid that my local fishmonger went to the trouble of obtaining specially for me, fresh off the boats at Newhaven Harbour and caught somewhere out in the English Channel.

Here's how to prepare them:

The first cut needs to be across and just under the eye. This chops off the tentacles and you'll be able to easily pop out the beak once separated. Trim the 2 long tentacles to the same length as the rest.

Next pinch the 2 fins together. You can see under the fin where the skin is very thin and rolls away easily.

Once you get your fingers under the skin here both fins and the skin easily all pull away from the rest of the squid in one piece.

Now the messy bit. Gently tug the head away from the body. The insides should follow in one long string.

Finally, pull out the quill.

You may need to go back in and pull out any left over insides this failed to emerge with the head. But when you're done give everything a thorough wash out under the cold tap and you'll be left with neatly prepared and ready to use squid.

Ingredients

2 tbsp Ketchup (see blog post from 06/02/2012 for recipe)

2 tbsp Black Bean Sauce (see blog post from 03/04/2012 for recipe)

2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce (see blog post from 05/04/2012 for recipe)

1 tbsp Plum Sauce (see blog post from 04/03/2012 for recipe)

2 tsp Chilli Paste (see blog post from 31/03/2012 for recipe)

2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Dry Sherry

150ml Chicken Stock

2 tsp Chinese Black Vinegar

2 cloves Garlic

5cm of Fresh Ginger

2 tbsp Groundnut Oil

2 tsp Sesame Oil

I finely grated the garlic and ginger and put them to one side whilst I combined everything else apart from the 2 oils and the chicken stock in a bowl.

Then I heated the groundnut oil in a pan and fried the ginger and garlic for 1 minute...

...before adding the stock and the bowl mixture and leaving to simmer.

Back to my squid... I sliced it up into rings and chopped the tentacles up into twos.

Then coated it in plain flour...

...before frying in batches in some very hot groundnut oil, removing with a slotted spoon into a bowl lined with kitchen towel.

Here's the important bit about cooking squid - Squid goes very chewy and un-appetising if it is cooked for more than 3 minutes, unless you cook it for 0ver 20 minutes which will be long enough to break the proteins back down and tenderise the meat again. So as a rule cook squid for 2 minutes or 25 minutes and you'll be guaranteed soft tasty squid. 2 minutes is plenty of time to crisp up the flour to a golden brown and cook the squid in this recipe.

The fried squid was absolutely delicious on its own. It truly is unbeatable when prepared fresh like this. However, I managed to resist eating all of it then and there and instead poured over my Sichuan sauce.

I then proceeded to sit in my own little private heaven for about 20 minutes. This truly was worth every second of time and every ounce of effort I put into making this dish.