It's been a little crazy in the De Sousa home, but the hubby still found a way to cook a fancy shmansy meal.
Do you ever wonder if people actually make the meals that they see on The Food Network, The Cooking Channel, and in all those fancy books? Well you don't have to wonder no more, we are one of those couples that like to cook fancy. Not always, but most of the time.
We have learned that not all fancy meals are difficult to do.
One of my favorite meals is this one by
Chef Gordon Ramsey's
It's fresh and warm, and it's perfect for a hot day!
My husband likes to make pretty much all meals from scratch, so if you prefer to buy the already cleaned and cut frozen squid that's fine as well. He opted to go all out and get the full squid packages. Because this is not one of our own meals, I didn't want to risk on missing any ingredients or steps. So, all the info is from Chef Gordon's website.
Here are the ingredients:
400g baby squid, cleaned
½ tsp Szechuan peppercorns
1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp five-spice powder
5 heaped tbsp cornflour
Vegetable or groundnut oil, for deep-frying
Cucumber Salad Ingredients:
1 medium cucumber
1 medium carrot
1 red chili, deseeded and finely sliced
Handful of coriander leaves
3 tbsp rice vinegar
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp caster sugar1 tsp sesame oil
Serving the Meal:
1 red chili, trimmed and finely sliced, to garnish
Small handful of coriander leaves, to garnish
Lime wedges
First, prepare the cucumber salad. Peel the cucumber and carrot, then slice into long strips, using a vegetable peeler or a mandolin. Cut the strips in half if they are too long. Mix/Toss them in a bowl with the red chili and coriander leaves. In a small bowl, mix together the rice vinegar, salt, sugar and sesame oil; set aside.
Open up the cleaned squid and score the flesh making sure not to cut through the flesh completely, once the squid is cored slice the squid (against the score) into thick slices and cut the tentacles in half. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper. Using a pestle and mortar, grind the Szechuan peppercorns with the salt to a fine powder. Tip into a small bowl and mix in the five-spice powder and cornflour.
Heat a 5cm depth of oil in a wok over a high heat until a piece of bread dropped into the hot oil sizzles vigorously. Deep-fry the squid rings and tentacles in batches: coat with the seasoned cornflour, shake off excess, then immerse in the hot oil, taking care not to overcrowd the wok. Deep-fry for about a minute until lightly golden and crisp, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Keep warm in a low oven while you deep-fry the rest of the squid.
Toss the cucumber salad with the dressing and divide between serving plates. Pile the crispy squid on top and serve with lime wedges.
We apologize in advance for our amateur video taping, it's our first time :)
Our thawed out squid
First you have to clean out the squid, eeww!
oh man, a more detailed part of the cleaning process video did not upload. Sorry!
The first half of the video did not upload, but you place the squid and cut into circle pieces.
Cucumber Salad almost done
Ta Da All Done!
This might seem overwhelming, but trust us, it's well worth it. By the way, the hubby is totally embarrassed that I video taped him, hehehe! I told him that it would help our readers give a better explanation of the recipe!
Would love to know if you tried the recipe and your thoughts!
