Chinese Cuisine

Salt and pepper squid

Cuisine: Chinese Created by

Ying Tam, chef of Sydney's Ying's Seafood Restaurant shares his signature salt and pepper squid recipe with Food Safari's Maeve O'Meara.

If you enjoyed this dish, take a look at our other culturally diverse squid recipes.

Ingredients

500g fresh calamari
2 tbsp self raising flour
1 tbsp oil
Cornflour
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
4 green shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
2 tsp Shaoxing wine
Five Spice mix
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp celery powder
1 tbsp chicken stock powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp five spice powder

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Preparation

Clean calamari by pulling the tentacles from the body. Wash out the tube and remove the clear 'backbone'. Remove the skin, if desired. Cut tentacles from the head and discard heads. Cut tubes into triangles, this helps them to curl during cooking.

In a bowl, mix self raising flour, oil and a little water to make a paste. Place calamari pieces and tentacles into the bowl and coat well. Then sprinkle each piece with enough cornflour until the pieces are dry.

Combine all ingredients for five spice mix and set aside.

Heat enough vegetable oil for deep frying in a wok. Add calamari, in batches and cook until golden and crisp. Remove with a wire basket or slotted spoon. Repeat with remaining calamari. Drain off oil.

Add shallots, garlic and chilli to wok. Cook for 30 seconds until aromatic. Return squid to wok and add 2 to 3 tsp of the five spice mix. Toss well to combine. Add Shaoxing wine, toss and serve immediately.

Chinese Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 813 Chinese Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Eastern Garden Chinese Restaurant	Toorak Gardens
2.	Zen	Magill
3.	Greenwood Seafood Restaurant	North Sydney
4.	Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab	Sydney
5.	Dragonfly Theatre & Cabaret Restaurant	Tullamarine
6.	Asian Cafe	City
7.	The Chairman and Yip	City
8.	China Tea Club	Lyneham
9.	Lakeview Restaurant	Tuggeranong
10.	Leong Kitchen	Campbell

08 Mar 2012 08:53 AEST

Cecil Hills

Restaurant tip

Try boiling the cut squid first before putting it into the batter. This will pre-cook it allowing it to crisp in the oil better.

15 Feb 2012 09:05 AEST

Macca

Pennant Hills

Top notch!

Great recipe. Got a great result from the first try!

14 Jan 2012 05:52 AEST

Joan

5072

Pepper?

In response to the pepper content, true salt and pepper squid uses sichuan peppercorns ( which are roasted and ground). The truest (and I believe the most delicious) salt and pepper squid is tossed in a combo of cornflour, salt, roasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns, then deep fried. It should have a lovely crisp texture delivered by the cornflour and the unique peppery flavour of the Sichuan peppercorns. Simple yet amazing. If you're in Adelaide try a great version at City Zen.

16 Jul 2011 05:02 AEST

Scol

Baulkham Hills

Celery Powder?

I would love to try the recipe, but what is celery powder and where in Sydney 'burbs can I get it? I can get celery seeds, do I just grind them up? or is celery powder different? or do I use celery salt from Master Foods etc?

20 Jun 2011 04:21 AEST

Luke Peters

Melbourne

Pepper

Pepper man...one of the components of 5-spice powder IS pepper. Having said that, the pepper in "salt and pepper" dishes usually takes the form of chilli. So in a way, there are two kinds of pepper in this dish.

11 Jun 2011 09:37 AEST

Benjamin Selby

Cumberland Park

Absolutely brilliant.

This recipe is utterly superb! Just tried it tonight, and it's the best S & P squid I've ever made. The really slick touches like the celery seed and chicken stock just push this to another level. The pre-batter using SR flour causes a really nice thick layer of cornflour to stick to the squid, making it super crunchy. Be sure to get real cornflour for this recipe: the lame stuff that you generally get from supermarkets is made from wheat and won't do the trick. :)

01 May 2011 08:02 AEST

Mel

Central Coast

definately not my favourite

Mmm... much prefer salt and pepper squid, thought this looked great on the clip but tried it at home and not so simple. Think our calamari wasn't great but the recipe just didn't work out for us like Salt & Pepper has in the past.

01 May 2011 04:28 AEST

Bronwyn

Umina Beach

fanastic

Wow just like we have at chinese. So good. I now need to find the moderate of heat of chilles. Adding mussel meat now to dish. Love it thanks

26 Apr 2011 01:28 AEST

Fairy

Floreat

You need to try another version

Pete Evans version of this is the best I have tried.

11 Apr 2011 07:31 AEST

pepper man

5072b5

where is the pepper?

the dish is call salt and pepper squid but where is the pepper?

05 Jan 2011 01:49 AEST

Kirsten

Newport

a fave

Last night, we substituted the squid for 5cm long eggplant pieces. Delicately crunchy on the outside and super juicy and yielding on the inside with all the flavour. Highly recommend trying this.

25 Dec 2010 11:32 AEST

Cheryl Carson

Fairview Park South Aust.

No other than this

There is no better recipe than this , nothing else compares to the flavour. This recipe was also the easiest to make and the most authentic flavour. I have now passed the recipe onto five friends, all agree with me. IT IS TOPS and beats any from restaurants I have bought the same from. So now I have added my say to the mix and 17 people I know love it. Thanks for sharing this recipe,

11 Dec 2010 01:49 AEST

Emma

Melbourne

Shaoxing wine

Darinka, Chinese wine (Shaoxing) is available at any Chinese grocery. It's also quite cheap, just a couple of dollars.

13 Oct 2010 05:23 AEST

Darinka

Seaford Rise

Excelent

What is chinese vine, where do I get it and what exectly do I ask for? Thank you

21 Sep 2010 04:19 AEST

Ron

Mossman

Tried and liked

tried for fist time yesterday - made two lots, one with ground black pepper and one without(as per recipe). Liked it better with pepper.

18 Aug 2010 03:32 AEST

Anita

Newcastle

Nice recipe

This is my favourite dish. I'm just wondering, can we use pickle chiliu instead of fresh chili? this is the pickle chilli i'm talikng about: http://www.asiangrocerystore.com.au/plum-blossom-pickled-bird-red-chilli.html

25 Jun 2010 01:58 AEST

Patrick

Central Coast

Squid

a great dish but do not think you have to stick to the exact recipe as i have seen a no. of differing versions, some with black pepper, some with Sichuan pepper. as for Chinese 5 spice all supermarket will carry in the masterfoods/mccormicks food section but prefer the packet mix as the better one, but if you can get to Chine Town in sydney there is great spice shop there to get truly authentic. and remember it does have a shelf life and will degrade in flavour over time and light and elements

19 Jun 2010 09:50 AEST

squidward

form your undies

>:( angry

im a squid and im like totally offended

04 Jun 2010 10:48 AEST

Jill

Mt. Waverley

Re: Good Stuff

Good point Tal - the pepper is definately missing - I use Szechuan pepper in mine as I think it makes it taste just a little better than boring old black pepper.

03 Jun 2010 08:41 AEST

Tai

Glen Waverley

Good stuff

I used to cook this dish before, but using slightly different ingredients. Will try these recipe tomorrow night. The dish is called 'Salt and Pepper', but there's no pepper in the ingredients! Should I add pepper?

02 Jun 2010 09:16 AEST

David

Byron Bay

Looks Amazing!

Looks amazing, but where do I find five spice powder etc? guessing an asian grocery store?

27 May 2010 07:37 AEST

john

cabramatta

velly goot mang

25 Mar 2010 03:47 AEST

dave

newtown

where is his restaurant? and what is it callled? thanks

05 Feb 2010 07:16 AEST

Adrian

Ardrossan, SA

Outstanding!!

This recipe is simply amazing, I have been trying to find a S&P squid recipe that tasted like the proper restaurant (not the plain ol' pub meal type) meal for years!! I found it easier to mix the pieces around in the flour paste, then have a bowl half full of cornflour when I was deep frying, and just taking the pieces out of the paste, then giving them a quick coat in the cornflour and then dropping them in the oil one by one. Others may not agree, but I found it made the process a lot easier.

16 Jan 2010 03:11 AEST

AS350

Kelmscott

salt and pepper??

I thought one of the key ingredients for salt and pepper squid was Szechuan Pepper?

17 Oct 2009 10:48 AEST

Justin

Sydney

Looks very tasty :D

Gosh it looks soo good, had my mouth watering by the end of the video :P

26 Sep 2009 07:40 AEST

Kelvin

Melbourne

Missing ingredient

Mmm delicious, but I think the cook neglected to tell us (smartly in my opinion) the ingredient that leaves most people's mouths watering without them knowing ... MSG.

29 Aug 2009 01:22 AEST

theone snow

ferntree gully Vic

excellent!

Best ever recipe ...and I have tried MANY over the years! I also add 1/2 teaspoon each of celery powder, ground ginger, ground white pepper, and 5 spice powder to the batter mix....just intensifies the flavour of the finished product. I make my own celery powder by using a spice mill to grind celery seeds and then add equal quantity of plain flour, after seeing the ingredient list on the packet of celery powder stated .."20% celery seeds, 80% wheat flour"!

28 Aug 2009 06:04 AEST

Sue Sneath

Point Turton SA

Best and easiest recipe

Best recipe I've found for this dish. Just as good if not better than one we paid heaps for overseas.

11 May 2009 03:04 AEST

Amanda

Bendigo, VIC

Delicious!!!

This recipe has a terrific, authentic flavour. It's the closest match to my favourite salt and pepper squid dish from a Chinese restaurant that is no longer open, therefore I'm very glad I stumbled across it. I too, however find that the finished squid starts to get soggy if there is too much on the plate. Also my squid never quite curls up as much as I would like it to. Other then that I would definitely recommend this recipe.

01 Feb 2009 12:10 AEST

Greg Carr

Concord

error when email this page under video

Fantstic show Maeve, I tried to email this page and on clicking "email to friend" It showed a small message at bottom left of my browser stating "error on Page and I was unable to put in an meail address for my friend. thanks is it possible to have a little more light in the wok when showing the cooking of articles? When the calamari is in the wok does it sink to the bottom and you only know it is cooked when it floats, or do you take it out when the colour is golden ? hard to see in the wok.

30 Jan 2009 12:50 AEST

Rod

Yeppoon Qld

The best

This is the best s & p squid recipe I have tried, excellent. I also had trouble finding celery powder until I looked in the Health Food Store. I did some green prawns using the same method, they were nice but this is definately more suited to squid.

10 Dec 2008 10:25 AEST

Jenny

Sydney

Secret flavour!

Thanks for sharing the ingredients to this delicious dish! It tastes just like in the restaurants! Only tip I'll share is to fry and serve only in small batches, as my big pile of fried squid got soggy by the time I finished the lot. Laurie, I think those substitutes are fine, as long as you omit or cut down on the salt added, so it won't be too salty. Try the Knorr Chicken stock powder found in oriental stores.

28 Nov 2008 02:49 AEST

Laurie Mattila

Patterson lakes Victoria

Ingredients

I have found Celery SALT and Chicken SALT but not Celery powder and Chicken stock powder will these be a substitute thanks e-mail lauriemattila50@hotmail.com regards Laurie

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