Fried Calamari
Prep time 15 minutes – cook time 10 minutes – total time 25 minutes
Don’t be intimidated by the thought of making fried calamari. It’s easy and your’s will turn out very good. Like, better than a restaurant good. A secret that I learned while working in a real good Italian restaurant way back in my high school days is to soak the raw calamari in lemon juice before the breading and frying. We’ve tried it different ways including buttermilk but always come back to the magic lemon juice for our fried calamari.
Here’s what you will need
These amounts are for 2 servings. If you want to change the number of servings just scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this posting and change the number of servings. That will change amounts all of the ingredients. You can also change them to metric.
- 8 large calamari rings – we get ours frozen and put them in a bowl with the lemon juice to soak and defrost while getting the skillet and the dredging stuff ready.
- 2 large lemons – 1 and 1/2 juiced for soaking the calamari – 1/2 cut into 2 wedges fro serving
- Oil for frying – any kind of vegetable frying oil will work – but we use regular (non extra virgin) olive oil for a better flavor
- 1 cup flour
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon dried basil – or 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh.
- 1 jumbo egg – or 2 small ones
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Here’s how to easily cook up your Fried Calamari
Put the calamari rings into bowl with the lemon juice to defrost and soak up some of the juice while you get the rest of the stuff ready. Turn them over a couple of times as they thaw out.
Put a skillet or sauté pan on at medium high and pour in enough oil get it about 1/2 inch deep. Put the flour, salt, pepper, basil and the red pepper flakes in one bowl and stir them together. The egg and the grated cheese in the other bowl and whip the egg and the cheese together.
Test the oil to see if it is hot enough by dropping a pinch of the flour in and if it bubbles it’s ready. One at a time put a calamari ring into the flour and turn it a couple of times to get it coated. Then into the egg and cheese then into the oil. Don’t crowd them together as they cook. Make sure that they are not touching. Check them as they cook. After about 45 seconds they should be browned enough to turn them over and brown the other side. When the other side is also browned put them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil off. For the two of us we fry in two batches of 4 each. Then serve them up.
Here are a few more quick and easy seafood recipes for you
Fried Calamari
Ingredients
- 8 Large Calamari Rings we get ours frozen and put them in a bowl with the lemon juice to soak and defrost while getting the skillet and the dredging stuff ready.
- 2 large lemons 1 1/2 juiced for soaking the Calamari - 1/2 cut into two wedges for serving
- oil for frying any kind of vegetable frying oil will work - but we use regular (non extra virgin) olive oil for a better flavor
- 1 cup flour
- salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp. dried basil or twice as much fresh basil leaves chopped
- 1 jumbo egg or two small ones
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Put the calamari rings into bowl with the lemon juice to defrost and soak up some of the juice while you get the rest of the stuff ready. Turn them over a couple of times as they thaw out.
- Put a skillet or sauté pan on at medium high and pour in enough oil get it about 1/2 inch deep. Put the flour, salt, pepper, basil and the red pepper flakes in one bowl and stir them together. The egg and the grated cheese in the other bowl and whip the egg and the cheese together.
- Test the oil to see if it is hot enough by dropping a pinch of the flour in and if it bubbles it's ready. One at a time put a calamari ring into the flour and turn it a couple of times to get it coated. Then into the egg and cheese then into the oil. Don't crowd them together as they cook. Make sure that they are not touching. Check them as they cook. After about 45 seconds they should be browned enough to turn them over and brown the other side. When the other side is also browned put them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil off. For the two of us we fry in two batches of 4 each. Then serve them up.
Nutrition
I’ll bet that you like it Joan!!
Love calamari; can’t wait to make this recipe!