Hunan-Style Sweet & Piquant Deep Fried Calamari. Chinese Sweet & Sour Calamari.
Author: Whats4Chow
Recipe type: Seafood / Calamari / Deep-fried
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Hunan-style sweet & piquant deep-fried calamari is out of this world!!! Battered and deep-fried, the calamari is then tossed in a sweet and piquant Hunan style sauce to glaze. Served on a bed of shrimp fried rice, this is pure heaven.
Ingredients
For the Batter
- 150g All-purpose flour
- 75ml Tapioca flour (or Corn flour)
- 7.5ml Baking powder
- 235ml Water
- 2.5ml Salt
- 30ml Oil
For the Sauce / Glaze
- 30ml Caster sugar
- 20ml White wine vinegar
- 15ml Light soy sauce
Other
- ½ Red pepper cut into strips
- ½ Yellow pepper cut into strips
- 3 Tbs Snipped chives
Instructions
- Place the flour, tapioca flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and mix this to a thick batter. Allow this to stand for 20 minutes.
- While the batter stands, cut the calamari into rings of around 6mm or a quarter inch in width.
- Transfer the rings to a clean dish towel and pat them dry.
- Cut the peppers into strips, and snip 3 tablespoons of chives.
- Once the batter has rested, pour in the oil and mix this thoroughly until combined.
- Half fill a large pan with oil and heat this to 180c or 350f. Dip the calamari rings in the batter and carefully drop them into the oil. Continue until the surface of the oil is covered.
- Fry the calamari for 3 minutes per side until light golden and crispy. Use a slotted spoon to scoop these from the oil and drain the rings on kitchen paper.
- Repeat this until all of the rings are fried.
- Heat your wok over medium high heat, add a teaspoonful of oil and fry the peppers for 2 minutes. In a jug, combine the caster sugar, white wine vinegar and light soy sauce.
- Stir this until the sugar has dissolved, and add this to the wok.
- Allow this to boil for 90 seconds, then add the calamari to the wok. Toss the calamari in the sauce until everything is well coated.
- Remove the wok from the heat and stir in the snipped chives.
- Arrange a bed of shrimp fried rice in each your serving bowls. Top this with the calamari and serve immediately.