Cooking with Kylie: Neil's Chilli-salt Squid!

I love Kylie Kwong, but her books are not cheap! I did get some Christmas money, however, so I treated myself to Kylie's Heart and Soul. As is the norm with Kylie, everything is so mouthwatering, and also very simple to make. I have a ton of recipes flagged in there, but I decided to make something that really grabbed my eye the first time through the book, Neil's Chilli-salt Squid, on page 35. The flavours really appealed to me, and I do love calamari. I don't have access to fresh squid, unfortunately, so in order to get any at all, I had to make a trip to the LOGS in Trail where they sell frozen squid in 1lb packages. It's times like these when I miss living on the coast...

The dish was very easy to put together, but I didn't think it was an incredible success. This wasn't the fault of the recipe, though, but more my execution of it. I had to shallow fry the squid because I didn't have enough oil, and I don't think I heated the oil enough. It was hot, but not as hot as I realize now it should have been. The squid didn't crisp up, and though the meat was done perfectly, the coating didn't stick. Next time I'll make sure I have the proper amount of oil, deep fry, and make sure the oil is much, much hotter. The flavour was there, though, and the oil turned a spectacular colour!

I served my squid with some baked fries and an Asian coleslaw.

The recipe is here.