Deep fried calamari

For the first time ever, I bought sotong (aka calamari or squid) from market yesterday. I have seen my mom cleaned and prepared sotong before but I don't have any hands-on experience. So I decide to brave the squishy/mushy and try preparing it myself.

Although I have books on how to clean sotong, I was simply too lazy to check it up. Calling up all my mom's instructions from the deep recesses of my brain, I plunged right into the thick of it. Skinning the outer layer of the sotong, pulling out its transparent plastic spine, cutting out its mouth, cleaning out god-knows-what that's all inside the body of the sotong and finally scoring the clean product. Thank goodness for my mom's instructions, I think I managed well enough.

So now, with all the gruesome part done, it's down to trying to find a good recipe on how to make deep fried calamari. As I have eaten this dish in restaurants numerous times, I was expecting myself to make something similiar to those (ie. batter coated). However, the recipes that I have found either in my cookbooks or online, they merely dredge the sotong in breadcrumbs or cornflour or plain flour or a combination of any of the above. As hubby don't fancy eating too much flour in the form of batter, we opt for the cornflour coated option.

The sotong turned out tender but unfortunately the coating didn't stick to it but instead ended up in the pot of oil. *Sigh* So it was a partial failure in this attempt, despite the sotong tasting good. Guess, I will have to try again next time. I made a simplified Waldorf Salad to go with it.