I haven’t made calamari for a long time and while I was on holiday I went to a fishmonger to buy some and asked him for his best recipe.
The calamari from the fishmonger was fresh and a perfect white colour. For frying the calamari I used a vegetable oil – sunflower seed oil – and coated the calamari rings in flour. The only problem was that the fishmonger had said that the calamari should stand in meat tenderiser for about 20 minutes and then be washed off. I lost track of time and let the calamari stand for about one and a half hours, thought nothing of it but when I had fried the calamari it tasted too soft. The entire 600g of calamari was completely wasted.
The next time I fried calamari again I made sure that I had all the best ingredients and only used the meat tenderiser for the stipulated 20 minutes. This time the calamari came out golden brown and the texture was pleasing and soft but not unnaturally so.
How often have you found that you have the right recipe for something but perhaps don’t have all the necessary ingredients or do not correctly follow the recipe to the letter and come up with something that is not pleasing to the palate? Continue reading “Keep trying until you get the recipe right”
