I love salted egg calamari but I find that a lot of Zi Char places make it too oily. To make it lighter I use a Japanese style tempura batter and modified the technique for making the sauce so that it turns out creamy instead of oily. Having it this way also means the calamari rings remain crispy and you can determine how much sauce you want to eat!
Tempura Calamari Rings with Salted Egg Dip
Ingredients for Salted egg sauce:
Salted Egg Yolk 4
Curry leaves 2 sprigs (40 leaves)
Chilli padi 1 (sliced thin)
Butter 60g
Plain flour 2 teaspoons
Evaporated Milk 200ml
Dashi powder 1 tablespoon
Sugar 2 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Ingredients for Calamari:
Squid 600g / 2 large
Rice Flour + Cake Flour ½ cup + ½ cup (for dusting)
Rice Flour ½ cup
Cake Flour ½ cup
Baking soda 1 teaspoon
Ice cold water 1 cup
Egg yolk 1
Mirin 2 tablespoons (optional)
Cooking Method for Dipping sauce:
Blend the salted egg yolks with an equal amount of evaporated milk till smooth and creamy. Heat the Tefal Fry Pan 21cm and keep and eye on the Thermo-spot, once it turns red, the pan is at the perfect temperature to start cooking. Melt butter in a saucepan or pot and add curry leaves and chilli padi. Once the aroma of the curry leaves is released, add 2 tsp plain flour and combine, stirring for half a minute. Add salted egg mixture and stir to combine. Slowly add evaporated milk and continue to stir
until it turns smooth and creamy. (If the sauce is still oily, just add more evaporated milk until it is creamy). Add dashi powder, sugar, salt, mirin and adjust to taste.
Cooking Method for Calamari:
Slice calamari into rings about 1cm wide and season with salt and pepper. In Tefal Shallow Pan (24cm) Heat oil to 190°C. Beat egg yolk and ice water until evenly mixed and add rice flour. Mix until smooth then sift in cake flour and add baking soda. Gently mix until just combined. It should still be a little lumpy. Dust calamari with rice flour and cake flour mix and dip into batter and fry till golden yellow in colour. Drain and serve with salted egg dip.
Notes:
1. Add Rice flour first and mix it with the water and egg to create a smooth batter.
2. By keeping the batter cold, it remains more viscous, so we can create a thin and even crust.
3. Keep the oil temperature between 170°C to 190°C. The temperature of the oil would affect the calamari rings, if it is too low, the calamari rings may become drench in oil.
4. Evaporated milk contains emulsifiers, binding the fats to the water in the milk, making it creamy rather than oily. Alternatively, use whole milk, and increase the plain flour to 1 tablespoon.
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Other Salted Egg Recipe:
Salted Egg Prawn
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