July 1

Fried Calamari and Baked Ziti

If there's a better way to celebrate an anniversary than eating good food, we sure don't know it. If you'd told either Robin or Chris that they'd be enjoying fried calamari seven years hence, neither would have believed it would be homemade nor that it would be as tender or crispy as it was tonight. Making it all that much better is that calamari is really quite easy to prepare. Special thanks to Robin's mother for helping out with the meal.

Fried Calamari [View Recipe]
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Ingredients

1 pound calamari
oil
1 cup flour
salt & pepper

Instructions

We start tonight by rinsing the squid in a colander and placing them on a dinner plate. We cut the squid bodies into 4 rings using scissors.
Next we start heating our dutch oven over medium-high heat with an inch of oil. We place a candy thermometer inside the pot. We want the oil to reach 375 degrees to start frying.
In a large bowl we mix the flour with enough salt and pepper for it to taste seasoned. When the oil is almost to temperature, we toss about 5 rings and a few tentacles into the flour and stir with a fork. We lift these out and place them in a fine mesh strainer. We shake well over the flour bowl and we are ready to fry.
When the oil is 375 degrees, we use our chinese (spider) strainer to gently lower the squid into the oil. We stir with the spider and after about 2 minutes when the squid is browned, we remove with the spider to a paper-towel lined plate. We sprinkle with kosher salt and repeat with another batch of squid.
We eat the fried calamari as it is cooked, but we could have kept it warm in a 250 degree oven.
Pasta with sauce
Cocktail sauce
Caesar salad

Fried Calamari and Baked Ziti

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Ingredients

Instructions