Almond Calamari
A while ago I had a dinner party with some of my friends. We had a theme and it was "North-Spain-Pintxos-night!". Pinxtos are tapas from the north of Spain and one of the most popular Pinxtos are calamares. Deliciously deep fried squid rings... nomnom You can not have a Pinxtos night without calamares!
Squid is a very healthy and nutritious fish. It's rich in protein and it has mere 75kcal per uncooked squid. According to EPA reports, squid is one of the fish that contain the lowest content of Mercury. Mercury is the chemical nature element and it is not very healthy to eat. Ansjovis, clams and catfish are safe too!
The batter
Normally the batter for the fried calamares is made with cornflour or wheat flour. I had a huge pack of almonds and came up with the idea to try to make them with fresh grinded almonds. Below you can find the list of ingredients and the prescription how to cook the calamari.
Pinxtos. A typical snack of the Basque Country and Navarre, "pinchos" consist of small slices of bread upon which an ingredient or mixture of ingredients is placed and fastened with a toothpick, which gives the food its name "pincho", meaning "spike. Other snacks considered as pinchos are fried calamari or fried croquettes"
Almond Calamari. What do you need? (for around 4 people)
- 0.5kg of raw squid rings
- 200 gram of raw almonds or almond flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 Egg yolk
- 50ML of beer
- 50ML of olive or vegetable oil.
Yes, girls you read it... Beer. One of my friends told me that in Greece they add beer to The batter which makes them taste extra tasty. I thought she was crazy but I have to admit: they tasted fantastic! But they are perfectly fine without too ;)
How do you bake them?
Mix the egg yolk, almond flour and beer in the following order in a deep bowl. Add more almond flour until the batter gets nice and thick. Add salt and pepper for flavour then mix the squid rings well with the batter.
Take a deep frying pan and pour the olive/vegetable oil in the pan. Heat the oil as hot as possible then place the calamari in the pan. Keep an eye on them but don't turn them around too fast (make sure the batter is nicely attached to the squid). The calamari are ready if the flesh is tender and the batter crispy golden brown. Put some kitchen paper on a plate. The paper wil suck up all the oil.
To add a little flavor to this delicious snack you can make your own cocktail or yogurt-garlic sauce. A pinch of lemon also does the trick! Bon appetit!
