4 Levels of Calamari: Amateur to Food Scientist

[upbeat music]

I'm John and I'm a level one chef.

I'm Daniel and I'm a level two chef.

I'm Chef Taka

and I've been a professional chef for almost 20 years.

[upbeat music]

Today I'm making fried calamari with marinara sauce.

Today I'm making some fried calamari

with old bay seasoning

and a little bit of dill dipping sauce.

Well, what I'm gonna do is gonna blow your mind.

I'm starting with fresh squid,

and I have beautiful yuzu brightness inside my sauce.

These frozen rings are just super easy to work with.

I have a bowl with a strainer.

I'm just gonna defrost them.

With anything fresh is better

than something you're gonna get that's prepackaged.

To be real, I have no idea what part of the squid this is.

Some smart people might call it the head of the squid.

I call it the part before the legs.

So I have this big fin reef squid here.

Today what I'm gonna be doing is using an entire whole squid

and doing the breakdown from fresh.

Whole squid, couldn't be me.

As for the squiddies, these are gonna get cut into rings.

[Taka] And I'm gonna slice until I feel the bone.

I don't know what this is.

I don't know if this is plastic or what.

This is part of the squid.

This is the gladius or sometimes known as the pen.

Actually looks like a feather tipped pen.

Learn something new every day, squid spine.

[Taka] So I'm just gonna grab the head here,

and I'm gonna go ahead and pull this back

and hopefully everything comes off in one shot.

And then remove the fins, and just start to rub,

and see if I can loosen up this inner skin

that we're trying to remove.

I'm gonna cut this squid into three sections.

Just to make sure that it stays nice and tender and soft.

We're gonna go ahead and score

the outer portion of the squid.

Cut this right in half.

This is the best parts of the squid in my opinion.

My brine consists of two ingredients.

I've got almond milk and some salt.

[Taka] To prep the squid, let it soak in some buttermilk

to break down and help to tenderize the squid.

I'm gonna let this sit in the fridge for like

30 minutes. 30 minutes tops,

and I'll be good to go.

Now I'm gonna bread my calamari.

First step is to crack my eggs, op, in a bowl.

I like to add some milk too.

Give this a good old whisk

Coating, very simple.

Today I'm using a wet batter

which is kind of not traditional for

all purpose flour, rice flour, corn star here

as well, baking powder.

[John] Then I'm gonna pour a generous amount

of breadcrumbs into this other bowl.

Seasoned breadcrumbs, because they already

have the seasoning and the flavors that I want.

Basil, parsley

[Daniel] Some oregano.

old bay seasoning is just the best seasoning on the planet.

Salt, pepper, garlic

[Daniel] Garlic powder, which is probably the next best.

And then a little bit of black pepper, freshly cracked.

Everything gets whisked together.

Bam.

[John] I've defrosted in my calamari rings.

They're gonna go right into the egg mixture.

Gonna give them a nice toss.

[Taka] This wet batter I'm making is a little bit

of a play on fish and chips.

Instead of the beer, I'm gonna be using seltzer instead.

I wanna make sure that I don't over mix this just

to prevent any extra formation of gluten.

[Daniel] Alright, first things first is

straining the calamari.

So now that these are all coated

in the egg, I'm just gonna quickly add them into

[Daniel] Flour mix

[John] Breadcrumbs.

I just want these fully covered

by the breadcrumb and I don't wanna see any white

from the rings so that when I fry it

it gets that nice golden brown color all around.

These are all ready to hit the fryer.

I'm using a dutch oven here.

So first thing I'm gonna do here is gonna strain the squid

from the buttermilk, and then I'm gonna go ahead

and pat it dry on some paper towels.

Do not forget to season your protein, just dredging it

in a thin layer of corn starch to make it dry

before I dunk it into the batter.

The this frying process is gonna be very quick, so I want

I want to make sure I keep a close eye on it.

So I'm gonna pan fry my calamari in some hot oil.

I like this method because it's really easy, it's quick.

It may not be the healthiest

but it's gonna gimme that nice crunch that I want.

In a fried calamari.

If you're gonna pan fry something that has batter on it

the batter's gonna be drooping down on one side.

So you're gonna end

up having more batter on one side than the other.

Let's get these into the fryer.

Give it a little, you know, a little bit of a shake

so it's not overly dusty.

Calamari in the deep fryer basket.

Deep fryer basket now goes into the oil.

When you initially put stuff in tons of bubbles.

[John] What I'm looking for is, you know

a nice golden brown color.

All right, so I'm just gonna flip these rings.

[Taka] So this looks like it's ready to go.

I'm gonna pull this right now.

I'm gonna let this rest

in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.

[Daniel] 5,

4,

3, 2, 1.

Okay, bang.

I'm gonna get these onto a wire rack now.

Hit 'them with a little bit of salt.

[John] They smell like fried golden rings of goodness

so there's no other way to describe them.

I'm so excited.

My calamari is all fried up.

Calamari are fried

[Taka] Back from the fridge.

I'm gonna drop it into the fryer one last time to

make sure the exterior is super crispy.

The second fry, we are trying to aim

for a higher temperature than the first fry.

So I'm gonna go ahead and remove the small fins here.

They feel super crispy and they're the thinnest meat.

The head and the tentacles.

And the last piece I'll be pulling out is the body.

Salt immediately.

So there's really nothing worse than dried calamari

'cause you have to have it with a dipping sauce.

I'm gonna be using a simple jarred marinara

but I'm gonna jazz it up, make it fancier.

I respect the jar John, 'cause doing the same thing.

So I'm gonna be making a yuzu aioli with the touch

of little old bay to give it that little twist.

[John] Woo.

[Daniel] I'm gonna start by cutting up

some of this fresh dill.

[Taka] An egg, crack it, and separate the whites

from the yolk.

So I'm gonna be just adding a little bit of mustard to this.

Incorporate the mustard with the egg yolk.

[John] I'm just gonna add some crushed red pepper

for a little heat, some crushed garlic.

And then last but not least

some fresh basil from the store.

This smells so good like this smells like my childhood.

Stir this up.

[Daniel] Cut this lemon in half.

Throw the juice in here.

So I've got some vegan mayo here.

Me and mayonnaise don't really get along in my tum tum.

[Taka] And once I have this, I'm gonna start to pour

in the oil very slowly.

I'm using here yuzu juice to loosen up the mayonnaise

add a little bit of sugar, add a little bit

of salt here as well.

And also, I'm just adding a little bit of old bay here

hitting all the different spots.

Salty, sweet, spicy.

So I'm gonna let all the flavors melt together.

And in the meantime, I'm gonna slice

up my lemon love slices for additional garnish.

You know, a squeeze of lemon just adds a little citrus

a little brightness, the sauce I really just wanna

get it hot, get those flavors melted together.

Okay, let's taste this out.

Bang, quick and easy.

I think it's ready to go.

[Taka] I feel very happy.

Plating time.

This calamari looks great.

Some of the rings are perfectly coated, all over nice

and thick, look great.

Whereas others didn't do as well, but that's okay.

Once you eat 'them, they all taste the same so.

[Daniel] My little bowl of sauce is gonna go

onto the plate and I'm gonna pile all the calamari around it

like they're waiting to climb in and jump into that sauce.

One of my big pet peeves is having something super crispy

and then introducing a liquid on top of it

which is gonna make it all soggy.

So here I'm gonna be adding the yuzu zest.

It's gonna add that nice acidic pungency.

I'm gonna use this aioli as my base to work around.

Here I got my ears.

Let's create some body here.

And then I'm gonna take my big pieces

and I'm gonna finish this with the tentacles in the head.

[John] Last one on the plate.

I have my seasoned marinara sauce.

Gorgeous.

And then last but not least, lemon wedge.

[Daniel] A couple slices of lemon.

[Taka] Add a little bit more yuzu zest on top.

And this is my fried calamari

with a marinara dipping sauce.

And that is my fried calamari

And that is my fried calamari with a yuzu mayo.

I was able to achieve this beautiful brown

crispy crust on this calamari.

It looks like something you get while you're sitting

on the beach looking out, watching the waves crash.

So the first thing I'm gonna do before I eat these is

hit them with a lemon.

I am so excited to try these out, let's go.

Moment of truth.

That was really good.

Crunchy, chewy,

flavorful.

The inside is perfectly cooked

nice and tender from the buttermilk.

The acid in the mayo is cutting all the fat out.

All in a day's work.

That's delicious.

I think this is the winner.

Calamari is a delicious, often fried seafood dish

with lots of options for preparation.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

Calamari is made from squid, a cephalopod

in the phylum mollusk.

Squid are carnivores with large eyes

and arms attached directly to their heads.

They have extremely thin muscle fibers

with proteins that contract when heated

so cooking them properly is essential

to avoiding rubbery calamari.

John used frozen calamari rings.

The hood is trimmed, scored, and put

through a machine that cuts it into rings.

They're then flash frozen and bagged for convenience.

Daniel used fresh squid that required cleaning

before being cut into rings.

Sometimes when you're working with fresh fish

you'll find some surprises

like part of the animal's cartilage

or a rogue tentacle.

Taka used a whole fresh reef

squid scoring the hood makes the squid more tender

and gives it a nice shape as it's fried.

Taka was careful not to waste any part of the squid.

John used store-bought commercial breadcrumbs.

They contain a lengthy list of preservatives

dough conditioners, and anti molding agents.

Although they are crispy, the particle size is small

and they tend to make a thinner crust.

Daniel soaked his rings in almond milk

and dipped them in a mixture of seasoned starches

which included old bay seasoning

a favorite to use with any seafood.

Taka soaked his squid in buttermilk and then

was careful to thoroughly dry his squid before seasoning it.

He made a batter for his squid

from a blend of starches, baking powder and seltzer water.

The effervescence of the seltzer

and the formation of carbon dioxide from the baking

powder added a tender quality to Taka's batter.

John hand fried their calamari

but John had some trouble with the breading.

It didn't adhere well to the wet squid.

The excess water steamed when he put his squid

in the hot oil and his breading fell apart a bit.

Daniel fried in hot vegetable oil.

Taka did a double fry method

cooling his calamari in between fries.

The first fry lightly cooks the fish cooling in

between means it will not become tough

from overcooking and mitigates for differences

in temperature as the squid comes out of the hot oil.

The second frying makes the breading

on the calamari extremely crispy.

All three chefs rested

and seasons their calamari immediately after frying.

While the heat of the fish

and coating are primed for seasoning that adheres perfectly.

Calamari is a delicious appetizer,

lunch, dinner, late night snack.

Tasty and satisfying any time of the day or night.

When you're thinking of making this delicious dish,

we hope you'll take some tips from our three talented chefs.