Salt and Pepper Squid

We've booked the Chef's Table at the Maze restaurant in London for late August. Maze is run by Chef Jason Atherton and he is considered to be among the rising stars on the London restaurant scene. I bought his cookbook and gave it a page through. Some really nice looking stuff. This one caught our eye as we had been talking about frying up some squid.

This was exquisite. I mean, the squid was the perfect consistency and the batter nice and light. The lime and chili played nicely together along with the salty and peppery hit. This was like popcorn... I could have just kept eating it all day. This makes enough for four starters. Trust me... if you make this for four people, you will be a star. They WILL want more and you'll have to just tell them, "Sorry, maybe next time." Always leave them wishing they had more.

400 g squid, baby, cleaned
85 g flour
1 tablespoon corn flour
½ teaspoon salt
200 milliliters mineral water, cold
5 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
groundnut oil , for deep-frying
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 green chilies, sliced thinly for garnish

Set aside the squid tentacles and slice the body pouches into rings. Pat the squid dry with kitchen paper.

Make the tempura batter. Combine the flour, corn flour, salt and mineral water in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Put the flour, salt and pepper in another bowl and mix well to combine.

Heat the groundnut oil in a deep-fryer or other deep, heavy pan to 180C/350F. A piece of bread dropped into the hot oil should sizzle vigorously. Dip the squid rings into the seasoned flour to coat all over and then shake off the excess. Deep-fry them in batches in the hot oil for 1-1 1/2 minutes until lightly golden and crisp. (Make sure you don't overcrowd the pan or the temperature of the oil will drop too low, making it all a soggy mess.) Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm while you deep-fry the remaining squid rings.

Now draw the squid tentacles through the tempura batter and deep fry these until lightly golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.

Sprinkle the deep-fried squid rings and tentacles with a little coarse salt. Divide between warm plates and scatter over the sliced chili. Serve at once with lime wedges.