Seafood!

I met with my best friend "D" at the corner of King and Spadina for a cooking class last Friday. As soon as we got there we quickly reserved our sits, front row and all, so we could really see everything that was happening in the kitchen. I really liked the class, it was all seafood! and we were able to taste every meal the chef prepared. He was very helpful, and answered all our questions. When "D" and I left the culinary centre we were so excited we quickly planned to cook the recipes the next day!.. and we did!!..

A couple of weeks later I cooked an "impress me welcome dinner" for my parent who are just visiting Toronto this week! They have been reading my blog for a while and were expecting to see her daughter perform in the kitchen. Luckily she nailed it!

The menu included

Fried Calamari

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of clean Squid (cut into thin strips)

the juice and zest of one lemon

salt & pepper

1 cup of flour

a pinch of paprika, cayenne pepper, parsley flakes, garlic powder, chili flakes (and every other herb our spice you would like to add to the flour base).

Directions:

Have your squid cleaned and cut. On a separate bowl add all dry ingredients plus the zest of one lemon. In another bowl, have your squid marinated with pepper and lemon juice for no more than 5 mins or so. For the deep frying, I always use a porcelain pot, it will help with the heating process. One other advice is to never never deep fry without a thermometer, believe me it will make your life a 1000 times easier and healthier. Heat the oil that you are going to use for your deep frying until it reaches 375F and keep it there. Mix the marinated squid with the flour mixture and start the deep frying!! I made a homemade mayonnaise to go with it!..

Enjoy!