Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale, and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I want to share with
you, my really quick, yet delightful and addictive, Old Bay, Cherry Peppers, Fried Calamari.
That's all I gotta say!
They are positively delightful.
Crispy, spicy, delicious and easy.
It requires, one - two - three - four - five ingredients.
Starting with some calamari rings, of course. Now I have a little calamari rings - and I
did - I'll explain this to you in a minute, just chopped them myself into little rings,
you can but them already chopped like that.
Now what I have here are some pickled sliced cherry peppers.
These are one of my favorite standby foods because they are delicious on pretty much
anything, and they give you a really spicy hot kick. I love them, it's making my mouth,
like, water.
What I've done, and what you need to do is, once you get them - especially the calamari
cut and all that, you want to rinse them and put them on a paper towel and then you take
another piece of paper towel and you pat them dry really really well.
You want the cherry peppers and the calamari really, really dry so that it won't splatter
in the oil.
And I've got some vegetable oil here preheating, I want this to get nice and hot and don't
worry if there's little bits of things in there, I was frying something else earlier,
so I'm going to use the same oil.
So I've got that coming up to a really nice high temperature, and now I'm going to need
some all purpose flour and then I've got some Old Bay seasoning here.
Old bay is my favorite seafood seasoning, but you can use any seafood seasoning you
like, this just the one that we get here in the states that we just love and it's wonderful.
And you don't even need any salt and pepper for this recipe because there is plenty of
salt and pepper in here so it's just going to flavor this beautifully.
To my all purpose flour, I am going to add the calamari and my little cherry peppers.
I'm going to fry up my cherry peppers so they get really nice and crispy.
The idea for this came a long time ago, about five years ago, my husband and I were in Boston,
right after we got married we took a trip to Boston and we went to a fabulous seafood
place. And of course, I'm a fried calamari lover, so I ordered some fried calamari thinking
it was just going to come the standard way, you know, plain old fried calamari, which
I love!
But this was just spiced up with Old Bay and had these spicy fried cherry peppers running
through it that pretty much blew my mind.
So of course I had to recreate it, I've been doing it ever since, and we just love it around
here!
I don't make these often because it really is something you won't stop eating.
That's the truth!
So anyway, I am taking a few of my calamari and my cherry peppers, and I do this in batches.
And I've got some vegetable oil getting nice and hot in my pan - and don't worry if it
looks like there's stuff in there, I was frying something earlier that I didn't want to waste
the oil so I'm going to do it in the same oil.
I'm going to drop those in, and I'm going to do this a little bit at a time because
I don't want to drop the temperature of the oil. So, I'm going to just cook these for
a couple minutes, not even, it'll take no time at all, or until they get a beautiful
golden brown color, then get really crispy.
I'm going to put them on a paper towel lined plate, and I'll show you what I do when they're
all done.
Oh, these are really nice and crispy!
Putting them right on the plate that I've lined with paper towels.
Smells really, really good in here!
Those cherry peppers are like calling my name. I'm actually going to turn this off because
all mine are done!
And they literally take like a minute per batch, they take no time at all, especially
because these are so little, they cook in no time.
So now, I take some Old Bay, Ah! I love Old Bay!
Sprinkle that over the top.
You can do as much or as little as you want. And then you just - you hear the crunch? Do
you hear them?
Ah!
That's gorgeous!
I'll put a little bit more, because I love Old Bay, I love Old Bay Fries, can't go wrong
with that!
[Crunch!]
Mmm.
Mmm!
Hot!
Really hot, but phenomenal!
I'm going to eat this pepper right here, oh this looks even better!
Super easy to make, super good, very addictive, you don't even have to leave the scene of
the crime to enjoy them.
Go to LauraintheKitchen.com to get the full written recipe. Let me know down below what
some of your favorite versions and variations of fried calamari are and if you want me to
recreate it.
Hope you have enjoyed spending time with me and I'll see you next time!
Bye bye!