Salt and Pepper Calamari – P.F. Chang’s Recipe

IMG_0259

Calamari Steaks

For most people, making Tender Calamari is not an easy chore.  Even restaurants struggle with it.  When you get it in rings, it’s slices of the body on those six inch squid, so it tends to be very chewy.  When you get all eight of the legs and tentacles, you are just getting the lower half of the same squid.  Understand?  Top and Bottom.  No matter what you do, Cooking Calamari like this isn’t ever going to make it any less chewy, and tenderizing them with a mallet is just ridiculous.  So you need another solution, and here it is; Calamari Steaks!

Thumb Smith's Food and Drug

This isn’t just a good alternative; it’s the best way to turn out Tender Calamari.  It’s not chewy this way at all.  It’s soft yet Crispy and very flavorful.  In fact I can eat an entire plate of it cooked this way, and you will to if you haven’t already.  Oh, and if you can’t find it at your local grocery or seafood market, tell them to order it for you.  How do you think I got these?  Smith’s Food and Drug just pitches me a phone call when ever anything I ask them to order arrives.  No extra cost to me, and they get exactly what I want, when I want it.  It’s sweet!

Anyway, the Salt and Pepper Calamari recipe can be found at various restaurants around the globe.  I think the most popular menus include P.F. Chang’s Salt and Pepper Calamari (my personal favorite), and Typhoon’s, which I don’t like at all.  So today I’m going to model P.F. Chang’s.  If you’ve ever had their recipe, you know it’s to die for.  So let’s dive right in to this Tender Calamari recipe and get started.

Salt and Pepper Tender Calamari video tutorial by PoorMansGourmet.

Tender Salt and Pepper Calamari Ingredients:Calamari Sauce Ingredients

2-4 Calamari Steaks Thawed and sliced
1-2 Green Onions thinly sliced
2 Pinches of Margarita Salt and Pepper

Marinade:

1 egg white
2 tbsp canola oil (any oil is fine)
1 pinch of Garlic Powder
1 pinch of Ginger Powder (Curry powder isn’t bad either)
½ tsp Soy Sauce
½ cup of Corn Starch

Calamari Dipping Sauce:

1 pt Hoisin Sauce
½ pt Black Bean Garlic Sauce (or Bean Curd)
1 pt Orange Chili Sauce
You can also add a little bit of sugar soy and vinegar if you’d like.

After ½ hour of marinating the Tender Calamari, dredge the slices through Potato starch, or cornstarch until it is evenly coated, then fry at 375 degrees for 1 ½ minutes.  Be sure to separate each piece with a spider or a slotted spoon while frying.  Then toss the Tender Calamari in a bowl with Slices of Green Onion and season with Salt and Pepper to your taste.

Fried Crisp Bean Burritos

4 Crisp Bean Burritos - Poor Man's Gourmet Kitchen

I Love These Crisp Bean Burritos

Crisp Bean Burritos are the best when I feel like I’m starving.  I use to get these from a copy cat version of Taco Time that only charged 79 cents a piece.  So I’d hit the drive through after a hard days slavin’ at work and pick up a 6 pack of Crisp Bean Burritos.  I’d usually make it through 3 and sometimes 4 before I had to give up and store the rest away.  But, you know just as well as I do, we always get hungry again.

So if you’ve got some Refried Beans and at least a half decent Tortilla, we are well on our way.  I recommend 2 pieces of advice that will ultimately up the quality of the Crisp Bean Burritos with no extra cost to you.

IMG_02631) Use dehydrated Refried Beans and a fresh batch of tortillas.
2) Cook the refried Beans with a piece of Bacon.

Be Sure to let the beans cool before you load your tortillas.  You need the beans to be thick so they don’t bleed out in the Fryer. Oil temperature should be 375 degrees and the Crisp Beans should be fried until they are golden brown(2 to 3 min).

Crisp Bean Burritos Ingredients:

Bacon
Refried Beans
Scallions
Tortillas
Oil

1) Cook Bacon in the bottom of a pan then add your Refried Beans with Scallions.
2) Wait 10 minutes to cool, then add desired amount to each tortilla.
3) Roll and pin the last tortilla flap with a tooth pick.
4) Fry at 375 degrees until golden brown.
5) Enjoy your Crisp Bean Burritos.