In this month’s Cooking Corner we’re going on a culinary journey through Thailand and Japan, with a couple of very quick and easy recipes for squid.

This recipe falls under the mantle of very few ingredients, very short cooking time and still being utterly delicious. Whether you munch on the squid as a snack or tumble them through a salad. I’m sure you will enjoy the flavours of this squid.

Handy hint: Combine a packet of crispy noodles (available in the supermarket) through a green salad with a some shredded basil leaves and then toss with a dressing using equal parts lime juice and olive oil for a quick Thai style salad to accompany the squid.

Ingredients

1kg squid, cleaned and cut into rings (don’t forget to include the tentacles)

2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1/2 cup cornflour

vegetable oil

Preparation

• Toss the squid rings and tentacles through the Thai red curry paste. The easiest way to do this is to use a pair of clean hands. Allow the coated squid to stand for at least half an hour.

• When you’re ready to prepare the squid, heat a generous amount of the vegetable oil in a heavy base frypan. The heavy base provides a more even distribution of heat across the bottom of the pan with no hot spots to burn the seafood.

• Stir the cornflour through the marinated squid. Fry the squid pieces in the hot oil, adding them to the pan one at a time, to stop them sticking together. It’s best to cook the squid in small batches.

• Cook the squid for half a minute and turn to cook on the other side. When you’ve removed the squid from the pan, drain it on some paper towel and continue to cook another batch of squid.

This is another recipe with few ingredients and a fantastic flavour, however you will need larger type squid for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 whole squid, cleaned (about 200gms)

2 shallots, vert thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

soy sauce

Preparation

• Rinse the squid thoroughly, inside and out.

• Preheat your grill (or BBQ plate) and grill the squid for about four minutes on each side. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the squid. Take care not to overcook, otherwise the squid will become tough.

• Place the grilled squid onto a cutting board and cut into rings of about a quarter of an inch thick. To serve, place the squid rings onto a serving platter and sprinkle with the shallots and ginger and then drizzle with the soy sauce.