Bocadillo de Calamares
Madrid Fried Squid Roll
Madrid is 300 km from the sea and its best-known sandwich is fried squid in a roll. The rings are floured, fried fast and piled into crusty bread while still too hot to eat. That is all. A squeeze of lemon or a little mayonnaise is the only argument.
The Spanish recipe read calls it the popular Madrid sandwich, a standard of the city's bars, eaten with a cold beer. It coats the rings in a half-and-half mix of chickpea flour and wheat flour, shakes off the excess in a sieve and fries at 180 to 190°C.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 300 g cleaned squid tubes
- 50 g chickpea (gram) flour
- 50 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 750 ml sunflower or light olive oil, for deep-frying
- 2 crusty white rolls or 2 lengths of baguette, about 15 cm
- Lemon wedges and mayonnaise, to serve (optional)
Method
- Prepare the squid Cut the squid tubes into rings about 1 cm wide. Dry them very thoroughly with kitchen paper: wet squid spits in the oil and the coating slides off.
- Coat Mix the two flours with the salt in a bowl. Toss the rings in the flour until evenly coated, then tip them into a sieve and shake off the excess.
- Heat the oil Pour the oil into a deep, heavy saucepan, no more than a third full, and heat to 185°C.
- Fry Fry the rings in two batches for 1 to 2 minutes, until pale gold and crisp. Any longer and the squid turns rubbery. Lift onto kitchen paper and salt lightly.
- Fill Split the rolls, pile in the hot squid and serve at once, with lemon or mayonnaise if you like.
Food safety
Deep-frying: never fill the pan more than a third full, never leave hot oil unattended and keep a lid to hand. Dry the squid well, as water makes hot oil spit violently.
Fry just before eating. The crust lasts about five minutes.