Guest Blog: Cooking with Walrus - Spiced Calamari & Chips

Hello all, Welcome to the first instalment of “Cooking with Walrus” with me, The Walrus. Much love to the Bookery Cook fam for making this collab of amphibious proportions happen! As a sea dwelling mammal I enjoy the tender, translucent and svelte textures of my co-inhabitants, particularly my tentacled friend, the squid. An elegant beast like this makes even my hydro-dynamic figure seem like a bloated Mac truck.Along with enjoying the more delicate flavours of the seven seas, a mammal of large proportions such as myself, longs for starch. For a walrus it is necessary to build blubber for those trips to the freezing waters of the Southern Ocean and also for protection against an over-zealous tusk or two, as we Walrii are very jealous animals. 

Spiced Calamari & Chips 

 The following dish pays homage to the subtle flavours of the admirable squid (with an Asian twist), but also fills a Walrus gut with delectable golden roasted chips. Hope you enjoy!
Ps. Whilst you are making this, it is recommended you listen to the mix made for it. Download the Olives and Gold mix here or stream (with tracklist) 

 Oven roasted chips - feeds 4 mammals.

 - Several lugs of olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic

- 4 Large potatoes or 6 smaller ones (any kind will work here)
- 2 sprigs Rosemary or ThymeCalamari
- 4 squid tubes gutted, washed and cut into 1cm thick rings (see “how to gut squids” video)
- 300g wholemeal, plain or rice flour or semolina
- pinch of Chinese Five spice
- Several lugs of vegetable oil
- A teaspoon of Sesame oil
- Generous pinch of salt & pepperAioli
- Whole egg mayonnaise
- 2 Garlic cloves
- Salt and pepper
- Lemon/lime juice

To make

Chips, pre-heat heat oven to 220-240 degrees. Peel potatoes (you can leave skin on if you like), half lengthways and cut into wedges with ½ inch fat edges. Put cut potatoes into a large pot of well-salted boiling water and leave for 10-15 minutes. Once potatoes are easily penetrated with a knife, remove from boiling water and drain.

Heat large oven tray (preferably with reasonable depth) in oven with 3 large glugs of olive oil and garlic cloves. There should be 2 or 3mils of oil coating the bottom of the tray. Once the garlic cloves are sizzling, add the potatoes to the tray and mix until each wedge is well coated with oil. Season generously with salt and pepper and return to the oven.

Stir the potatoes every 15 or 20mins and you will see them slowly turn golden and crispy. Don’t be afraid to add more oil if the contact edge of each potato is not frying up nicely, as this is the key to get them golden. When potatoes are 15mins away from being done, add finely chopped herbs. If your ocean-oven is dodgy (like mine) it will take about 40mins to achieve the almighty golden crunch but more solid land ovens should get there is 30mins.

Calamari, in a plastic bag, combine flour, 5 spice and salt and pepper. Add calamari rings and shake well until all rings are well dusted. Heat the vegetable and sesame oil in a pan with graded sides (a wok works well). The oil should be half an inch deep. Test the heat of the oil by dropping one of the squid rings into the pan. If it starts to sizzle straight away add half of the rings to the oil (do not empty the contents of the plastic bag, but remove squid). Stir the squid every 10 seconds or so, and watch how the rings get nice and tasty. After 1 minute (or until the flour is crispy) remove the calamari and place onto some kitchen towel. Wait a minute for oil to return to a hot heat and add the remaining squid rings and repeat.Aioli, mix the garlic, mayonnaise, salt and pepper and lemon juice in a bowl. Add more seasoning and lemon juice to taste. You can also add half a teaspoon of mustard as well if you so wish.

To eat

Add a salad to this dish to aid with the digestion of bulk starch. Greek salads work well.