Crumbed Calamari

Camping by the beach brought back unforgettable memories from our time in 2004 travelling around Australia. Back then, we towed a fishing boat and lived in a tent. Now we were towing a camper trailer, and we had a kayak for fishing. We were camping at The Gap on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

Our first fishing attempt from a kayak was a little daunting – for me, at least. The water was cold, and I did not relish falling in. There was a little wind, the water was choppy, and I worried about the kayak’s balance. Probably not the best time for our maiden voyage, especially as we were holding a couple of fishing rods, a crab net and a squid jig on a reel.

We put the net in and then attempted some fishing. After a while, with no luck, we decided we’d better check the crab net. As there was a bit of current and chop, we had to paddle against it to keep balance. We had drifted quite some distance from the net. The float, a plastic water bottle, was not very visible. In fact, I am super surprised we even found it. We did, and all we caught was a rock crab.

After returning the little crab to his watery home, we put the squid jig in, and Dwayne soon had a hit. Unfortunately, the squid got away. He had three more squid escape before he bagged one. Now a happy little fisherman, he said we could paddle for shore.

Back on shore, Dwayne cleaned the squid, lit the campfire, and heated the oil. In the meantime, I crumbed the squid rings and made a salad.

Table of Contents

Our Camp Kitchen

We camped at The Gap on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Read about our stay at The Gap here.

Crumbed Squid

Ingredients

2/3 cup of flour
2 cups of bread crumbs
2 eggs, whisked
1 large calamari (squid)
Rice bran oil for deep frying
Salt and pepper

Method

Remove the head, tentacles and wings from the cleaned squid. (You can crumb the tentacles and wings as well). Cut the tube into rings.

Prepare the crumbing ingredients in three shallow dishes. 1. flour, 2. whisked egg, 3. breadcrumbs.

Lightly coat a squid ring with the flour. Then dip the squid in egg and coat well in crumbs. Set it on a plate and repeat with the rest of the rings.

While I crumbed the squid, Dwayne heated the oil over the fire. Once the oil was hot enough (check by testing a small piece of squid), Dwayne fried the squid in three batches.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with a tasty salad and a zesty dressing.