I’ll never forget the day in 2009 when we cooked this dish for the title of Best Local Chinese Restaurant Finals.
I had just finished service at Sweet Mandarin at midnight. After two 2 hours of sleep, a black shiny car picked us up and drove us to a secret destination in London to cook for the title of Best Local Chinese Restaurant. As the dark turned to dusk the car pulled up down a narrow alleyway and a lady who was way too alert for 6am opened the door and ushered us in to try on our chef aprons. Then we were whisked into a fancy kitchen with a boiling hot aga raging away and said you have an hour to prepare your squid for fifty people.
‘Oh my goodness. I’m not sure I can do this’, said Helen when the magnitude of the situation finally dawned on us. We were cooking for the culinary greats of the world, this is what would make or break our culinary paths and we were struggling to keep our eyes open. Things only got worse when I heard a voice boom, ‘Hello Lisa, I’m Gordon Ramsay. Welcome to the F Word Kitchen’. I dropped the machete knife I had been holding as the shock of being inches from this famous chef whom I had a crush on. The knife was millimetres away from cutting my hand and I started shaking – so this was what it felt like to be starstruck, with no sleep and the unenviable task of cooking squid for 50 diners.
I am a fighter to the end. Everyone in my family is, even my grandmother who told me she kicked so hard in the womb, the midwife thought she was a boy. That strength, energy and determination has stayed with her all her life and in short her story is my story and the story of Sweet Mandarin.
For the love of my family and as a dedication to all our customers in Manchester, I’m pleased to say we scored 23 out of 25 for our salt and pepper squid dish and won Gordon Ramsay’s F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant. As we raised the trophy I swear I could hear the Rocky theme tune ‘Eye of the Tiger’ belting out.
This simple recipe combines contrasting textures and is packed full of flavour. Squid can so easily be overcooked and rubbery but by following my steps you’ll be sure to have the best cooked squid to be a hero in your kitchen!
Serves 2
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time 15 minutes
150g squid tubes, scored and sliced into even sized pieces
1 egg, beaten
5 tablespoons potato starch or cornflour, to lightly coat the squid
vegetable oil, for deep frying
1–2 garlic cloves, minced or sliced
½ onion, diced
½ green pepper, diced
1 fresh red chilli, sliced into little pieces
¼ teaspoon five spice powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the squid and dip in a bowl of beaten egg. Coat with the potato starch or cornflour and fry in a hot wok with enough vegetable oil to cover the squid (approximately 100ml) of vegetable oil. Cook the squid for 5–7 minutes until it curls up and is crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
In a hot wok, add 1 teaspoon of oil. Quickly stir fry the garlic, onion, pepper and chillies for 3 minutes. Then add the cooked squid and cook for 2–3 minutes. Sprinkle over the five spice powder, salt and sugar. Add the Shaoxing wine and toss. Serve hot.
*NOTE If you don’t want to deep fry the squid then you can just fry up the raw squid (without egg and potato starch batter) in a hot wok with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
To book a table at Sweet Mandarin email sweetmandarintables@gmail.com . Our opening times are Tuesday – Sunday 5-10pm.
Sweet Mandarin is a Chinese Restaurant in Manchester which serves delicious Chinese cuisine and exotic cocktails. We make our own sweet chilli sauce, bbq sauce, sweet & sour sauce which you can buy from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado, Booths, Wing Yip and Chi Yip. Sweet Mandarin Chinese Restaurant and Cookery Schoolcan cater for the gluten free, dairy free diners. We are a short 15 minute walk from the Manchester Arena. We are not based in Chinatown, but based in the trendy Northern Quarter near the Arndale Centre, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Debenhams and Primark. The nearest hotels to us are the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Apartments, Blue Rainbow Aparthotels, Light Hotel and Hatters Hostel.