this is another seafood dish inspired by a trip to the wet market. this time, we visited the one in shek lei. cooking calamari is rather quick and easy, even though it might look intimidating. a simple squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil will enhance the natural flavor of the calamari. eat it with grilled veggies (like we did) or toss it with raw greens for a refreshing salad.
whole calamari 1
olive oil 1 tbsp
salt 1 pinch
lemon juice
- to clean the calamari, separate the tentacles and fin from the tube. then remove the cartilage from the inside of the tube and the outside tube membrane. wash thoroughly
- coat the calamari with olive oil and salt
- grill on high heat to lightly char, flipping regularly to cook, about 8-10 minutes
- drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice
- pair with any seasonal vegetables
separate the tentacles and fin from the body
pull the cartilage out from the tube
we paired the calamari with asparagus
the acidity of the lemon juice balances the abundant protein flavour of the calamari
Homemade in Hong Kong 
I love the shot of the cartilage. It looks kinda deadly!
Thank you for the fresh, simple recipe!
haha the cartilage can be a sharp weapon!
The purple fingernails are awesome. I’m sure your recipe is, too. I’ll try it soon. 😀
thanks kim! it’s take only 10 min to put everything together. easy and delicious. perfect for weekends
… and for calamari lovers!
I have always like my calamari flash fried, but have recently come to appreciate grilled with lemon and olive oil. I would wonder if you are cooking the squid too long, as the rule for squid is under a minute or over an hour to prevent toughness. Since I haven’t tried to grill squid myself, I can’t be authoritative about whether the calamari needs more time in the grill preparation. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
hi there! as you might be able to see from the photos, the calamari we used was actually very big and thick. the time to needed to cook the calamari depends on its size. if the calamari is not at least 80% cooked, it can be very chewy, especially when it is thick. since our calamari was thick, we couldn’t turn the heat to the top, or the inside of it would be raw while the outside is already fully cooked. that’s why we constantly turned it, and it took longer.
hope it answered your question!
Looks wonderful ❤