Lightly Fried Calamari with Spicy Aioli
It's been a long while since we've had the pleasure of dining at Benjy's in Rice Village— home of our favorite blood orange margaritas— for happy hour. We used to frequent Benjy's our senior year at Rice and ate way too much of their delicious fried calamari. I still claim its the best fried calamari I've ever had. Perhaps I am remembering it more fondly than I should just because we had so many good times at Benjy's.
We tried to keep these lightly fried and lightly breaded just like Benjy's. In the end, we could have used a tad more breading on the calamari rings, but ultimately we pretty happy with our attempt. Our aioli was nowhere near as good Benjy's, but good enough to mentally transport us back to Houston. Too bad we didn't have any blood oranges lying around!
Lightly Fried Calamari with Spicy Aioli
Calamari
- 1/2 lb calamari rings
- flour
- dried parsley
- cayenne pepper
- canola oil
- Bring a sauce pan with canola oil to medium-high heat.
- Mix flour, parsley, and cayenne pepper, and dredge calamari in flour mixture.
- Fry calamari for a few minutes until golden.
Aioli
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Combine all ingredients together until smooth.