We Are Never Full

May 11th, 2009 by Amy

A few years ago, my local favorite Thai take-out royally f’ed me. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit. Have you ever had a restaurant you used to love and then horrible customer service just made you reconsider your obsession with them? Did you feel personally offended because over the course of many, many years of patronage (meaning you felt like you single-handedly kept their sorry arses in business?), they ruin the love affair with a few bad decisions? Maybe you wouldn’t want me as your customer but I usually have a “three strikes you’re out” rule but that one bad day, the day I was a bit hungover and desperately needed the sweet and salty taste of some Thai food, my local joint let me down big time. I responded with a few mean reviews on our Brooklyn/NYC online restaurant review websites. Then I vowed I would never, ever return again… no matter how bad I wanted that delicious Penang Curry. And guess what, I did it. To this day I have never returned. When I want to stand my ground, I do. But I have finally realized that my business did not keep them open and they continue to thrive locally. Whatever…

During my hiatus from the local Thai restaurant, I did learn to make some Thai-inspired dishes at home. One is this fabulous calamari salad. What I love the most about this is that it is the perfect mix of healthy and unhealthy. Yes, you have to fry some calamari, but it’s laying on a bed of napa or savoy cabbage and some other veggies. I guess you could make this with some grilled calamari if you want to really go healthy (or if you just hate to fry). It’s super easy to make and actually makes a nice meal. I had a nice bottle of thai sweet chili sauce, but you can also make your own very easily.

Crispy Thai Calamari Salad (serves 2 as a main dish)

1 pound calamari, with tentacles
1 1/2 cups flour mixed with pinch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper
3 cups of shredded napa or savoy cabbage
a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 raw red onion, sliced
1/2 cup of pickled shredded carrot (8 oz carrots, grated + 1 cup water + 1 cup rice or white wine vinegar + 1/4 cup sugar)
fresh cilantro
sliced scallions
oil for frying
1 cup of Thai sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce (or less/more to taste)
2 tablespoons lime juice

What to do:

Make your pickled carrots by first gently heating the vinegar, water and sugar until sugar has completely dissolved into the water/vinegar mixture. In a bowl or mason jar, add shredded carrots and top with water/sugar/vinegar mixture. Toss or shake and set aside.
Make salad “dressing” by mixing thai sweet chili sauce with fish sauce and lime juice. Set aside.
Heat the oil until hot enough to fry.
Slice calamari bodies into 1 inch rings. Dry these and the tentacles with a towel. Toss the calamari in the seasoned flour mixture. Shake excess flour off the calamari and fry in the oil until brown (about 1 minute). Remove with slotted spoon or spider and allow to drain on some paper towels. Sprinkle with salt.
Arrange your salad: cabbage on the bottom tossed with a bit of lime juice and olive oil to moisten a bit (optional), then topped with tomatoes, onions, pickled carrots, scallions, cilantro and crunchy calamari. Drizzle with the thai chili “sauce” and serve with some lime wedges. Enjoy!

Related Posts:

Posted in: Squid, Thai, cabbage, calamari, carrots, crispy, fried, salad

32 Responses to “Crispy Thai Calamari Salad – Healthy? Kinda. Fresh? Definitely.”

on 11 May 2009 at 10:56 pm1Susan at Sticky,Gooey,Creamy,Chewy

What is it with these Thai restaurants anyway? I had a similar falling out with my favorite place a few years ago too. I miss the place, but a girl’s gotta stick with her principles.

That salad looks absolutely fabulous! I could go for a huge plateful right now!
on 11 May 2009 at 11:31 pm2MyLastBite

this salad looks AMAZING, and great photos too!
on 12 May 2009 at 1:00 am3noble pig

This is absolutely stunning, I mean Wow. It’s looks delicious too.
on 12 May 2009 at 4:38 am4Jamie

Oh I so agree with you about restaurants! I mean, when they are great why can’t they realize that and just never change anything? This calamari salad looks fantastic! I love everything in it and about it.
on 12 May 2009 at 5:29 am5Swedish Mike

I really should stop reading my RSS feeds at work. This made me really hungry.

Thanks for the inspiration, will have to try and recreate something similar soon.

// Mike
on 12 May 2009 at 5:47 am6Julia

I love that Calamari salad! I’ve only had it in restaurants. I love how you balance the virtuous-ness of the veggies with the fried of the calamari.
on 12 May 2009 at 7:11 am7Joan Nova

I guess the world now knows…don’t get Amy mad! Actually, your calamari salad looks better than most restaurants. Now you just have to learn to make penang curry and you’re set!
on 12 May 2009 at 8:36 am8maggie (p&c)

This looks awesome. I am all about the self-sufficiency, you should know how to make the dishes that you crave in case you ever find yourself somewhere without a (friendly) thai restaurant…I bet this would be good with the green papaya salad I just made, too…mmmm….
on 12 May 2009 at 10:12 am9Heather

I had a similar falling-out with an Indian place I used to frequent. I just believe that regulars should ALWAYS get preferential treatment, no matter what, and most good business owners would agree. Good on you for taking matters into your own hands.
on 12 May 2009 at 11:03 am10maryann

I am def bookmarking this!
xox
on 12 May 2009 at 11:37 am11Jeff

I have been lucky and all local restaurants that I support have amazing customer service skills and have yet to let me down in a major way. Heck most of them always take care of the regulars.

The first pic is amazing. I am wondering how this would go with chicken because I have a pain in the butt time trying to find calamari.
on 12 May 2009 at 11:41 am12katiek @kitchensidecar

This looks really homey and hits the spot. I fried bacalao balls the other day and encursted them with blue cornmeal. The cornmeal gives an extra crunch! I also bought some frozen calamari (soooo not fresh) so that when my bf makes fries i can cook calamari. This is totally doable.

TO only know hot to make thai sweet chili sauce…
on 12 May 2009 at 12:12 pm13elra

Oh, I am not worry. If I love it, I eat it! Can’t turn this down, let it deep fried, I can eat a lot of this. Love calamari!
on 12 May 2009 at 12:29 pm14rosesep

OK You know I am calamari junkie–this looks sooo good I may need a twelve step program
on 12 May 2009 at 1:13 pm15admin

katie – i linked to a good homemade thai sweet chili sauce recipe… check it out in the post.
on 12 May 2009 at 1:50 pm16The Food Hunter

This looks amazing!
on 12 May 2009 at 2:36 pm17[eatingclub] vancouver || js

You’ve got me craving calamari — that dressing sounds like heaven!
on 13 May 2009 at 7:11 am18Natasha - 5 Star Foodie

Beautiful salad – I could just imagine biting that crunchy calamari! Mmmm….
on 13 May 2009 at 4:30 pm19Lori Lynn

I don’t have much patience for bad service either.
Great looking salad.
LL
on 13 May 2009 at 4:38 pm20Sam

Wow, that looks amazing!

Great photos!
on 13 May 2009 at 4:49 pm21Haley W.

Oh, wow. My bottle of Sriracha is just begging me to make that so I can squirt it on there.
on 14 May 2009 at 1:27 am22rachel

This looks just delicious and a perfect meal really, but then I am rather biased as I love calamari – particulary when it’s fried like this.
brill first photo.
ps we have just boycotted a place recently after horrible service and REALLY upsettingly bad food from somewhere we really liked and went often enough to feel like regulars – it’s sad because I liked it, but could never go back after such a disappointing night.
on 14 May 2009 at 7:42 am23Stacey Snacks

I would rather have mediocre food than lousy service.
Sometimes if the service is so nice, you can say, ok, they are having a bad day in the kitchen.
I have a one strike and you are out rule! You are nicer than I am!
on 14 May 2009 at 10:20 am24Paige at The Spice House

Oh man, I’ve been on such a calamari kick lately, I practically started drooling on my computer when I saw your photo. I will definitely be making this for dinner! And Haley, I know what you mean- I’m often making things just because they go well with sriracha. It is my mistress of pain.
on 14 May 2009 at 12:46 pm25The Duo Dishes

The first picture says more than a thousand words. The calamari look perfect!
on 15 May 2009 at 7:47 pm26Deseree

I frickin love calamari. Anyway you cook it, I love it. Your recipe looks wonderful and the pictures are beautiful.
on 16 May 2009 at 12:44 pm27Peter

Once I figured out the nam pla/kaffir lime/galangal thing, I declared independence from cheap Thai takeout forever. (The fact that there isn’t any cheap Thai takeout near here doesn’t hurt, either.)
on 16 May 2009 at 5:40 pm28Donald

We just went to a relatively new Thai joint around the from the house and while the sushi was good, the pad thai was waaaaaay too sweet. I was so disappointed. I mean, MY homemade pad thai put theirs to shame.

Now this, fresh, healthy, salad is something I can wrap my head (or chopsticks) around. Looks delicious!
on 19 May 2009 at 4:20 pm29Spirited Miu Flavor

Sounds screamin’ delicious!
on 21 May 2009 at 9:24 am30claudia (cook eat FRET)

love love love this kind of thing
LOVE
on 05 Jun 2009 at 9:12 am31zoe

Heaven on a plate. I need to make some thai sweet chili sauce, thanks for the recipe!
on 14 Dec 2009 at 9:44 am32shayma

i recently had a falling out with a local Japanese (high-end) place. i posted a rant on chowhound but it got deleted- apparently we are not allowed to rant about customer service on chowhound. hrmph. i never went back to this restaurant, and wish i could replicate their dishes the way you have replicated this calamari salad.

i am a huge fan of any and all fried food (it is the Pakistani in me), and chilies, of course. i’d love to make this for guests as a first course.