Homemade Calamari Tacos
How do you like your calamari? The common crispy, breaded and fried way? In this blog post I’ll be sharing my favorite way of making homemade calamari tacos while preserving the taste. These homemade calamari tacos are a healthier option of having calamaris and a good change from the usual beef, pork or fish tacos. The taco shells are also made from scratch with very few ingredients; flour, salt, baking soda, water and oil.
How To Prepare The Calamari Rings
I’m happy that there are local suppliers of seafood in the country now. We don’t need to buy those frozen seafood from the supermarket. One seafood supplier is Wild Catch Kenya. They deliver fresh seafood straight to your doorstep and they have amazing selection as well.
The best type of calamari to buy is calamari rings or hoods. Wild Catch Kenya delivers them in both these types. The hoods have not yet been cut into rings. I got the calamari rings instead.
Calamaris cook very fast, they’re the fastest protein to make, faster than chicken or fish fillet. You’ll need to cook these last.
I like to marinate the calamaris so that they can have some flavor. I made a marinade from orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice, lemon zest and some salt. You’ll soak the calamari rings in this marinade and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
To cook them, heat a non stick pan and add some olive oil. Drain the calamari rings from the marinade and pan fry for about 3 minutes on each side. Finish with some lemon juice and chopped cilantro.
How To Make These Homemade Calamari Tacos
Start by preparing the taco dough. You’ll need to combine flour, salt and baking soda. Then add warm water and olive oil. Mix until it forms a soft dough then transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky.
Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes then you call roll and cut into mini circles. Cook them on a heated non stick pan without oil for 3 minutes on both sides.
Next you’ll need to make the slaw. These can be whichever vegetables you like. I used onions, green peppers, cucumber and cilantro. You may add red cabbage, carrots, courgettes any vegetable you prefer. you’ll need to cut these vegetables into thin stripes as they’ll be eaten raw. Refrigerate the slaw as you cook the taco shells.
To assemble just heat some taco shells and fill them with the slaw and the pan fried calamari then finish off with some guacamole and finely chopped cilantro.
OTHER SEAFOOD RECIPES
Homemade Calamari Tacos
Ingredients
For the Calamari
- 500 g Calamari rings
- 1 cup Orange juice
- 1 tbsp Orange zest
- 1 tbsp Lemon zest
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Finely chopped cilantro
Taco Shells
- 1 1/3 cups All purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 cup Warm water
- 1/3 cup Extra virgin olive oil
Slaw
- 1 Cucumber (thinly sliced and deseeded)
- 1 Onion (sliced thinly into half moon)
- 1 Green pepper (thinly sliced into matchsticks)
- Finely chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Start by marinating the calamari rings in a mixture of the above ingredients without the cilantro
Taco Shells
- In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda.
- Add water and oil and stir into a homoenous dough.
- Transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and holds well.
- Store in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour for the dough to rest.
- Once rested, roll the dough into a large circle and cu our circular shapes using a bowl. I got about 6 tacos from this dough.
- Heat a non stick pan and cook the tacos for about 3 minutes on each side. They'll bubble up and turn a little brown. remove from heat and assemble the tacos.
Pan Fried Calamari
- After marinating, drain the marinade. Heat a non stick pan with some olive oil.
- Pan fry the calamari rings for 3 minutes each then finish with some finely chopped cilantro.
Assembly
- Fold the taco shells into half and add the slaw ingredients and the pan fried calamaris.
- Serve with guacamole, lemon slices and cilantro
Doing this weekend