Calamari fritti with cucumber salad

Ingredients (Makes four starter portions)

80g self-raising flour
80g cornflour, plus a little extra
210ml soda water
2 tsp rapeseed oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
Coarse sea salt350g cleaned squid rings
Vegetable oil, for frying (grape-seed or sunflower are good)
For the cucumber salad
4 mini cucumbers (200g in total)
¼ medium red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 tbsp groundnut oil
2½ tbsp lime juice
¾ tsp palm sugar
Coarse sea salt
½ fresh chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp roughly chopped mint
2 tbsp roughly chopped coriander

Start with the salad, because the flavours will intensify if it's left to sit for a little while. Use a vegetable peeler or mandolin to shave the unpeeled cucumbers into long, thin strips, and place these in a mixing bowl. Add the sliced onion. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, palm sugar and salt. Pour over the cucumber and onion, then add the chilli and herbs. Toss gently with your hands, taste and adjust the seasoning - this salad needs quite a lot of salt. Pile up in a nice serving bowl, ready for the hot squid.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornflour, soda water, rapeseed oil, chilli and a pinch of salt - the batter should be smooth and thinner than a pancake mix, but not watery.

Scatter some more cornflour over a plate, to 'dry' the squid. In a medium saucepan, heat up enough frying oil to come at least 4cm up the pan. When the oil is piping hot, take a few pieces of squid, toss them lightly in the cornflour plate, and shake off any excess. Dip them in the batter, shake off any excess and carefully drop them into the hot oil. Take care not to fill the pan too much, or the squid pieces will stick to each other and stew rather than deep-fry, and turn them over in the bubbling oil with a slotted spoon. Once they have taken on a little bit of colour - after around one to two minutes' cooking - carefully lift the calamari on to a colander and sprinkle with salt. Remove any loose bits of batter from the oil, then repeat with another batch of squid.

Assuming you haven't eaten all of the cooked squid while you've been cooking the rest, pile the warm calamari on a serving plate or bowl, and serve with the cucumber salad.