How to replicate Thai calamari from Busaba Eathai (London restaurant)

Hello
I am really hoping that someone can help! I love love love the Thai Calamari I get from Busaba Eathai in London. They are delicious. I have tried many times to replicate the recipe at home, ad-libing as I go along but have failed every time. I guess the ingredients every time and they result in a completely different taste. I have asked for the recipe once from the chefs in the kitchen and they kindly refused to let me have it (very much like Colonel Sanders and his KFC recipe!).

Can anyone help me out with it? Thanks so much.
The thai calarami are kinda cooked according to the traditional Salt & Pepper Squid but this version has got a crunchier and sweeter coating....

Julie

Hi Julie,

can you find out the Thai name? Even better if in Thai script, but that's almost impossible, I know.

Cheers, Dorry

Hi Dorry

I am thrilled that someone has replied to my thread! I really hope you can help.
I have checked with their menu online and the name is simply: Thai Calamari with Ginger and Peppercorn.
If you click on this link www.busaba.com/menu.html,there is a picture of this wonderful dish.

No Thai name or script. I could very well ring them up and ask but highly doubt the staff would know the Thai name!

Can you help??

Thanks!
Julie

I am sorry, Julie, I couldn't find such a recipe for you. Also, I never saw such a dish on a Thai menu.

It looks like the restaurant made this one up, but have a look at the image search. The first picture is a recipe with fried calamari, but no ginger and no peppercorns. But may be you see something alike "your" dish on this google side.

I will look around for you, as I will be in Thailand in a few days, and ask my Thai friends (two of them have restaurants).

Sorry that I have no better news!

Cheers, Dorry

Hi Dorry

You were right, this dish was indeed made up specifically for that restaurant. I rang them up just now and asked to speak to the chef who told me that there isn't a Thai name for it. However he was kind enough to tell me over the phone how it is cooked! I was incredibly grateful for his help (he probably thought I was a lunatic) but he has no idea how much I love this wonderful dish. If you are interested yourself, this is how it is made (he didn't tell me how many grams or mls of each but i plan to adlib...):

coat your calamari with a combination of flour, egg white and salt and pepper, deep fry them and set aside.
on to the sauce: mix some julienne ginger, chopped coriander, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper, soy sauce and toss in a few peppercorns. heat some oil in a wok and combine the sauce and calamari and voila!

i am now off to the shops to get my ingredients..... thanks very much again for your help with my quest, it is now over! i'll let you know how my calamari dish turns out....

Hi JUlie,

congratulations, well done!

I guess they use the coriander roots, too (well minced in a mortar). They add a lot of flavour.

Report, how your dish worked out, I am really curious!

Greetings from Bangkok,

Dorry

Hi Julie,

I hope you still check this site. My husband and I have been looking for this recipe for AGES. I'm so glad we're not alone! Did you make the calamari dish? How did it work out? We're about to try what you've written...

Sarah

I've tried using that recipe that Julie found and, after a little bit of playing around and a lot of sampling... it was AMAZING. Exactly like the calamari I love from Busaba.

Couple of things: it tastes better with plenty of pepper in the batter (which should be really thick). Its important to let the calamari cool properly after taking it out of the deep fryer, before shallow frying it with the sauce. That makes the batter nice and soft.

Next time I'm going to add chili to give it a bit of a kick.

Hi,

I just tried the recipe for the first time but it didn't quite turn out right. I know it needs some experimenting but was wondering if anybody who's had success could post the ingriedient quantities?

Many Thanks

i'm doing this tonight. fingers crossed! will do a blog so will forward pics

I'm so excited someone has been able to get hold of the recipe for this - I've spent ages and ages trying! It's my favourite dish at Busaba - just one question - the peppercorns they use in the dish in the restaurant are ones that are in soft-ish - like pickled peppercorns? Has anyone tried it with these and is there any news on amounts? Not to worry if not, I'll just start experimenting!

Wow, my partner and I have been trying to repicate this recipe for 3 years. We have gotten close but thank you for posting the fact that you actually called them up to ask.

We were guessing this recipe and have a slightly different recipe for the batter. It is not quite as plain as the recipe above and I do suspect that they are not giving all the info.

Here it is:


For the Batter:
2 egg whites
3 dessert spoons of plain flour
2 teaspoons of corn flour
1 heaped teaspoon of thai green curry paste - red paste will do but we always have green to hand
loads of black pepper to taste, decent dash of white pepper - did i say loads of black pepper?
half teaspoon of chilli powder plus 1-2 drops of tabasco
half teaspoon salt, and dash of sugar
A splodge of Soy sauce.

After you mix and whisk all these ingredients into a very thick paste water it down until it's the consistency of thick pancake mixture.

We usually waste 1 or two pieces to test our concoction, usually adding more pepper or a little more chilli.

As for the sauce thank you very much for providing us with their recipe, we had something similar but in fact the information given above proves to be a superb sauce for this.

May I also say that we tried combining the sauce and squid after deep frying but we prefer to maintain the crisp batter, by cooking the sauce and serving this by pouring a little sauce over the squid rather than stirring it around.

Hello!
Thanks for the recipes -I just moved abroad, no Busaba here and was longing for their calamari... now I can make my own!

I just tried out a combination of the 2 recipes (items in brackets not used)

Batter:
2 egg whites
3 dessert spoons of plain flour
(2 teaspoons of corn flour -didn't have any)
(1 heaped teaspoon of thai green curry paste - red paste will do but we always have green to hand -didn't have any)
loads of black pepper to taste, decent dash of white pepper - did i say loads of black pepper?
(half teaspoon of chilli powder plus 1-2 drops of tabasco -found spicy enough with plenty of fresh ginger)
(half teaspoon salt), and dash of sugar
A splodge of Soy sauce (be generous and omit the salt!)

Sauce:
Grated ginger
Finely chopped generous amounts of coriander then mushed with spoon to bring out flavour
Oyster sauce
Honey instead of sugar (this worked well)
More pepper

Combined fried calamari and sauce in a hot pan (no wok)

Came out really well in terms of flavour -would prefer if crisp rather than soft batter... any ideas?
(the batter was soft straight after deep frying, any ideas on getting and keeping it crisp?)

Thank you!!

p.s. Thanks to footomsh for getting the thread going again -I found this forum on the 16th, for some reason came back on the 17th and was really happy to see your post!

It's a pleasure to contribute to something like this, I had no idea until just the other day that people, like us, are trying to repicate this gorgeous dish.

As for crispy batter, i used that little bit of corn flower during my experiments as just the plain flour did not achieve this.
If you cannot get hold of corn flour then i would try adding a little baking soda to the batter.

Also as mentioned above, we do not combine the sauce with the fried squid in a pan as this softens the batter too.

In fact we tend to just dip each piece of squid into the sauce as we eat it.

Originally my partner and i would have a squid starter and their prawns in a lime sauce starter and then squabble about how we share them so in fact our sauce still tried to combine the flavours of the sauce you get with the squid and the prawns and just use it as a dipping sauce.

Until now we have never actually gotten around to serving this in dishes, we are usually stood over the hob and as the squid comes out and has a minute to drain and cool it's eaten by what ever fork gets to it first LOL.

You mention not using chilli as you use fresh ginger? do you put fresh ginger into the batter or are you referring to the ginger in the sauce?

My husband just tried them and he loved it! :)
Said it transported him back to the dim lighting, large dark wooden tables and incense... success!!

Thanks for the batter tips, will try it out next time (soon, I'm sure)

The ginger went into the sauce. I'm not a big fan of chilli...

Aww it's a shame you aren't into chilli however i do not put it in there to be a prominant feature, so do forgive me for sounding alittle pushy but please do try just a little bit if you can be daring. In a batter it is not going to be that hot it will just add a high note to the flavours.

LOL - my partner and I really believe that food is such a powerful trigger of emotions and memories. bad food will ruin your day, and you won't forget about it either. Good food does the same thing in terms of your memories of an occasion too. I live in South Wales and my partner works near London so we only really get round to eating at Busaba perhaps twice a year but when we do we are like two greedy school boys just waiting for our starters.

If you don't mind me asking, what country have you moved to?

It depends what chilies you are using. There are the big green chilies that are not hot at all, but give a nice taste to a dish and there are the small red very hot chilies. You can chose the spiciness of a dish yourself by adding more or less, or by removing the small seeds inside the chilies.

I never cooked with chilies before but now I love them!

greets Dia

I soooo glad someone got this, especially since i'm moving back to the states soon!! I absolutely love this calamari and actually just popped in today to get some..yum..i'm going to try to recreate this at home.

Hi all the first recipe above is right...It is that simple... I just came back from London yesterday and on my last day ate at Busada... The one thing none of you have mentioned is scoring the squid, so the batter gets in the nooks and crannys... the Soy makes it salty so be careful of how much salt you place on the squid... enjoy, its my new favorite dish here in NYC

You are all missing the vital ingredient - Galangal powder.

This recipe is easy when you know how and most of the recipes for Busaba squid on here go in to far too much detail.

here is how its really done:

Busaba Squid

• 0.5 pound Squid
• 0.5 teaspoon Black pepper
• 0.5 teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Galangal powder
• 1 whole Egg yolk
• 1 cup All purpose flour

Sauce
• 1 clove Garlic
• 2 piece Thai spur chillies
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon Vinegar

Mix the Pepper, salt, flour and Galangal powder together.

Mix the squid with the egg yolk then transfer the squid to the bowl of flour, coat really well and drop in the cooking oil until brown – not too long!

I used to work there.

Hi Colski,

Welcome to CU!

Will Ginger powder be an adequate substitute, if you cannot get galangal?

Best wishes,

A.