Dry It Up

• Giving batter a dry surface to adhere to is key for frying calamari. If you skip this step, the seafood's somewhat slimy surface will prove too difficult for the batter to cling to. At a minimum, pat the squid dry before dunking it in batter. This may be enough for lighter, tempura-type batters. But to give heavier coatings a super-dry and coarse surface to grab onto, add the extra step of dredging the calamari in flour.

Build a Blend

• Flour is the dredging material of choice for making fried calamari. White flour will help prepare the calamari surface for its batter dipping because its gluten content has binding properties. To ensure less greasiness, however, a mixture of half white flour and half rice flour is preferable. White flour absorbs more oil than rice flour. Blending both flours gives you a less greasy final product, but one that helps the batter stick to the squid. Alternatives to rice flour include cornmeal and chickpea flour.

Surround the Seafood

• After making your batter and patting the calamari dry, the next step is dipping it into the blended flour. Use a large bowl to blend equal parts white flour and a second flour. After setting the squid in the bowl, turn the pieces over in the flour until they are well-coated. The most efficient way of ridding the calamari of excess flour is to put them in a fine-mesh strainer and shake the seafood pieces gently.

Soak the Squid

• Once calamari has been prepped with the dredging stage, it can be dunked into the batter. Make sure the squid is covered on all sides in the wet batter, and shake off excess batter before putting the pieces into the hot oil. Calamari that is fried in about 1.5 inches of 350 degree Fahrenheit oil will cook in about four minutes. It's best to work in batches rather than overcrowd the pan. Set the fried calamari on paper towels to drain while you fry the remaining batches.