Ingredients

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 red chilli
• finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• crushed
• 1 cucumber
• grated
• 50g/1¾oz cashew nuts
• chopped
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 25g/1oz palm sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1-cm/½-in piece fresh root ginger
• peeled and chopped
• 1 red chilli
• chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• crushed
• 1 free-range egg white
• 400g/14oz baby squid
• cleaned
• bodies and tentacles separated
• 2 spring onions
• finely chopped
• 2 slices white bread
• about ½-in thick
• 50g/1¾oz black sesame seeds
• vegetable oil
• for deep-frying
• 25g/1oz cornflour
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

• For the cucumber pickle
• heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the chilli
• garlic and cucumber for a minute. Add the nuts
• soy sauce
• vinegar and sugar. Season and stir to combine. Leave to cool.
• For the squid toasts
• place the ginger
• chilli
• garlic and egg white in a food processor and blitz. Add the squid bodies and pulse again until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl
• season and stir in the spring onions.
• Cut the crusts off the bread and cut the bread into small rectangular pieces. Spread the squid mixture generously on the bread pieces.
• Preheat the deep-fat fryer to 170C. (CAUTION: hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.)
• Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the bread pieces and carefully place in the deep-fat fryer. Deep-fry until golden and then transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper. Dust the tentacles with the cornflour and deep-fry separately and also transfer to the lined plate.
• Slice the toasts into fingers and serve with the tentacles immediately
• with the cucumber pickle on the side.