Rabas, the Fried Squid of Northern Spain: a Three-Michelin-Star Chef Says the Secret Is a Short Fry and Oil at 175 Degrees

Jesús Sánchez runs "Cenador de Amós" in Villaverde de Pontones, in Cantabria, a restaurant with three Michelin stars since 2019, and since 2021 also "Amós" at the Rosewood Villa Magna hotel in Madrid. When a man with that kind of track record talks about fried squid, it's worth listening. It's precisely the simple dishes that are easiest to ruin.

In Cantabria and across northern Spain, "rabas" are squid cut into strips, lightly dredged in flour and fried. Sánchez describes them as a Sunday aperitif and food for sharing. They can be made from regular squid, cuttlefish or small squid, and he prefers strips of medium thickness: thick enough for a juicy inside, thin enough for a crispy crust.

The method is short. The squid is cleaned, dried well and cut into even strips. It isn't soaked in milk or sparkling water, a trick found in many recipes. It's dredged in flour right before frying and goes into mild olive oil at 175 to 180 degrees, for about two to three minutes. Then onto kitchen paper, salt at the end and straight to the table.

The mistakes he lists turn up in many home kitchens. Egg, he says, smothers the squid. Strongly flavoured oil drowns it. The temperature needs watching - "a small thermometer helps a lot at home". And most importantly: don't overfill the pan. "If we fill the pan, the oil cools down and the rabas, instead of frying, start to boil."

The serving is almost ascetic: fresh, with very little else, not even lemon. It's a lesson that holds well beyond Spain. Do we really need sauce, lemon and half a bottle of ketchup to fix something that could have been done right in the first place?