Having decided to pamper your family with a sea exotic delicacy, the best option for a hearty, healthy and unusual dish is cooking squid.
But first of all, squid should be chosen and cleaned correctly, because the appearance of the dish and its taste qualities directly depend on this.
For light cleaning, fresh squid is best, as it is very easy to remove the covering film. But unfortunately, frozen products are sold in supermarkets, and in order to avoid problems with cleaning and cooking seafood, you need to be able to choose the right one. The important point is that the squid should not be thawed and re-frozen, as all this will complicate the process of cleaning it. For this, when choosing a product, it is recommended to pay attention to the following:
The squid carcasses should separate easily and not stick to each other. If they are difficult to separate, this means they are re-freezing.
The carcass meat must be white. If it has a red or bluish tint, this also means that the seafood has already been thawed, after which the meat took on the color from the skin of the squid.
And, of course, at home, squids are stored in the freezer, they are not thawed before cleaning and cooking. Remember this.
1. First of all, the frozen squid carcass should be doused with boiling water, and then immediately put in cold water, this method will simplify the process of removing the skin from the squid.
2. Cut off the clam's head - if there is one, and tentacles (they will come in handy in cooking).
3. Gut the insides well.
4. Feel for a transparent, thin chord (mollusk spine) on the mantle and pull it out.
5. With the reverse side of the knife, peel the squid from the outside and inside. In some cases, the film is well removed from the wide side of the mantle to the narrow one, in one movement, like a stocking. The carcass, after cleaning, should become white.
6. Rinse the squid carcass thoroughly under running water.
7. Previously separated tentacles also need to be cleaned. This is done easily, since the skin on them is more delicate than on the squid mantle itself and is well removed after scalding with boiling water under running water.
According to the results of cleaning the squid, two products will be obtained for cooking: a carcass and tentacles.
boiled squid
Pour water into prepared saucepan. Add salt, bay leaf, allspice (peas) to it, then wait for the water to boil.
Dip the cleaned squid carcasses in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Then immediately pull out to avoid overcooking the fillets.
There is another way to cook. Everything is done in the same way as in the previous method, but after the water boils, the carcasses are lowered into the boiled water and removed from the fire. Then infused for about 10 minutes.
Roasting squid
Before you start frying seafood, you first need to boil it in one of the above ways.
Then cool the boiled squid and cut into strips or rings.
Prepare the ice. To do this, beat the eggs, add spices, sour cream or mayonnaise to them.
Dip the chopped fillet in the ice cream and roll in breadcrumbs for breading.
Fry in a pan with the addition of a small amount of vegetable or butter for 3-5 minutes.
In the same way, the dish can be cooked in a deep fryer.
The tentacles left when cutting the squid can be boiled or fried according to one of the recipes.
Stuffing squid
Pre-cleaned shellfish carcasses are lightly beaten. Then the cooked filling (it can be mushrooms with onions and eggs, vegetable or even meat filling) is more than half stuffed with a beaten carcass.
The edges are fastened with a skewer. Stuffed squids are stewed in an oven preheated to 180 degrees with the addition of water for 10-15 minutes. For 2–3 min. until cooked, sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake until golden brown.
1. In order for the clam meat to be soft, its cooking time should not exceed 15 seconds.
3. Some cooks, to give more flavor, add a slice of lemon or one bag of black tea to the water during cooking.
There are a lot of options for preparing this delicacy. It all depends on your desires and food preferences.
Now, having learned how to choose the right one, as well as easily clean seafood, you can pamper your loved ones with dietary, hearty and healthy squid dishes at the same time.
Squid - cephalopod, predatory mollusk , living in warm, southern seas. Most often, carcasses are eaten, although the tentacles are also edible. This low-calorie seafood is rich in phosphorus, protein, calcium and iodine. There are a lot of squid cooking techniques - they are boiled, fried, stewed, canned, dried. Moreover, it is very simple to cook these mollusks, you just need to know how to clean squids and also how to heat treat them correctly in order to preserve the original taste.
“What a fish, such an ear,” people say. This is true for squid as well. To enjoy a delicious dish, you need to choose a good source product. The sea delicacy is sold most often in frozen form, chilled specimens are less common.
Determining the quality of a chilled product is not difficult - the top, colored film should be easily removed, and the color of the carcass under the skin should be exceptionally white. If blue or pink shades are present, the squid is stale.
The squid has 3 hearts connected to tentacles. And the eyes of some specimens are of different sizes.The classic case is frozen squid. This is the most convenient method of storing shellfish. However, only the product that was frozen once fresh will be tasty, and then it was not allowed to defrost during storage. If the carcasses are prepared and stored correctly, they will be effortlessly separated from each other, but if the product has already been defrosted, it will be difficult to separate it into separate copies. It is also worth paying attention to the position of mollusks in a frozen briquette - in production they are laid in even, neat rows.
You can often find squid tubes in stores - already peeled, beautiful carcasses. When purchasing such a product, it should be noted that heat treatment is used during cleaning in production, and this tender meat does not like high temperatures terribly. Therefore, such a "convenient" purchase is likely to disappoint you with the rigidity of the final dish.
Probably the most important thing in preparing squid is to know that they cannot be thawed “quickly” using a microwave or hot water. Frozen carcasses should be left on the kitchen table (or better in the refrigerator to avoid sudden changes) and wait until they become soft.
It is not necessary to completely defrost the product; it is just more convenient to clean the squids if they are a little frozen.The first and most gentle method is to remove the films manually. You just need to pick up the skin with a knife at the wide edge of the tube and pull it, removing it like a case. If the squid has been frozen for a long time, the films can tear in the hands and then you have to clean them with a knife.
It seems that the carcass is already clean, but this impression is false. The mollusk is also covered with a thin, transparent film, which must also be removed.
The body of the squid along its entire length is supported by a cartilaginous plate (gladius), resembling plastic. She effortlessly pulls out of the carcass.
The second cleaning method is much faster. You just need to boil water and lower the squid into it for 1 second (no more !!!). The films will immediately curl up, they can be easily removed from the carcass.
The third way is a contrast shower. The blanks must be placed so that the water can immediately drain, for example, into a sink or colander, and then scald the squid with boiling water. Immediately after that, pour ice water over it. The tentacles are cleaned in the same way, with the only difference being that you have to tinker with removing the suckers.
It is best to process under a stream of cold water so that small particles of the film are immediately washed off and do not stick to your hands. You can clean squid after boiling. It is enough to rub them with a soft brush, removing the curled pieces of the film.
This tender meat categorically does not tolerate long-term exposure to high temperatures, which makes it look like hard chewing gum. Therefore, boiling carcasses is not recommended. The most optimal solution is to stock up on slightly salted boiling water, dip the squids into it, wait until the water boils again and immediately remove the pan from the stove. It is enough to keep the product in water for 5-7 minutes to cook the meat.
If for some reason the meat is overcooked, it can be saved by boiling on a minimum heat for 40-50 minutes. The taste will remain the same, but, unfortunately, some trace elements will evaporate with steam. To add flavor to the water, you can add dill, fennel or a slice of lemon.
Boiled squids are often used for salads or cold appetizers.Sea creatures are no less tasty and fried. It is necessary to fry in hot oil for 3-5 minutes, after cutting them into rings or strips about 5 mm thick. For a more delicate dish, the blanks can be dipped in a classic batter (a mixture of eggs, milk and salt).
Shellfish acquire a very original taste when grilled on coals.
In most recipes, meat is recommended to marinate, for example, in a mixture of 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, 100 grams of dry white wine and spices to give the finished product flavor and avoid dryness. With this preparation, you should constantly water the meat with the sauce remaining from the pickling. It turns out a healthy barbecue from rings, smelling pleasantly of smoke.Ingredients:
Boil rice. Process the carrots on a fine grater and sauté in melted butter for 3-5 minutes. Mushrooms cut into small pieces and fry in sunflower oil.
Boiled eggs cut into cubes. Mix rice with eggs, add carrots and mushrooms. Put the prepared tubes in hot water, fill them with rice mixture, chop off the place of stuffing with toothpicks and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
for the sauce:
Boiled squids, eggs, hard cheese cut into cubes, crab sticks in circles, add green onions. To prepare a creamy garlic sauce, fry thin slices of garlic in butter, add cream, stew a little (5-10 minutes), cool, dilute with a drop of lemon juice and, if desired, spices.
Boil squid tubes, cut into rings. For batter, combine the egg with milk and salt a little. For breading - mix breadcrumbs and flour in equal proportions. Fry the squids in a large amount of oil (it is necessary that the oil completely covers the rings), dipping first in batter, and then in breading. For the sauce, grate the cheese on a fine grater, add crushed garlic, herbs and dilute it all with sour cream.
Properly cleaned and cooked seafood will allow you to create incredibly tasty and healthy culinary masterpieces that will not leave indifferent either the layman or the inveterate gourmet.
In general, if you have this product from the category of a “rare guest” in your diet, urgently correct yourself: squid meat contains iron and potassium, iodine, zinc and selenium.
In him no cholesterol at all, but a lot of protein.
Relatively low calories 100 kcal per 100 grams(The number of kcal varies depending on the method of preparation).
Dishes with squid are a high-quality "building" material for muscle tissue, which has a tonic, anti-sclerotic, and vasoconstrictive effect.
When using this sea mollusk, toxins and salts of heavy metals are removed, digestion improves and the work of the endocrine system (especially the thyroid gland) is supported.
Usually this product is rarely used by those housewives who do not know how to clean squids, what part to eat, as well as some other dish. Of course, there are difficulties, but they are minimal! It is worth doing everything once and then you will only be surprised why you didn’t know how to do this before!
There are 3 main ways to deal with the film on the carcass - clean without heat treatment and apply blanching, pre-boiling.
A fresh or quick-frozen carcass is taken in hand and the film is pulled off with a “stocking”.
If the film is not removed with a sharp movement, it can be separated little by little, delaying with smooth movements.
After removing the film, the entrails of the marine animal and the chord (a chitinous likeness of the spine) are removed.
The carcass for this method should be without a head.
If the freezing method is unknown, especially if the squid thawed and froze again during storage, or was covered with ice, or was crushed and deformed, then the “stocking” cleaning method is not suitable for it.
Such clams should be put in a heat-resistant colander and lowered into boiling water for 7-10 seconds. Then take it out and immediately lower it into ice water. In most cases, the film will wrinkle and peel off on its own. Sometimes you will need to work a little with your hands and remove its remains from the carcass.
If the squid was boiled in a film, then to remove it, you need to slightly cool the carcass.
After that, you can use a new soft kitchen brush.
It is enough to rub the carcass a little, and the film will gather into balls and peel off.
Experienced chefs do not like to use this method - the taste of the finished seafood is deteriorating.
If you are lucky enough to get a freshly caught mollusk, then you need to clean it right away. The process flow is simple:
To clean the squid, it must be thawed.
The best way to defrost is gradual, gentle.
To do this, the carcass is transferred from the freezer to the refrigerator compartment.
When it thaws, you need to move it to room temperature and keep it until it is completely restored to normal.
It is unacceptable to defrost this seafood for a couple, in water or put close to heating appliances. Such "barbaric" methods irreversibly impair the taste, smell and texture of squid meat.
We clean the same as freshly caught. After - rinse the carcasses with water and lower into boiling water.
The length of stay in boiling water depends on further actions.
If, after scalding, it is lowered into ice water, then a 10-second blanching is left. Carcasses taken out of cold water are easily cleaned by hand. This method is reliable, but the squid cleaned with it is not so tasty.
If the squid will be cleaned immediately after being pulled out of boiling water, then you need to keep it in water for about a minute. The film is carefully brushed off. The meat of squids cleaned in this way is juicier after cooking.
Frozen carcasses should be put in a bowl, poured with boiling water for a couple of minutes, then put under a stream of cold water and cleaned with hands from the film, chord and entrails.
This method is really fast and easy. Its only disadvantage is that squids become less juicy and fragrant, they become stiff.
You can use such a “shock” method only with an acute shortage of time for gentle defrosting.
It is very difficult to find a fresh carcass in the conditions of the city, and therefore one has to be content with a frozen one.
Most often, squids are boiled with roots and seasonings as an independent snack dish; fried with onion rings under the lid, stewed with onions and garlic in butter.
I propose to see how to clean squid from the film easily and quickly:
Do you want to pamper your household with delicious squid meat? But you don't know how to clean squid? Well, in this case, our instructions for cleaning squid will come in handy. Knowing how to clean squid, you can enjoy an awesome delicacy at home.
Many leading nutritionists recommend eating squid meat. Seafood must certainly be in the human diet. If we are talking specifically about squid, it should be noted that this meat goes well with vegetables and cereals. That is, having learned how to clean squid, you can cook a variety of dishes for your family. At what it can be hot dishes or simple, but very tasty cold snacks. Therefore, it is extremely important to know how to clean squid from the film.
Before we talk about how to clean squid, you should learn how to choose the right one.
If the squid is fresh, say, literally caught out of the water, it is cleaned simply, quickly, without any difficulties. The film that covers the carcass is removed entirely. Therefore, if you want to enjoy such a privilege, it makes sense to live on the coast. Then you will have the opportunity to buy squid from local residents.
What gifts of nature are waiting for us in stores and hypermarkets? As a rule, these are frozen seafood, in particular, carcasses of squid with tentacles. And we can only guess how many times this product has been defrosted and re-frozen. Unfortunately, it is the repeated freezing that affects the taste of the squid and the quality of its cleaning. Although even a frozen product can be successfully cleaned if the standards for its storage have been observed.
If you intend to purchase exceptionally high-quality squid, you will need to pay attention to ensure that the shellfish carcasses do not stick together. If you see that squids lie in front of you, which literally froze one to one, it is better to refuse to buy such a product, especially if the first attempt to separate the carcasses was unsuccessful. This is the first sign that you have squid in front of you, which "survived" repeated freezing. The next equally important point worth paying attention to is that the meat of really good squid should be white. If you have bluish, pink squid in front of you, it means that the meat was saturated with the color of the skin when the thawing process took place. And this is another confirmation that you have a low-quality product. And during cleaning, it will be difficult for you to remove the film.
These two tips will help save you from a bad purchase, from an excruciatingly long cleaning. And it’s not a fact that squid will be safe for the stomach.
The most common mistake is that many people choose large squid carcasses that are juicy colored. As you may have guessed, we are talking about old clams, which may be unsuitable for cooking. Plus, they are incredibly difficult to clean. For the sake of experiment, you can, of course, try to purchase fresh white squid meat and carcasses dyed in a bright color. Your own experience will show you where a quality product is, and which one is better to never buy again.
Any gourmet will say that the meat of small, slightly colored squids is an indescribable yummy. In such mollusks, the meat is more tasty, tender.
All the rules for cleaning squids involve the rapid elimination of the film.
How to quickly clean squid from the film? How can you get rid of films? These questions concern many hostesses. To date, there are 4 ways to get rid of the film on squid meat. Some of them are highly efficient. The choice is yours. Test different methods and choose the one that will allow you to spend the least amount of time cleaning squid from the film.
Many people wonder: why clean squid from films, transparent and colored? Firstly, it is an opportunity to get especially tender meat. Alas, during the heat treatment process, the film (transparent) can become incredibly rigid. Plus, carcasses often decrease in volume. Such metamorphoses occur due to the presence of this film. So, now you understand that getting rid of the film is a must. And you need to do it right and quickly.
At your choice, we offer the following methods of cleaning squid:
So, you know how to clean a squid. What is the best way to choose? Only your personal experience can help here. You can try several methods and choose the one that proves to be the most effective, which will quickly help you solve the problem. In fact, cleaning squid from films is an easily solved task. The main thing is to approach the process with knowledge of the matter. There is certainly nothing supernatural and difficult in cleaning squid. Therefore, do not think about how to clean the squid, feel free to purchase this delicious delicacy - squid. You know how to clean them correctly from the film. When you develop the skill of quickly cleaning squid, you can spend the freed up time on preparing a variety of delicious dishes. After cleaning the squids, you can start conquering the culinary peaks. Seafood is delicious! Learn to clean them from films quickly and efficiently!
My husband brought home a couple of frozen squids and said: “I want a salad!” I was left alone with these "monsters" and thought:
The squid salad has already been prepared, and now I will be happy to answer all your questions. I hope my experience is useful to you 😉
If you need to defrost the squid quickly, then simply immerse the carcasses in cold (not hot) water and wait a couple of minutes. After that, we take out all the ice, if there are any left, wash the carcasses well, take out the chord (transparent "sticks" that you will find inside). In principle, squids are already ready for cooking.
2. Film removal
Squid skin is a thin film. I do not advise taking it off while the squid is still raw. This is monkey work. During cooking, the skin easily leaves itself. After cooking, simply remove the squid meat from the water, let it cool slightly and rinse under running water. Remaining skin particles fall off easy and fast.
The second option: lower the thawed squid carcass for a few seconds in hot water. The film will shrink and easily rebound.
After, like a squid succeeded remove film Let's start cooking right away. Pour 2 liters of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, salt. We lower the squid carcass into boiling water, wait 1 minute until the water boils again. Cook after boiling literally 1.5 - 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the meat in hot water for another 1-2 minutes. We take out. Ready!
Thawed and cleaned squid need to cook how much: literally 1.5 - 2 minutes in boiling water, no more. Otherwise, the meat will become tough, like rubber. And for a salad, we don’t need it at all.
Actually, for the sake of which all this was started: we prepared a salad with squid and fresh cucumber for dinner. Sharing the recipe 😉
Recipe #1
Products:
Cooking:
1. Defrost squids, cook, peel off the film, cut into strips or cubes.
2. Defrost crab sticks and cut into rings.
3. Three cucumbers on a grater (but you can also cut into strips).
4. Eggs are also three on a grater.
5. Put the ingredients in layers in a deep salad bowl, spreading some layers with mayonnaise. The order of the layers doesn't matter. You can layer the ingredients according to your taste.
Recipe #2
Another salad that we have not prepared yet, but would really like to try. In the last recipe, I personally did not have enough piquancy, some kind of sourness. And here, pickled cucumbers are supposed to be in the composition. They will spice up the salad with squid.
Products:
Cooking:
How do you prepare squid salad? Write in the comments 😉 Bon appetit!