Nutrients, Calories, Benefits of Squid

How To Cook Squid Properly (5 Cool Recipes)

Squids are not only very useful, but also very tasty. True, there are some subtleties in their preparation, which, in fact, are the key to turning squid meat into a delicacy. For example, if they are cooked too long, squids will become tough. However, speaking about the secrets of the correct and successful preparation of squid, it is worth noting not only its heat treatment. 

Selection and preparation of squid

The key to successful cooking of squid is the choice of a quality product. When buying, you need to pay close attention to the color of the meat. In a good fresh squid, it is whitish, even completely white. Yellowness will indicate that the carcass has been stored for too long, even in the refrigerator. 

When buying a squid in ice glaze, you need to inspect it. If there is an ice crust on the surface, then most likely the glaze layer is too thick and after defrosting it turns out that not so much meat was bought. And it also happens if the squid carcasses are thawed and then frozen again. In this case, you can not eat them at all.

The most juicy and tender after cooking will be small-sized squid meat - it is them, first of all, that you should look for in the store.

It is best to buy squid without tentacles and heads. Then, after defrosting, you just need to remove the film from them. If you still bought whole carcasses, you will have to cut them yourself. It's not hard. You need to take the head of the squid, grabbing your fingers in the eye area, and then pull, holding the rest of it with your other hand. Thus, you clean the carcass from the insides. Then you need to remove the chitinous film. It is easily groped by hand, so there are no special problems with the release of the squid carcass from it.

The worst thing is to remove the outer reddish-white film. To facilitate this stage, you can go for a trick: pour the squid with hot, but by no means boiling water, and after a minute remove it from the water and rinse under the tap. After that, the film is easily picked up with a knife and thus removed from the carcass.

Cleaned squid meat can be prepared in many ways. 

Cooking squid in a double boiler

Perhaps the most tender squid is obtained in a double boiler.

For 2-3 small squid carcasses, you need to take 3 bay leaves and 3 peas of hot pepper. Put the cleaned squids in a double boiler. Pour water into an appropriate container, put pepper with bay leaf there. Set the timer to 9 minutes. Do not open the steamer during cooking

By the way, if there is no double boiler, then it is quite possible to create its likeness from a saucepan, gauze and a colander. Thus, it will take not 9, but 6 minutes to cook squid. We take out the finished meat, salt it and serve it on the table.

Cooking squid in the microwave

For those who like to cook everything in the microwave, there is great news - squid meat is no exception. You will need 90 ml of water, 2 small carcasses, salt to taste and 20 g of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Squids should be washed and dried on a paper towel. Mix water with lemon juice and salt. We put squid meat in a container, pour it with a mixture of water and lemon juice and cover with a lid that has a steam removal function. Then we put it in the microwave and cook. For a power of 700 watts, 2-3 minutes is enough, if you have more powerful equipment, then, accordingly, the cooking time is reduced.

Cooking squid on the stove

This is the traditional way of cooking squid meat. For carcasses with a total weight of 900 g, you need to take 2 liters of water and 25 g of salt. It's just over 1 teaspoon. We put the water with salt on the fire, and when the liquid boils, we immerse the previously prepared squids into it. After 2 minutes, the product is ready, it must be removed from the water and allowed to cool.

How to cook frozen squid

There are two options here - with and without defrosting. In the first case, you need to cook using any of the methods described above, but only after the carcasses are defrosted. Do not use warm water or microwave to defrost. We'll have to wait until the process goes naturally.

If it is decided not to defrost the meat, then you will first need to pour boiling water over it on both sides, then rinse it under running water - this will help remove the film. We put frozen squid carcasses in boiling water and after 2.5-3 minutes they are ready for use.

Cooking squid rings

You can cook squids not whole, but cut into rings. In this case, it is best to cook them in water with the addition of lemon juice and herbs. For 2 liters you will need 30 g of salt and 40 g of lemon juice, as well as 20 g of any greens. We put all the ingredients in water, as soon as it boils, we throw squid rings into the pan. They are cooked for no more than 1 minute, and if the rings are thin, then about 40 seconds. They need to be removed from the water and allowed to cool.

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