There are very few people in the world who don't like squid. The seafood itself does not have a pronounced taste, but it gives the salad a certain piquancy. Despite its neutral taste, sea shellfish in salads is recognizable and many will want to enjoy this dish.
It is not a budget product, but this does not prevent us from periodically pampering ourselves and our family with very light, tasty and healthy seafood. Having bought an expensive product, you need to know how to properly cook squid so that it is soft, and so that you don’t end up with a rubbery, long-lasting dish from the tender meat.
Today we will get to know the secrets of preparing the tender meat of this sea creature, which we can use to prepare our favorite dishes.
How to properly cook squid for salad
Kitchen appliances and utensils: a kettle or pan for boiling water, convenient dishes for squid.
Ingredients
How to properly clean squid
- Before you clean and cook frozen squid, you need to defrost it.
- After this, you can remove the top film of the shellfish carcasses with your hands, or briefly dip them in boiling water, and the top skin on them will curl up from the hot water and come off on its own.
- Then the seafood must be cut lengthwise and all the entrails removed along with the chitinous chord.
How to properly cook soft squid for salad
Video recipe
I recommend that you watch this short but very informative video, in which the chef shared with us all the secrets of properly preparing squid. Following his recommendations, the seafood meat in the salad will be very tender and tasty.
In this video you will not learn how many minutes to cook cleaned squid, but you will know exactly what needs to be done to make their meat soft.
- I recommend purchasing unpeeled squid, fresh frozen. The less ice on a frozen carcass, the less time has passed since it was frozen.
It is difficult to determine quality and freshness from cleaned carcasses sold in stores. But many people still prefer to buy them this way because they don’t know how long to cook the squid after the water boils so that they are soft. - You can prepare it according to the above recipe, or cook it for 1 minute after the water with the carcasses boils.
Cooking options
Since you and I have learned how to clean squid, it’s time to prepare a delicious dish from these carcasses. I also want to note that seafood brings great benefits to our body because they are sources of protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, introduce them into your diet more often to get great benefits from food.
- Insanely tasty and easy to prepare the popular pasta with squid. Here, too, the main secret of a tasty dish is properly cooked shellfish. To prevent the meat from turning out tough, follow all the recommendations described in this recipe.
- I recommend cooking squid in cream sauce for dinner. I like this product because it is very easy to combine with different ingredients. I prefer to combine the prepared dish with rice or potatoes, and my husband enjoys eating it with pasta.
- Now the batter is gaining popularity and skilled chefs have shared a successful recipe for making it. This dish will be worthy of a holiday table. This snack is going very quickly for us. Try it, and I am sure that you and everyone who tries this dish will be delighted.
- And finally, I suggest you pay attention to the recipe for stewed squid. This dish is very quick to prepare and the taste is excellent.
1.If you purchased a frozen product, remove the carcasses from the freezer and defrost at room temperature. Just rinse fresh squid.
2. Boil water and then pour it over the squid. This will make them much easier to peel off.
3. Remove the skin from all carcasses, also remove the ridge.
4.Prepare marinade for cooking. Pour two glasses of water into a suitable saucepan and boil it. Add bay leaf, black peppercorns and salt to your taste. Next add the squid.
5.Cook the carcasses for three minutes, then remove them from the broth. If you just leave the pan off the stove, you can keep the squid in hot water, so they will simply be overcooked. Cool the finished carcasses and use for their intended purpose.
Notes:
1. If the squid you cooked is overcooked and becomes “rubbery,” then continue cooking it for another seventeen minutes. They will regain their former softness, but their size will become almost half as large.
2. In order for boiled squid to be tasty, raw carcasses cannot be thawed and re-frozen, as during cooking they can spread, and the finished boiled product will have a bitter taste. Therefore, carefully look at the squid you purchase.
3. The meat of fresh boiled and raw squid is always white, but the color of the skin may be different.
4. Raw squids should be stored in the freezer, and boiled squids should be stored in the broth in which they were cooked (but no more than two days).
Mediterranean cuisine is famous for its recipes for preparing a variety of shellfish dishes. Seafood is rich in easily digestible proteins, iodine, phosphorus and iron.
Beneficial features
Squids occupy a special place in the list of cephalopods. Their meat is recommended for those who try to lead a healthy lifestyle and eat a nutritious and varied diet. A large supply of potassium, B vitamins, and valuable fats allows you to maintain stable heart function, maintaining health for many years.
How to cook squid correctly? How to prepare a tasty and healthy dish from these seafood? We will now tell you in detail. Unfortunately, freshly chilled seafood is practically never found in Russian stores, so gourmets have to be content with what they have - frozen semi-finished products. Most often, in fish departments you can buy squid carcasses or tentacles, already peeled. However, there is no need to rush into purchasing. The convenient semi-finished product was most likely exported from Asian countries, where it underwent mandatory processing with chemical enzymes. Such preparation allows you to maintain products in marketable condition for as long as possible. But this process does not contribute in any way to the preservation of beneficial, nutritional and taste properties. Therefore, when planning to cook healthy food, you need to know how to cook squid correctly and which ones are best to buy.
How to cook frozen squid? Just like fresh ones, but they must be defrosted properly before cooking. You should not place shellfish in hot water to speed up the process. This can destroy beneficial substances and significantly worsen the taste of the product. Frozen squid should be placed in the refrigerator. At a temperature of about five degrees, soak the seafood for two hours, avoiding complete thawing. A product that is not completely defrosted is easier to process. Thawed squid should have a slight marine smell of iodine, this confirms their freshness and freezing in compliance with the technology. If the shellfish have no odor at all or, even worse, smell like old fish, this indicates that the product has been frozen and thawed several times. During cooking, such pulp will spread and acquire an unappetizing grayish color. You can eat such seafood, but there will be very little benefit from this food.
How to properly clean squid?
Having defrosted the semi-finished product to the desired condition, you should proceed to the next stage - cleaning. If the squid is entirely unprocessed, then the head and tentacles should be torn off from the carcass with a sharp movement. The insides will also be separated along with them. All that remains is to remove the chitinous plates and remove the thin skin from the carcasses.
When it is possible to purchase headless squids, they usually also lack tentacles. The hostess can only do the external processing. If the product was not completely defrosted, but retained the light strength of the tissues, then this will greatly facilitate the process of cleaning the carcass from the pinkish-gray film. For cleaning, it is convenient to use a sharp knife with a thin blade. When prying the skin at the cut left from the head, you should pull it towards the tail. Usually the thin film comes off without much difficulty. When seafood has completely thawed, cleaning becomes more difficult. Then you need to choose a knife with a rounded tip and scrape off the skin with it, being careful not to damage the carcass. The peeled squid pulp has an even white color.
After thoroughly processing the carcass, you should carefully rinse it under running cold water. If the water temperature is high, this can significantly deteriorate the taste of the product, making it less juicy.
Cooking time
How to cook squid correctly? This question is often asked by housewives who do not prepare seafood dishes very often. There are several tips on this matter, but the main thing is to know exactly how long to cook the squid. The consistency of the finished product and the preservation of nutrients and beneficial properties depend on this. Boiling seafood should take no more than three minutes. Otherwise, the pulp will become tough and inedible.
Cooking process
So, how to properly boil squid? Now we'll tell you. The prepared carcasses should be immersed in boiling water, previously salted and flavored with bay leaf and a few black peppercorns. In order not to make a mistake with the cooking time, you can use the following move. After lowering the squid into boiling water, wait for the water to boil again and start counting to ten. Having finished the countdown, you need to immediately remove the shellfish with a slotted spoon and let them cool. A sign that the product is ready will be the rich white color of the pulp.
If the cooking time is maintained, the meat will turn out unusually tender and juicy. You should not cook a lot of squid at once. This significantly reduces the temperature of the water, and the re-boiling process takes much longer. It is better to boil semi-finished products in small portions, placing two or three pieces in a pan.
What to do if re-boiling was missed?
If suddenly the main rule of cooking is violated, then you should not fall into despair - the situation can still be saved. If the end of cooking has passed, there is no need to remove the product from the pan; let it continue to cook. It will take at least half an hour to be fully ready. The squid meat will again become juicy and tasty, but the volume of the finished product will be significantly reduced. Unfortunately, the nutrients in it will also decrease.
Cooking in marinade
Not everyone knows about the specifics of how to cook squid for salad. To properly prepare the semi-finished product, it should be boiled in a marinade. To do this, you need to dissolve two tablespoons of table salt and three tablespoons of granulated sugar in cold water. When boiling, pour in two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and add a few black peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves. Thanks to the prepared mixture, the squid pulp acquires extraordinary juiciness and piquant taste. Seafood cooked in brine can also be consumed as an independent dish.
Now, knowing in detail how to properly cook squid, you can prepare a considerable number of different salads and snacks based on them. It is in cold dishes that the taste of seafood is revealed especially brightly and subtly. Below is a description of a simple salad recipe that can be prepared not only for a family dinner, but also for a holiday table.
A delicious final dish
For two servings of the dish, you need to take one hundred grams of boiled squid pulp and thinly slice it across the grain into strips. Peel two boiled eggs and cut into small cubes. Also chop boiled potatoes, fresh cucumber and green onions. Tear a few leaves of green salad into small pieces with your hands. Mix all the products and add canned or frozen green peas to them. It is recommended to season the salad with mayonnaise or low-fat sour cream. For taste, you can add a little ground black pepper and salt. Place the finished mixture in a salad bowl and garnish it with finely chopped dill.
It is impossible to unambiguously answer the question of how long to cook squid in time. Because it all depends on the size of the carcass, on the type of squid, and also on what further heat treatment the housewife will carry out. Properly cooked squid meat is tender and soft, it is easy to chew and has unsurpassed taste. If you overcook the squid, it will taste like rubber.
Important information about squid:
This product is a marine cephalopod;
Squids are widespread in the waters of the world's oceans;
Dimensions depend on the species, but on average range from 18 cm to 20 meters;
Squids swim using their tentacles;
Tuna, swordfish and dolphins swim faster than this sea creature;
Speed saves squids when they need to hide from a large animal;
Black bag with black liquid: additional means of protection. The liquid is thrown out by the mollusk as a protective curtain;
Sometimes the squid jumps 20 meters out of the water;
Proper cleaning of squid
Before you begin the cooking process, the carcass needs to be cleaned. You can simply dip it in hot water: the skin will quickly separate from the pulp and be removed with your fingers. You can pry off the film with a thin knife and carefully remove it (approximately the same way the film is removed from beef liver).
After the carcass is cleared of film, it still needs to be processed inside. It is necessary to remove the transparent chitinous plates, pull out the spinal cord (it is a transparent flat tourniquet). Now rinse the carcass in running water and you can begin the process of how and how long to cook peeled frozen squid.
About the cooking time in water
The water must first be brought to a boil and salted. On average, to cook two, you need a liter of water and a pinch of salt. When the water boils, put the meat (already peeled and washed) into it. It is important that the carcasses are completely covered with water. Now time it for 2-3 minutes and turn off the heat. It is important not to cook the squid for too long, otherwise the meat will taste rubbery. Also, you should not allow the water to boil strongly during the cooking process; this also negatively affects the taste.
Many housewives can determine readiness even by the appearance of the carcass. The main thing here is to know what exactly to pay attention to. The carcasses begin to turn white during cooking.
Important! If more than three minutes have passed since the meat was cooked, then you should not remove it. To restore taste and softness, the carcasses now need to be cooked for 20 minutes. But with such a long heat treatment, the product will lose most of its nutrients.
Steaming
Now we know how long to cook or other dishes in boiling water. But this sea creature can also be steamed. Many chefs recommend this processing method as the most suitable for such tender meat. The carcasses are placed in a container with a closed lid or a steamer. On average, they need to be cooked for about 12 minutes, definitely not less than 10 minutes.
The taste with this method of preparation will differ little from carcasses boiled in boiling water. But the big advantage is that the product does not shrink much in size. The disadvantage of this method is the lack of broth. You should pay attention to this if the meat is being prepared for soup or for a dish where additional sauce or gravy needs to be made.
Microwave
To cook meat in a microwave oven, you need to use special dishes. Cleaned and washed carcasses are placed in it, poured with lemon juice and olive oil, and spices can be added. At a power of 700 W, cook the carcasses for about a minute. The method is convenient because you don’t need to time it yourself and constantly monitor the meat.
How long to cook squid. Short review:
1-2 minutes under the lid - this is the time to cook squid after boiling;
You can cook for 30 seconds from the moment the water boils, then turn off the water, cover the pan with a lid and leave the carcasses for 10 minutes;
After defrosting under natural temperature conditions, cook frozen rings for another minute;
Important! Boiled meat can be stored for up to three days, but always in a tightly closed, airtight container.
These are the main points that will help the housewife determine exactly how much to cook squid in a particular situation. It should be remembered that you need to choose the carcasses correctly. If the frozen product was stored in unsuitable conditions, then even proper cooking second by second will not return the squid to its delicate taste. With the right cooked ingredient you can safely make
If you have squids with heads and tentacles, then first you need to get rid of all the inedible parts.
Toshiyuki IMAI/Flickr.com
Take the squid carcass in one hand, and with the other grab the head near the eyes. Gently pull - along with the head and tentacles, you will remove part of the insides. The rest can be removed when you skin it.
The tentacles are usually discarded with the head, but they can be used. To do this, you need to cut them off near the eyes. Be sure to remove the squid's mouth when doing this - it is hard and hides among the tentacles.
But usually you don’t have to bother with all this. In stores, as a rule, they sell frozen squid in a semi-cut form: without heads and tentacles.
The carcasses (biologists would say the mantle) are covered with a red and white film, which is laborious and time-consuming to clean with a knife.
To quickly clean squid, you need to pour boiling water over them, keep them in hot water for about a minute and rinse them under running water. Some housewives treat carcasses like they treat pasta: pour boiling water in a colander and immediately turn on cold water.
Under the influence of high temperature, the skin will easily and quickly come off the carcass. You only have to remove its residue when washing. Next, the squid can be cut lengthwise to remove the chitinous plate and entrails.
But you don’t have to disturb the cylindrical shape of the mantle: the insides and chitinous plate can be easily removed with your fingers. Whole squid can be stuffed or cut into rings.
Method 1. “Cold start”
Place the cleaned squids in a saucepan with cold water. Place the pan on the stove and turn on medium heat. When the water warms up, add a little salt, and when it boils, turn it off immediately and catch the carcasses.
Like many other seafood, squid does not tolerate heat treatment well. If you cook the shellfish for a long time, the meat will be tough, like a rubber sole.
The main secret to cooking squid is not to overcook it.
It is important not to delay the moment of boiling. You literally have to stay close to the pan.
Method 2. Boiling in hot water
Bring lightly salted water to a boil. When the first bubbles appear, launch the squid. The boiling will stop for a while, and as soon as it resumes, you need to turn it off immediately.
Here, too, it is very important not to overcook the meat in boiling water.
Method 3. Filling with boiling water
Many consider this method the most correct and claim that squid prepared in this way is the most tender and tasty.
You need to fill it three times. The first time is when you pour boiling water over the squid to remove the skin.
The second time you need to leave the peeled shellfish in boiling water for one minute. After this, rinse the carcasses with water and boil the kettle again. After the third pouring (holding time is also 60 seconds) and washing, the squids are ready to eat. You can add salt to the bowl each time you pour it.
Some housewives immediately cut or stuff them. Others remove the still transparent film from the carcasses.
Method 4. Combined
The highlight of this method is that the squid is cooked immediately. The skinning stage is combined with the boiling process.
Salt boiling water: approximately 1 tablespoon per 3 liters of water. Place defrosted squid in it. You will see how the mantles of the mollusks become voluminous and the red and white film comes off from them.
Wait for the interrupted boil to resume and time for 1.5–2.5 minutes. Cook the squid at a vigorous boil, uncovered. After the specified time has passed, the pan must be removed from the heat and covered with a lid.
Let the squid cool for 10-15 minutes. After this, rinse them under running water, remove the remaining skin, entrails and chord plate.
Alternatively, you can immediately place the carcasses in a bowl of cold water, thereby stopping the heat treatment.
Boiled squid can be used in salads, fried in rings in batter, stuffed with various fillings.
Kevin/Flickr.com The described methods for preparing squid are very simple and take a minimum of time. Try all four to see which one produces the most tender squid for your taste.
Do you know other secrets of cooking squid? Share in the comments.
