How to clean and how much to cook squid

Squids are not a product of everyday demand, but in recent years this exotic shellfish has begun to appear more often on the tables of our compatriots. Mistresses, wanting to pamper the household with an original dish, choose squids. Some of them, having bought frozen carcasses in a supermarket, do not even know how to approach them.

Cleaning and cutting squids at home takes a lot of time and discourages cooking from them in the future. Having familiarized yourself with some secrets, you can "cope" with seafood without the hassle.

Preparation: store selection, home storage

The secret to making a delicious squid dish is their right choice. A product that has been frozen several times is more difficult to clean, and it has also lost its palatability. How to recognize the "right" squid?

1. Firstly, carcasses should not be frostbitten to each other. The seller should easily separate them, and not "tear" from the bulk.
2. Secondly, the meat should have a beautiful white color. The red-blue hue is released by the skin during thawing.

It is better to cook purchased squids on the same day or, without defrosting, send them to the freezer.

Clean defrosted squid from the film

Occasionally in shops you can get on already defrosted squids, and sometimes it happens that the mollusks thaw at home, waiting for the hostess to free herself from other things. Do not be discouraged, and in this situation you can cook a delicious dish. The main thing is to follow the procedure:

• Boil an incomplete pan of water.
• After making a cut along the carcass, gut it.
• Rinse the meat thoroughly.
• Dip the squids in the pan and hold for 10 seconds.
• Pulling out the carcasses, you will find that the transparent shell remained in the water.

How to clean frozen squids

This procedure is done in five steps:

1. Bring the incomplete pan of water to a boil.
2. Remove the squid from the freezer and lay down a deep container (bowl, pan).
3. Pour boiling water over the carcasses. Thanks to this action, almost the entire skin will separate itself.
4. Drain quickly and rinse seafood under cold running water, carefully removing the film. If you do not rush, the carcasses will be welded.
5. Gut the insides, remove the ridge.

How to clean recently caught mollusks

The best are squids that are not frozen, but were delivered directly from the seabed to the kitchen, or they were cooled for several hours before being sold. The meat of such mollusks is nutritious, healthy and tasty.

In this case, some housewives are scared by the presence of a head and tentacles, because they will have to be removed on their own. This procedure does not require special skills. The head is cut off and thrown out, and the tentacles are cut off near the eyes and used to prepare the dish. They also have a shell, and it will need to be removed in the same way as with a thawed carcass.

The procedure for cleaning fresh carcasses and squid tentacles is as follows:

1. Bring the required amount of water to a boil.
2. Shellfish, freed from the insides, are placed in a colander, poured with boiling water, and then placed under a stream of cold water.
3. The film is removed by pulling from the thick part to the thin side. It is more convenient to scrape off the wings with a knife.
4. Clean the tentacles in the same way. This is easy to do, because the peel under the influence of boiling water will separate on its own.

How to cook squids and how much

There are various ways to cook squid, so I will give three of the simplest and most popular.

1. Bring the water in a pan to a boil, add salt and spices. On the slotted spoon, lower the carcass into boiling water for 10 seconds, and then get it. Also cook the rest of the carcass. It turned out a semi-finished product for further cooking (slices in salad, stew, etc.).
2. The second method is suitable for cooking frozen, previously cleaned workpieces. All carcasses are lowered into boiling water with spices, kept on low heat for 1 minute, the stove is turned off and allowed to stand in hot water for another 10 minutes.
   After boiling water, thawed mollusks are placed in it, turn off the fire and let stand for 10 minutes.

Useful Tips

• On various sites it is advised to cook squids for about 4, or even more minutes. Do not do this! Excessive heat treatment will make the seafood meat tough. In addition, it will lose its nutritional value and taste.
• For flavor, add half a lemon or a bag of black tea to the water in which the clam will be boiled.
• When removing films, one must take into account that both colored and transparent shells need to be removed. If the hostess does not notice or deliberately leaves the film, then after cooking the meat will be stiff and tightened.
• Do not buy squids of large sizes. Their meat has a bitter taste, and it will take more than an hour to cook such giants. In this case, the finished dish will be tough.

The nutritional value of seafood cannot be overestimated. Squid meat is a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Great variety of dishes that can be prepared from this mollusk. It is a valuable component of many salads, it is stuffed, stewed, fried, boiled, baked, salted and even marinated. If you decide to please yourself and your family with a delicious squid dish, now you can do it without much difficulty, based on my advice.