The best squid dishes. Note to the hostess: cook frozen squid

In coastal countries, almost everyone knows how to cook squid, shrimp, mussels, sea cucumbers and other seafood that are part of everyday food. For the inhabitants of the mainland, they are most often considered exotic. This does not detract from the merits and numerous wonderful properties of seafood.

Let's dwell on squids, or, as they are also called for their amazing concentration of useful properties, "sea ginseng". So they were nicknamed for the content of a large number of nutrients and vitamins, micro and macro elements. Like most seafood, they contain:

• An omega-3 fatty acid that the human body does not produce;
• Iodine, which is essential, especially in childhood;
• Selenium, which helps to remove salts of heavy metals from the body.

In total, there are more than 200 species of squid in nature. And the sizes of carcasses range from 25-50 centimeters to 20 meters (with a weight of up to 300 kg).

Accordingly, there are many recipes for dishes from these mollusks that have been proven by thousands of years of practice.

We will consider the main one: how to cook fresh squid, and then what can be done with it.

For this we need:

• Clean water (drinking, filtered, etc.) - 1.7 liters
• Prepared squid carcasses - 800 grams
• Salt and spices to taste.

1. How to choose a squid? Before you cook something, you first need to buy something. In stores, they are either thawed before being sold, but in most cases, these mollusks come to us in a frozen form.

First of all, we look at the color of the meat. It should be light, in no case yellow.

We evaluate the structure of the product, especially if it is frozen. Conscientious manufacturers use the method of shock freezing to cool the squids individually, and only then pack them. If the delicacy is “soldered” into a piece of ice, this indicates that it should be treated with suspicion.

When buying, you should look not at the labels of sellers or importers, but at the transparent packaging itself. On it, the manufacturer puts the packing date, which may differ significantly from subsequent marks of wholesalers and retailers.

Stages:

1. Cooking squid for cooking. First you need to defrost it. For this frozen squid, you need to put it in a deep plate of a suitable size. It is best to defrost in the refrigerator, so the mollusk retains all its beneficial properties.

In second place in terms of preserving nutritional properties, vitamins and trace elements is defrosting at room temperature. On the third - in cold or slightly warm water. And in no case should you defrost squid in hot water or boiling water.

1. Cooking squid. First of all, you need to remove the skin from the thawed carcass, it is bitter and unsuitable for any culinary purpose. Now the squid even needs to be doused with boiling water, and even better put in a container with water at a 70-degree temperature for one minute. And after that, move the clam under cold water. After that, the skin will peel off easily. Remove the spine (chord). You can do this by simply pulling it out from the free edge. Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Throw the clams into boiling salted water and cook them for no longer than two minutes. If you greatly exceed this period, you will get something resembling a piece of rubber.
2. We received a semi-finished product with which we can perform some further actions. (In general, boiled squid can be eaten like that, but for many such food will seem fresh). Freshly cooked squid is the perfect salad ingredient.

The basic principle of almost any salad with squid is based on the fact that these clams are ideally combined, from the point of view of adherents of a healthy diet, with the following products:

• Fresh vegetables (lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, sweet peppers, cabbage, onions, garlic, dill, parsley, arugula, etc.);
• Fresh fruits (citrus fruits, apples, pomegranate, avocado);
• Spices, spices, vegetable oil and sauces.

The simplest salad includes the following ingredients: squid, egg, dill, green onions, olive oil and salt.

In addition to the above, beef tongue, cheese, pickled mushrooms, potatoes, canned peas, red bell pepper, mayonnaise and mustard are added to the Festive Fireworks salad.

More boiled squid carcasses are often used for stuffing. You can put rice, egg, cheese, herbs, sour cream, tomato paste in them ... Or shrimps, mussels and other seafood with herbs and mayonnaise. In principle, the scope for the flight of culinary fantasy is quite large.

The taste of tender and healthy squid meat was first recognized by the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the planet. They also discovered the main secret of cooking dishes from this marine predator: they can and should be cooked very quickly. A couple of extra minutes on the fire - and the meat will lose its juiciness, becoming "rubber" and tasteless.

For residents of Southeast Asia, it is quite acceptable to eat raw fresh squid meat, flavoring it with some kind of spicy sauce. Fans of exotic dishes with access to freshly caught seafood can experiment. And supporters of traditional cuisine just need to spend a little time and cook a real delicacy.

How to choose a squid

Usually squids are sold frozen. Among them, you need to choose freshly frozen. To do this, evaluate it visually. The upper skin of the carcass should be pink with a purple or brownish tint, and the meat itself should be white and dense. If this is not the case, then it has already been thawed, and then frozen again.

It is better not to choose peeled squids at all: most likely, they were frozen at least twice, because. cleaning requires heat treatment. These processes make shellfish meat tough.

Preliminary preparation

To make the dish tender and juicy, defrost the squid at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Pour boiling water over, and after a minute pour cold water over.

Now the meat can be easily cleaned: remove the curdled skin, film from it and remove the insides and chord.

If you need to defrost the squids quickly, dip them for a minute in a pot of boiling water (pour more), remove from heat and leave in the pan for another five minutes. Rinse with cold water and clean.

It remains to decide how easy and tasty to cook squid.

Salads

You can simply boil squids and “conjure” over salads.

Boil water with salt, black peppercorns and bay leaf. Divide the peeled clam meat into medium-sized portions and immerse in boiling water for ten seconds. Remove from heat and insist in this broth for a quarter of an hour.

Cut the pulp into strips or cubes, combine with boiled potatoes, green onions, pickles. Season with sour cream or mayonnaise, pepper, salt, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Salad lovers with a twist can replace pickles with capers. And for squid companions, choose champignons, hard cheese, garlic and walnuts (proportions - to taste). For dressing, take a little soy sauce, mayonnaise and lemon juice.

fried

Beat 200 g of sour cream with two eggs, salt and pepper. Soak the boiled squid fillet cut into cubes with this sauce. Roll it in breadcrumbs. Fry in a pan for 5 minutes, sparing no oil.

You can also cook raw peeled squid. But they will need to be marinated for a couple of hours in lemon juice with garlic, black pepper and paprika.

Baked

Delicious stuffed squid can be cooked in the oven.

Prepare:

• 6 carcasses of peeled raw squid;
• 500 ml of water;
• 50 ml of lemon juice;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 200 g of hard cheese;
• black pepper, paprika, salt (to taste).

For the filling (your choice):

• eggs with mushrooms;
• vegetables with rice;
• shrimp cheese;
• green beans with small young onion heads.

Prepare a marinade of water and lemon juice by adding pepper, crushed garlic and salt. Beat the squid fillet and marinate it for a couple of hours.

Lay the filling on each carcass, roll up and secure with skewers.

Lubricate the form with oil, put the rolls in it and place in the oven preheated to 200 ° C. Cook for 20 minutes, adding a little marinade occasionally.

Finely grate the cheese, sprinkle it on the dish and hold it in the oven for another five minutes. Flavor the rolls with a sauce suitable for the chosen filling: soy, tomato, onion ...

When cooking squid, remember that their natural taste is not very friendly to spices and spices. So add spices in moderation.

Delicious and dietary squid meat is rich in proteins, vitamins and trace elements.

Squid dishes must be cooked very quickly. With every extra minute of heat treatment, their meat loses its juiciness and taste.

Most of the time is spent on pre-preparing them correctly.

Squid is characterized by a high content of proteins, vitamins of group C and trace elements. Dishes from it will be useful for children and the elderly. But, for their preparation, it is very important to properly cook squid.

How to choose and defrost squid?

In order to cook squid deliciously, you must follow some simple rules:

1. When choosing a squid to cook, you need to pay attention to the fact that the carcasses should be easily separated from each other. If this is not the case and the squids are stuck together, this means that they have already been thawed. Dishes made from re-frozen squid will taste bitter. The color of the meat must be white, and the film that covers the carcasses should be light pink or even purple.
2. Defrost squid to cook, it is best just to air. Thus, more useful substances and properties are preserved. If you are limited in time, put the frozen squid carcass in cold water. Hot water should never be used for this purpose.
3. The head, tentacles, and also the body of the squid are eaten. Before cooking squid, it is necessary to clean the film, remove the insides and chitinous plates. The skin is removed very easily: the carcass is pressed against a cutting board and the skin is pry off with a fingernail. The skin of the squid should be removed with a “stocking”. The cleaned squid carcass must be thoroughly washed under running cold water, both inside and out.

How to cook squid correctly?

There are several ways to cook squid. The main rule is that the duration of cooking squid should not exceed 3 minutes. If you cook squid meat for longer, it will become tough and tasteless. The first way to cook squid is as follows: add salt to boiled water, dip the cleaned squid carcass into the pan and remove it from the heat. In 10 minutes the squid will be ready. The second method of cooking squid is even simpler: lower the squid carcass into boiling water, count to 15, then remove the meat with a slotted spoon. A little secret to cooking squid is this: if you overcooked the carcasses initially, this is easy to fix. It is necessary to cook squid from 30 to 40 minutes. The meat will again become soft, but at the same time it will lose half of its volume and weight.

Squid prepared in this way can be used as a main dish, pouring them with some kind of white sauce. Also, the boiled squid carcass is an excellent basis for a variety of salads.

Squid meat recipe in batter

Also an excellent basis for many dishes are fried squids. In order to prepare a squid appetizer, you need to defrost and clean the carcass, cut it into rings. Dip the squid rings into the batter (0.5 kg of flour, 0.5 l of beer, 2 eggs, salt to taste) and deep-fry them.

Squid meat recipe with cauliflower

In order to learn how to cook squid meat correctly, you will need to take the squid itself, 2 liters of water, salt, bay leaf, a pound of cauliflower, carrots, onions, 1 tbsp. l. fat cream.

If you cook squid meat correctly, the taste and aroma will resemble lobster meat, and remember: the smell of fish should not be present in the finished product. You can use boiled squid for salads, soups.

Squid meat soup recipe

The method of preparing soup from squid meat is that cauliflower inflorescences are placed in a saucepan, chopped carrots and onions are added and everything is poured with water. The broth is salted and boiled for 30 minutes. Then the broth is poured into another bowl, the vegetables are chopped. Fatty cream is added to the resulting vegetable puree and diluted with broth. Squid meat is cut into thin rings, put in a saucepan with vegetable puree, boiled. The squid soup is ready.

Tips for choosing and cooking squid meat

When buying squid, be sure to pay attention to their appearance. They should easily separate from each other, even when frozen. By the way, the color of fresh squid meat is completely white, do not confuse it with the color of the film that usually covers the carcass, it can just be pinkish, purple.

Squid to cook, always need to be cleaned from the film. To do this, lower the frozen carcasses into hot water, as a result, the skin will curl up and move away from the squid meat on its own. You will only have to remove the remnants of the film under running water, as well as remove the insides.

How to boil squid meat?

1. We advise you to cook squid meat in the simplest way - boil it. It is better to cook squid meat for about half an hour 30, then it will become tender and soft, however, it will lose its beneficial qualities. Or you can cook them for no more than 3 minutes
2. To cook squid meat, we collect 2 liters of water in a saucepan, boil, salt, add bay leaf. We lower one defrosted, already peeled squid, let it cook a little, then count to ten and take it out with a slotted spoon. Repeat the procedure with the rest of the squid. As a result, the taste of squid meat will be tender and soft.
3. Pour squid meat with any sauce and use as a main dish. Or you can cook a salad with squid, deep-fry the rings.

The squid is the largest invertebrate mollusc. The carcass of squid and its hands are mainly eaten. It is made up of protein. How to cook frozen squid deliciously? Let's talk about it now!

How to cook frozen squid?

Frozen squid dishes are easy to prepare, and the meat itself promotes the release of digestive juices. For cooking you will need:

• 300-400gr. frozen squid;
• water;
• salt;
• 150g of Adyghe cheese;
• 100gr. grapes;
• 2st. l. olive oil;
• lettuce leaves;
• 1 PC. lemon or lemon juice.

Recipe for frozen squid

1. When you choose a squid to cook, you should pay attention to the fact that the squid carcasses themselves can be easily separated from each other. If they stick together, then this is a sign that they have already been thawed at some time. The color of frozen squid meat should be white, and the film that covers the carcass should be barely pink or even purple.
2. Before cooking frozen squid, it must be thawed. If you do not have much time, then put the meat in cold water, but you will still lose the beneficial substances of the squid. Just don't defrost it in hot water.
3. If you bought a squid that has not yet been cut, and not frozen, then first remove the film from it, clean it from the insides and separate the head and tentacles from the body. Rinse thoroughly.

How to cook frozen squid?

1. Now proceed to cook the frozen squid. There are several ways, but there is one main rule, frozen squid meat should be cooked for no more than 3 minutes, if you miss this moment, the carcass will become tough. 1st method how to cook squid: boil water and salt. Now dip the squid meat into boiling water and close the lid. Turn off the heat and in ten minutes the carcass will be ready.
2. The second method is how to cook frozen squid: throw the meat into boiling water, count to 15, and remove from heat (a little secret: if you accidentally overcooked squid, leave it to cook further, after 30-40 minutes after the start of cooking, the carcass will become soft again, but will lose its weight and volume.
3. Once your squids are ready, leave them to cool while you make the rest of the salad preparations.
4. Cut each grape in half (choose one without seeds). Tear the lettuce leaves into large pieces and sprinkle with a little lemon juice, mix everything thoroughly.
5. Cut the boiled squid into small strips, and cut the Adyghe cheese into cubes (if you want, you can use feta for lard).
6. Put all the ingredients together with the squid in a salad bowl and season with olive oil. Now you just have to mix everything gently and you can serve it to the table.

If you have squids with heads and tentacles, then first you need to get rid of all inedible parts.

ToshiyukiIMAI/Flickr.com

Take the squid carcass in one hand, grab the head near the eyes with the other. Gently pull - along with the head and tentacles, you will remove part of the insides. The rest can be removed when you remove the skin.

The tentacles are usually thrown away with the head, but they can be used. To do this, cut them off near the eyes. Be sure to remove the squid mouth at the same time - it is hard, hiding among the tentacles.

But usually you don't have to deal with it all. In stores, as a rule, they sell frozen squid in a semi-cut form: without heads and tentacles.

Carcasses (biologists would say - a mantle) are covered with a red-white film, which is troublesome and long to clean with a knife.

To quickly clean the squids, they need to be doused with boiling water, held in hot water for about a minute and rinsed under running water. Some housewives treat carcasses like 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 will only have to remove its residues when washing. Further, the squid can be cut lengthwise to remove the chitinous plate and entrails.

But you can not break the cylindrical shape of the mantle: the insides and the chitinous plate are easily removed with your fingers. Whole squid can be stuffed or cut into rings.

Method 1. "Cold start"

Place the cleaned squids in a pot of cold water. Put the dishes on the stove and turn on medium heat. When the water warms up, salt a little, and when it boils, immediately turn it off and catch the carcasses.

Like many other seafood, squid do not tolerate heat treatment well. If the clam is cooked for a long time, the meat will be tough, like a rubber sole.

The main secret of cooking squid is not to overcook.

It is important not to miss the moment of boiling. You literally have to stay away from the pan.

Method 2. Boiling in hot water

Bring lightly salted water to a boil. When the first bubbles appear, start the squid. Boiling will stop for a while, and as soon as it resumes, you must immediately turn it off.

Here, too, it is very important not to overexpose the meat in boiling water.

Method 3. Filling with boiling water

Many consider this method to be the most correct and argue that squids prepared in this way are the most tender and delicious.

You need to pour three times. The first time is considered when you pour boiling water over the squid to get rid of the skin.

The second time you need to leave the peeled clams in boiling water for one minute. After that, rinse the carcasses with water and boil the kettle again. After the third filling (holding time is also 60 seconds) and washing, the squids are ready for use. Salt can be added to the bowl with each pour.

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 squids are cooked immediately. The skinning step is combined with the boiling process.

Salt the boiling water: about 1 tablespoon per 3 liters of water. Put defrosted squid in it. You will see how the mantles of the mollusks become voluminous and a red-white film comes off them.

Wait until the interrupted boiling resumes, and note 1.5–2.5 minutes. Boil squids at a vigorous boil, without covering with a lid. After the specified time, the pan must be removed from the heat and covered with a lid.

Let the squids cool for 10-15 minutes. After that, rinse them under running water, remove the remnants of the skin, the insides and the chord plate.

Alternatively, you can immediately put the carcasses in a bowl of cold water, thereby stopping the heat treatment.

Boiled squid can be used in salads, fried in batter rings, stuffed with various fillings.

Kevin/Flickr.com

The described methods of cooking squid are very simple and take a minimum of time. Try all four to understand which squid is the most tender for your taste.

Do you know other secrets of cooking squid? Share in the comments.

Mediterranean cuisine is no longer a novelty for us, and squids are an integral part of it, like other seafood. They are not only tasty, but also very useful, especially for those who care about their figure. Each hostess has several recipes for dishes from this seafood. But do we know how to cook squid correctly? Here are some tips that will help you easily and without errors to cope with this task.

Selection rules and preparation of squid for cooking

Squid today can be bought in almost any supermarket. Most often they are sold frozen, with or without tentacles of your choice. During storage, squid carcasses cannot be thawed and cooled again, otherwise the product will be hopelessly spoiled: it will have a bitter taste and an unpleasant fishy smell. In addition, during cooking, the squids will spread, and will foam when cooked.

If the squid has been stored properly, its carcass will be dense, the meat will be white, and the upper skin will be pink-brown or grayish-purple.

When stored properly, the squid carcass has this color

Please note: when choosing squid in a store, give preference to unpeeled carcasses. It is by the skin that you can determine the freshness of the product and the correctness of its storage. A grayish or yellow skin, from under which meat with the wrong shade is visible, is a sign of a stale squid.

If you are confident in the freshness and good quality of squid, you can buy peeled carcasses. There will be practically no trouble with them: you don’t need to peel off the skin, which means that the cooking process will not take much time.

The easiest way to clean frozen squid is boiling water. Just fill the carcasses with boiling water or lower them into it for literally 1-2 seconds. The film that covers the carcass will immediately curl up, and you can easily remove it, and the remnants can be washed off in running cold water. Also peel off the wings. The chitinous plates inside the squid also need to be removed.

Peeling squid is a must if you plan to use their meat for a salad. However, this is also useful for other dishes: the skin can give a bitter taste and stiffness, and the plates are generally superfluous.

Features of cooking

The main thing to remember during the cooking process is that squid should be cooked for no more than 2-3 minutes. Otherwise, the meat may acquire a "rubber" texture and lose a lot of taste. When the squid turns completely white in boiling water, it is considered ready.

It is most convenient to cook squid carcasses in small portions. Dip 1-2 carcasses in a pot of boiling water, remove and put the next ones. At the same time, during cooking, you can use, in addition to salt, any seasonings and spices: pepper, dill, parsley, cloves, basil.

The finished squid carcass turns white

There are several simple ways to cook squid.

1. Put a pot of water on a large fire, add salt and spices to taste, boil. Throw a couple of carcasses into boiling water and hold for no longer than 3 minutes. Pull out with a slotted spoon.
2. Boil 1-1.5 liters of water, add salt, spices. Lower the thawed and prepared carcasses. Cover the pot with a lid and remove from heat. After 10 minutes, the meat will infuse and be ready. With the gradual cooling of the water, squid carcasses will not become hard.
3. If you have a lot of squid meat, use this method. Pour as much water into the pan as needed to fit all the meat, salt and add spices. When the water boils over high heat, lower the prepared squids into it. Wait for the water to boil again, cover the pan with a lid, remove from heat and let it brew for 5 minutes. After that, the water can be drained.
4. You can not defrost squid before cooking. In this case, the carcasses are dipped in boiling water for 1 minute, after which the pan is removed from the heat and infused in water for 3-4 minutes.
5. If you do not want to clean the squid before cooking, you can throw them into boiling water directly from the package without cutting them. Frozen unpeeled carcasses are boiled for about 7 minutes, thawed - no more than 3 minutes. After that, pour them over with cold water, and you can easily peel the meat from the skin.

These rules apply equally to whole carcasses, rings and squid fillets.

A few nuances

You can cook many dishes from boiled squid. It can be salads, toppings for pies or pizzas, soups and much more. And as a separate dish, squid will take its rightful place on your table.

For salad, cook squid meat for 7-10 minutes until cooked (white), and you can not defrost them before cooking. If you want to make stuffed squids or fry them after cooking, just keep them in boiling water for 3 minutes and take them out. The final cooking meat will reach in the process of stewing or frying.

Most often, boiled squids are used to make salads.

You can cook squids not only in a pot of water, because now there are so many devices that make it easier for the hostess! Cooking time for squid meat in various devices:

• in a slow cooker - 2 minutes;
• in a double boiler - 5 minutes;
• in a pressure cooker - 1 minute;
• in the microwave - 1 minute at maximum mode, after adding oil, lemon juice and spices.

With the latter method, you will get squids in their own juice. They are perfect for a salad or as a separate dish, for example, beer snacks.

Video: how to cook squid

Correction of errors: correcting our own mistakes

Often the first pancake comes out lumpy, and if you are still inexperienced in cooking squid, mistakes cannot be avoided. The most common trouble is that the meat has been in boiling water for a long time, which means it has become tough. It turns out this is an easy fix. Put the carcasses in boiling water again and cook for as long as possible, at least half an hour. The meat will become soft again, however, it will almost halve in volume. It may also lose its taste.

Overcooked squid can be "reanimated" by stewing in sour cream or cream

To avoid an unpleasant aftertaste and hardness, cut the overcooked squid into slices and simmer them over low heat for 20 minutes in cream or sour cream. Thanks to this method, you can correct the situation if you salted the meat. Such a squid is no longer suitable for a salad, but as a separate dish with a side dish it will perfectly complement dinner for the whole family.

We hope our tips will help you enjoy the rich taste of properly cooked squid meat and avoid the most common mistakes. Bon appetit and comfort to your home!