Many original recipes for seafood dishes remain unused if the hostess does not know how to clean squids at home correctly and quickly. But you only need to decide once on an experiment and learn a simple process. In the future, a healthy and nutritious squid will become the best part of a variety of salads, decorate the table with fried, boiled, stewed or pickled.
Competent choice is the key to success
In order to get a tasty and healthy seafood on the table, you need to choose it correctly in the store. It depends on how easily the films are cleaned and how tender the cooked meat will be. It’s not recommended to buy peeled squids, since some of the nutrients have already been lost, and the taste will be much worse.
- It is not necessary to choose large individuals, but smaller ones. Then you can avoid the effect of rubber meat, the skins will be easily removed.
- If the frozen squids were stored with defects and were already thawed, they will be bitter when cooked, so only carcasses that did not stick together should be taken in.
- It is necessary to ensure that the meat under the film is white. If the temperature regime was not maintained, it will become the color of the film - cyanotic or pinkish.
Tip
Sometimes carcasses lie on the window enough time for a change in taste. To be sure of the correct storage, invite the seller to give you briquette carcasses. If they refuse you under the pretext that they "do not tear off", then this product does not suit you, you need to purchase correctly frozen squids.
- Before cooking, the meat must be kept frozen, then the taste will be preserved, and it will be easy to clean.
How to remove film from frozen squid?
The process is incredibly simple.
- Prepare a pot of boiling water.
- Take the squids out of the freezer and put them in a bowl.
- Pour boiled water over seafood. At the same time, almost all the peel will come off on its own.
- Drain the hot water immediately and rinse the contents of the bowl under running water, gently removing the remaining film. It is better to act quickly, otherwise the squids are prepared very quickly and can even be cooked if they are not removed from boiling water in time.
- It remains only to remove the insides and flexible spine.
Is it possible to remove the film from thawed meat?
There are situations when squids get home already thawed. The summer heat and unforeseen delays on the way should not interfere with the preparation of a delicious dish. To do this, you must perform the following algorithm.
- Prepare a pot of boiling water and seasonings (salt, bay leaf and pepper).
- Cut the carcass lengthwise and remove the entrails.
- Rinse the meat well.
- Boil the carcasses in seasoned boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
- Pull out the squid. In this case, the films will remain in the water, calving themselves.
How to work with chilled squids?
If squids just recently got out of the seabed and they fell into your hands chilled, this is a big luck. The meat will be the most delicious and nutritious. However, the difference will be in the presence of the head and tentacles. Squids will have to clean yourself at home. If the head needs to be removed forever, the tentacles can be eaten. They are cut off at the very eyes. There is a film on them, the principle of working with it is the same as for the whole carcass.
And in order to clean from skins, a number of simple actions must be performed.
- Cook a pot of boiling water.
- Squids with already removed entrails and chordate are put in a colander, doused with boiling water, and then immediately with cold water.
- Pull the skin from the larger to the thinner, just scrape off the wings.
- Similarly process the tentacles. The only difference is that it will be even easier to remove the film, it will practically leave by itself under the influence of boiling water.
Ready squid carcasses can be cooked in a variety of ways. They can be cooked for several minutes on high heat or forty minutes on low heat. You can fry thin rings separately and with vegetables. They are delicious if the meat is marinated, stuffed, stewed and baked. In this matter, the main thing is to precisely control the process so as not to overdo it with heat treatment: no one likes hard meat with a rubbery flavor. The time that the carcasses spent under boiling water also counts.
You have to be careful when shooting films. Both color and transparent are subject to removal. If you leave a part and cook meat with it, the piece will be hard and compressed. Properly processed seafood will become a real delicacy, which can become a gourmet gourmet dish prepared at home.