20.03.2023

How easy it is to clean squid. When to clean squid before or after cooking. Cleaning squid from the film: simple and fast

Squid - cephalopod, predatory mollusk , living in warm, southern seas. Most often, carcasses are eaten, although the tentacles are also edible. This low-calorie seafood is rich in phosphorus, protein, calcium and iodine. There are a lot of squid cooking techniques - they are boiled, fried, stewed, canned, dried. Moreover, it is very simple to cook these mollusks, you just need to know how to clean squids and also how to heat treat them correctly in order to preserve the original taste.

To take or not to take? Or which squids are worth buying.

“What a fish, such an ear,” people say. This is true for squid as well. To enjoy a delicious dish, you need to choose a good source product. The sea delicacy is sold most often in frozen form, chilled specimens are less common.

Determining the quality of a chilled product is not difficult - the top, colored film should be easily removed, and the color of the carcass under the skin should be exceptionally white. If blue or pink shades are present, the squid is stale.

The squid has 3 hearts connected to tentacles. And the eyes of some specimens are of different sizes.

The classic case is frozen squid. This is the most convenient method of storing shellfish. However, only the product that was frozen once fresh will be tasty, and then it was not allowed to defrost during storage. If the carcasses are prepared and stored correctly, they will be effortlessly separated from each other, but if the product has already been defrosted, it will be difficult to separate it into separate copies. It is also worth paying attention to the position of mollusks in a frozen briquette - in production they are laid in even, neat rows.

You can often find squid tubes in stores - already peeled, beautiful carcasses. When purchasing such a product, it should be noted that heat treatment is used during cleaning in production, and this tender meat does not like high temperatures terribly. Therefore, such a "convenient" purchase is likely to disappoint you with the rigidity of the final dish.

How to Prepare Whole Calamari

Probably the most important thing in preparing squid is to know that they cannot be thawed “quickly” using a microwave or hot water. Frozen carcasses should be left on the kitchen table (or better in the refrigerator to avoid sudden changes) and wait until they become soft.

It is not necessary to completely defrost the product; it is just more convenient to clean the squids if they are a little frozen.

Firmly holding the squid by the body with one hand, with the other we carefully separate the insides from the walls, sticking a finger inside the body.
We take out everything that we managed to separate by pulling on the tentacles.
We wash the bodies of mollusks under running (maximum cold) water, removing the remnants of the insides.
The second part is cut in the area of \u200b\u200bthe eyes. We throw away the waste, and look for a beak at the junction of the tentacles - it is easily removed by pressing a finger.

How to clean squid from the film

There are several cleaning methods. Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages. So what is the best way to clean squid?

The first and most gentle method is to remove the films manually. You just need to pick up the skin with a knife at the wide edge of the tube and pull it, removing it like a case. If the squid has been frozen for a long time, the films can tear in the hands and then you have to clean them with a knife.

It seems that the carcass is already clean, but this impression is false. The mollusk is also covered with a thin, transparent film, which must also be removed.

The body of the squid along its entire length is supported by a cartilaginous plate (gladius), resembling plastic. She effortlessly pulls out of the carcass.

The second cleaning method is much faster. You just need to boil water and lower the squid into it for 1 second (no more !!!). The films will immediately curl up, they can be easily removed from the carcass.

The third way is a contrast shower. The blanks must be placed so that the water can immediately drain, for example, into a sink or colander, and then scald the squid with boiling water. Immediately after that, pour ice water over it. The tentacles are cleaned in the same way, with the only difference being that you have to tinker with removing the suckers.

It is best to process under a stream of cold water so that small particles of the film are immediately washed off and do not stick to your hands. You can clean squid after boiling. It is enough to rub them with a soft brush, removing the curled pieces of the film.

How to cook squid properly

This tender meat categorically does not tolerate long-term exposure to high temperatures, which makes it look like hard chewing gum. Therefore, boiling carcasses is not recommended. The most optimal solution is to stock up on slightly salted boiling water, dip the squids into it, wait until the water boils again and immediately remove the pan from the stove. It is enough to keep the product in water for 5-7 minutes to cook the meat.

If for some reason the meat is overcooked, it can be saved by boiling on a minimum heat for 40-50 minutes. The taste will remain the same, but, unfortunately, some trace elements will evaporate with steam. To add flavor to the water, you can add dill, fennel or a slice of lemon.

Boiled squids are often used for salads or cold appetizers.

What if it's fried?

Sea creatures are no less tasty and fried. It is necessary to fry in hot oil for 3-5 minutes, after cutting them into rings or strips about 5 mm thick. For a more delicate dish, the blanks can be dipped in a classic batter (a mixture of eggs, milk and salt).

Shellfish acquire a very original taste when grilled on coals. In most recipes, meat is recommended to marinate, for example, in a mixture of 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, 100 grams of dry white wine and spices to give the finished product flavor and avoid dryness. With this preparation, you should constantly water the meat with the sauce remaining from the pickling. It turns out a healthy barbecue from rings, smelling pleasantly of smoke.

Goodies from a sea predator

Calamari stuffed with rice and mushrooms

Ingredients:

gutted squid carcasses - 4 pcs;
rice - 80 gr;
fresh mushrooms - 150 gr;
butter - 50 gr;
carrots - 100 gr;
egg - 2 pcs.

Boil rice. Process the carrots on a fine grater and sauté in melted butter for 3-5 minutes. Mushrooms cut into small pieces and fry in sunflower oil.

Boiled eggs cut into cubes. Mix rice with eggs, add carrots and mushrooms. Put the prepared tubes in hot water, fill them with rice mixture, chop off the place of stuffing with toothpicks and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Seafood salad with creamy garlic sauce

squid - 100 gr.;
hard cheese - 60 gr.;
crab sticks - 100 gr.;
eggs - 2 pcs.;

for the sauce:

garlic 2 teeth;
butter - 50 gr.;
fat cream 100 gr.;
slice of lemon.

Boiled squids, eggs, hard cheese cut into cubes, crab sticks in circles, add green onions. To prepare a creamy garlic sauce, fry thin slices of garlic in butter, add cream, simmer a little (5-10 minutes), cool, dilute with a drop of lemon juice and, if desired, spices.

Sea rings in batter with sauce

frozen squid - 500 gr.;
egg - 1 pc.;
milk 3 tablespoons;
hard cheese - 100 gr.;
sour cream - 200 gr.;
breadcrumbs - 3 tablespoons;
flour - 3 tablespoons;
garlic - 1 clove;
refined sunflower oil, ground black pepper, herbs, salt.

Boil squid tubes, cut into rings. For batter, combine the egg with milk and salt a little. For breading - mix breadcrumbs and flour in equal proportions. Fry the squids in a large amount of oil (it is necessary that the oil completely covers the rings), dipping first in batter, and then in breading. For the sauce, grate the cheese on a fine grater, add crushed garlic, herbs and dilute it all with sour cream.

Properly cleaned and cooked seafood will allow you to create incredibly tasty and healthy culinary masterpieces that will not leave indifferent either the layman or the inveterate gourmet.

If you are preparing a festive table or just decide to diversify your home menu, then squids are your main helpers in this difficult task. These cephalopods have such a set of properties that it's time to envy the plantain. Useful properties of mollusks are preserved only if hostess knows how to clean squids and cook them properly.

Beneficial features

Their tender meat contains elements such as phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper. Thanks to its low calorie content (approximately 90 kcal per 100 g), diet fans can finally afford to give up from the disgusted boiled breast without skin, and athletes appreciate their meat for its high protein content. In addition, they have a beneficial effect on blood vessels and the functioning of the thyroid gland.

You can achieve the most positive effect from this dietary product only if you got the original product in good condition. It's no secret that frozen food in stores often suffers from improper storage, being thawed and refrozen many times. What kind of squid would love this?

Product selection in the store

If you are unlucky with housing on the seashore, then you can only dream of a fresh, freshly caught squid, and you can search for its ice cream counterpart in the store.

In stores, as a rule, they offer two options:

unpeeled mollusks, covered with a film and with entrails, but already without a head and tentacles;
completely cleaned, and ready for further culinary procedures.

Pros and cons of peeled squid

Completely purified product, of course, more attractive in terms of use: no need to waste time cleaning and gutting. However, attention should be paid to how, in fact, industrial cleaning takes place.

This process uses special machines. The carcasses are placed in a tank of hot water (from 45 to 70 ° C), enzymes and salts are added to the same water, which dissolve the mucus and pigment. Then the blades of the tank mix all its contents until the carcasses, in contact with the walls of the tank and each other, are cleared of the film. This process is long, so the tanks are usually very voluminous (about 700 liters), and in an hour such a machine produces 120 kg of carcasses prepared for further packaging.

Cons of industrial cleaning:

due to a long stay in hot water, the meat becomes rubbery;
due to the enzymes and salts used, the beneficial qualities of meat suffer, and its taste also changes.

Therefore, if the taste of the final dish is important to you, it is recommended to choose more unpeeled cephalopods, especially since there are simple ways to clean squid.

Appearance rating

In the store, carefully study the offered assortment. From the appearance of the mollusks, you can learn a lot about whether they were stored correctly.

Do a few simple tests:

Take the package in your hands and turn or shake it a few times. Packaged squids should separate easily. Sticky carcasses indicate that they have been thawed and frozen again several times, and after cooking the meat will be bitter.
Look at the color. The white color is inherent in soft meat, but the lilac or red clams most likely died a natural death, and the final product will be tough, like a car tire.
Visually evaluate the size. Small squids 5-6 cm long - fry - are suitable for cooking whole, adults are usually 25-50 cm long. The smaller the carcasses, the easier they are to clean, and the larger ones often become rubbery after cooking.
Smell the carcasses. Fresh carcasses have pleasant sea scent, and old or improperly stored ones smell extremely unpleasant, and they should not be eaten.

Shellfish are white and medium in size, with a pleasant smell - this is the catch that is not ashamed to bring home.

Description of ways to clean squid

There are several ways to properly clean squid. Frozen squid must be thawed before cleaning.

Proper defrosting

The right way number 1 - for the leisurely. There is no need to start cooking immediately after the frozen product is at your place, then put the carcasses in a deep plate, cover with cold water and leave overnight in the refrigerator. Water must completely cover carcasses.

Correct way #2 is "rational". Squids can be thawed outdoors at a temperature of 18-20 ° C, and in this case, the meat will retain a maximum of useful properties.

Wrong way number 1 - "here and now." Defrosting in hot water is a faster way, however, you need to remember that under the action of hot water, the pigment from the skin gets into the meat, which is why it becomes pinkish or lilac color and starts to fade.

Wrong way number 2 - "money down the drain." Some habitually defrost squid in the microwave. Immediately after defrosting in the microwave, the carcasses can be thrown away like pieces of rubber unsuitable for food, and the kitchen must be thoroughly ventilated from an unpleasant odor.

So, the clams are defrosted. The following steps: butchering, gutting, cleaning.

If you got the squid with a whole carcass, then you need to separate everything superfluous from it:

The head must be cut off. It is not used for food.
The tentacles can be eaten, but they must be cut off at the base, near the eyes. Note that beak-shaped jaws (the so-called middle beak) are placed between the tentacles. He is not edible. Be sure to remove it and check for debris.
After cutting, it is necessary to pull out the insides along with a hard chord and rinse the remaining carcass well. Now you need to remove the skin from it.

Skinning

The film from the squid must be removed both from the outside and from the inside. The outer film has a dark color and is clearly visible. The inner film is usually transparent (or white at the edges and in places of seals).

Here are three ways to skin a squid:

"Stocking" method. The outer film on the thawed carcass is pulled off with a knife and pulled together like a stocking. If there is no need to maintain the shape of the carcass (for example, it is not planned to use squid rings), then the carcass can be cut from the side opposite to the chord and scrape off the inner film with a knife. This method is only suitable for fresh and fresh-frozen clams. Otherwise, the outer film will tear, and it will not work to remove it with a “stocking”.
Contrast shower method. How to remove the film from the squid if the trick with the stocking failed? Take two deep bowls and fill them with water: one hot, the other ice cold. You can even use ice cubes. Immerse the squid carcasses for a few seconds, first in hot water, and then in ice water. The residence time in hot water must be very short so as not to cook the carcass in an uncleaned form. The peel will burst and begin to curl, after which it will be easy to remove it with your hands or with a soft brush under running water.
pre-cooking method. How easy is it to peel squids if they are not the first freshness? For shellfish that have been frozen for a long time, another method is suitable. Put a pot of water on the fire. Immerse the carcass in boiling water for no more than 1 minute to boil slightly. Then take it out and let it cool. After this treatment, the squid skin is washed off with ordinary tap water. When cooking further, take into account the time spent pre-cooking the squid. The total time of heat treatment of shellfish should be no more than 4 minutes.

There are many ways to cook squid dishes. They are stewed, fried, baked, stuffed. Experienced housewives constantly pamper their household and guests with delicious dishes from this marine life. But many women do not know how to clean squid and do not cook this product. In fact, the process is not as scary as it might seem, and you can clean the carcass very quickly.

How to quickly clean squid?

How to clean a squid, video

Most Russian housewives rarely manage to buy fresh squid in the store, as a rule, we bring them home frozen. If, nevertheless, you managed to find a fresh marine life, then first of all you need to wash it and cut off its head, slashing it with a knife next to the squid's eyes. The insides are easily removed if, grasping the chord, pull it towards you with one hand, holding the body of the squid with the other.

The most difficult moment for housewives is how to quickly clean squid from films. This marine inhabitant has a thin and thick layer of skin, which, without knowing the tricky secrets, is long and difficult to remove. There are 2 ways how to do it:

defrosting the squid and dipping it in boiling water;
arrange a “contrast bath” for a marine inhabitant of hot and cold water.

From a sharp change in hot and cold temperatures, the skin itself is separated from the carcass, and you just have to remove it completely.

How to quickly clean squids?

Since fresh squids are rarely found in our stores, we will learn how to quickly clean frozen ones. This is a finished carcass, from which the insides and films need to be removed.

Take the squid out of the freezer and let it thaw completely.
Remove the insides.
Boil water in a saucepan and prepare a bowl of cold water.
Using a slotted spoon, dip the squid in boiling water for a few seconds and immediately transfer to cold water.
Fresh squid can simply be poured over with boiling water, which will give the same effect.

After contrast procedures, the skin on the squid carcass will burst and wrinkle. Now just pull the rags, and they will obediently slide off the carcass.

How to clean squid? Far from an idle question for hostesses who are going to pamper their family for the first time with this tasty and very healthy product. Nutritionists advise including the meat of this mollusk in your weekly diet.

Fortunately, it harmonizes perfectly with side dishes of cereals and vegetables; you can cook a lot of hot dishes and cold snacks from it. But before you cook these clams, you need to learn how to clean them correctly and quickly. This will be discussed in our article.

Choose the right squid

How to buy quality squid?

To buy good quality shellfish, you should pay attention to two points.

Shellfish carcasses should not be stuck together or frozen to each other. If they cannot be separated, you have a product that has undergone a re-freezing procedure.
Quality squid meat should be exclusively white. The presence of bluish or pinkish shades eloquently indicates that the color of the skin was absorbed into it during the thawing of the product.

Having found such a product on the counter, never buy it: you will be tormented with cleaning, and the taste will disappoint, and it may be unsafe for health.

How to choose squid - tips and review in the video:

Some housewives try to choose squids with larger and brightly colored carcasses. This is a fairly common mistake, since such clams are old.

The meat of medium-sized and slightly colored inhabitants of the sea is more tender and tasty.

How to quickly and correctly clean squid from the film? Multiple cleaning methods

How to quickly clean squid from the film? There are several simple and extremely effective methods, having mastered which, each time the hostess will spend less and less time on this procedure.

Why is it necessary to free mollusks from colored and transparent films? So that the carcasses do not decrease in volume, and the meat does not become rigid, since all these metamorphoses often occur due to the fault of the transparent film, which acquires special rigidity during the heat treatment of the product.

Cold cleaning

Using this technique, you can clean either freshly caught or properly frozen squid. There is no need to apply any thermal effect here.

Taking the headless carcass, carefully separate the thin film and begin to gradually tighten it. Ultimately, she will retire completely, leaving a semblance of a "stocking" in her hand.
After cleaning the mollusk from the skin, the insides and the chitinous plate (chord) are removed from it.

hot method

How to clean frozen squid? Mollusks that have been repeatedly frozen are best cleaned with short-term thermal exposure.

How to clean squid - video:

Let's take a step-by-step look at the process of cleaning not headless carcasses, but whole squids (with a head and tentacles).

Shellfish should be thawed naturally, leaving them at room temperature for a couple of hours.
Gently pulling on the head, the insides are removed from them.
The tentacles are cut off almost at eye level.
The hard beak of the squid, hidden among the tentacles, is unfit for food. It is carefully removed and immediately checked for debris.
Be sure to remove the flexible spine, resembling a narrow strip of transparent plastic. It is not difficult to find it: it is well felt inside the carcass.
After all these manipulations, the carcasses can be considered prepared for film removal.
After washing the squid carcasses in a large amount of running water, they are dried with napkins.
Pouring boiling water into a deep container, one of the prepared carcasses is sent into it for a couple of minutes. During this time, the skin will separate from the pulp, but the meat itself will not have time to cook.
Subjected to thermal action, in boiling water, a thin film will inevitably curl up. Having taken the mollusk out of boiling water, it is cooled a little, after which the layers of the burst film are removed under a stream of cold running water. As a rule, separation of the peel treated with hot water occurs without problems.

Contrast shower method

You can quickly clean frozen squid carcasses using this simple method.

Cleaning boiled clams

Inexperienced housewives often have a question: when to clean squid - before or after cooking? It is quite acceptable to boil unpeeled carcasses of mollusks whole, without pre-cleaning.

After boiling, they are slightly cooled, and then the film lining them is removed with a solid stocking.
Sometimes the skin on mollusks under the influence of hot water bursts and curls up, forming a kind of small balls. In such situations, a soft kitchen brush can help out. It is enough to rub the surface of the boiled mollusk with it, as there will be no trace of the remnants of the film.
Most often, shellfish intended for salad are pre-boiled.

How to cook squid correctly?

Having learned how to clean squids, they move on to their cooking. The easiest way to prepare any product is boiling, but it should also be done correctly.

Cooking seafood is not at all difficult, but you should know a few mandatory rules that cannot be violated.

If clams are cooked too long, their meat will become like tasteless gum. The first sign that squids are overcooked is a significant decrease in their original size. When boiling seafood, you need to look at the clock.

If the clams are boiled separately, the maximum time they stay in boiling water should not exceed four minutes. As part of complex vegetable side dishes, sauces or pilaf with seafood, it is permissible to subject them to heat treatment for half an hour.

The fastest way to boil squid

Squids, in order for them to be soft, must be kept in a boiling broth for no more than 20 seconds: only under this condition will their meat acquire the necessary tenderness.
To give a pleasant aroma, good cooks put a bag of tea leaves or half a lemon in a saucepan with boiled water for cooking shellfish.

How to quickly cook squid - video:

The second option for cooking boiled clams

The water intended for cooking seafood is slightly salted, brought to a boil and flavored with dill and fennel seeds (it is also possible to add finely chopped dill leaves).
Prepared carcasses of mollusks are sent to the bubbling brine and the flame is immediately turned off.
Having tightly covered the container with a lid, give the squid a quarter of an hour so that they can sweat in the brine.
After that, boiled clams recline in a colander and cool in a tightly closed saucepan.

How to boil squid intended for a light snack?

To prepare this dish you will need:

Squids - 500 g.
1 orange.
Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
Fennel - 2 small heads.
Olive oil).
Juice of one half lemon and one orange.

Cooking method:

Well-cleaned squids are rinsed with running water.
Fennel cut into neat strips.
After peeling the orange, remove all internal films from it.
Lightly boil the fennel in a pot of boiling salted water.
Squids are added to the fennel, the contents of the pan are brought to a boil, after which the broth is drained.
Boiled squids and fennel are seasoned with olive oil, fruit juices, seasoned with spices.
Remove the skin from the tomatoes and remove the seeds, cut into even slices.
All the ingredients of the appetizer (squid, slices of oranges, tomato slices and boiled fennel greens) are beautifully placed on a painted dish. You can put a few large boiled shrimp on top.

Another squid recipe - in the video:

What delicacies can be prepared from squid?

Recipes for cooking squid in modern cooking are so diverse that they cannot be listed. We will only briefly describe the main methods of their culinary processing.

At home, the following dishes are made from squid:

How is fried squid prepared?

Before preparing this dish, squid carcasses, of course, should be cleaned. You should not abuse the use of spices, since the specific aroma of all seafood is very easily interrupted by the smells of other components of the dish.

The frying time of squid, as is the case with all other methods of their preparation, should be minimal.

Crispy squid in breadcrumbs

This extremely tasty and nutritious dish is simply indispensable during family holidays and friendly parties. He is credited with the properties of an excellent aphrodisiac.

Components:

Squid - 0.5 kg.
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Breadcrumbs.
Sour cream-mayonnaise lezon (consisting of equal amounts of mayonnaise and sour cream).
A mixture of vegetable and butter for frying.
Spices set.

How to cook?

Carcasses cleaned from films are cut into small strips or rings.
Prepare the lezon from a mixture of mayonnaise, sour cream and spices.
Pieces of squid are dipped in ice cream, after which they are thoroughly rolled in the breading mixture.
Roasting is carried out for 4 minutes on a mixture prepared from cow and vegetable oil.
Lay the fried rings on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
After that, the delicacy is beautifully laid out on a flat plate, decorated with greenery and served at the table with pickled cucumbers.
Similarly, squids are prepared in beer batter, in which egg whites, a small amount of flour and beer are placed.
This dish goes great with many types of sauces.

Fried squid rings in batter - recipe in video:

My husband brought home a couple of frozen squids and said: “I want a salad!” I was left alone with these "monsters" and thought:

how to quickly clean a squid frozen from the film
how many minutes to cook squid thawed and already peeled for salad.

The squid salad has already been prepared, and now I will be happy to answer all your questions. I hope my experience is useful to you 😉

Cooking instruction (step by step)

Defrosting.

If you need to defrost the squid quickly, then simply immerse the carcasses in cold (not hot) water and wait a couple of minutes. After that, we take out all the ice, if there are any left, wash the carcasses well, take out the chord (transparent "sticks" that you will find inside). In principle, squids are already ready for cooking.

2. Film removal

Squid skin is a thin film. I do not advise taking it off while the squid is still raw. This is monkey work. During cooking, the skin easily leaves itself. After cooking, simply remove the squid meat from the water, let it cool slightly and rinse under running water. Remaining skin particles fall off easy and fast.

The second option: lower the thawed squid carcass for a few seconds in hot water. The film will shrink and easily rebound.

After that, like a squid managed remove film Let's start cooking right away. Pour 2 liters of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, salt. We lower the squid carcass into boiling water, wait 1 minute until the water boils again. Cook after boiling literally 1.5 - 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the meat in hot water for another 1-2 minutes. We take out. Ready!

Thawed and cleaned squid need to cook how much: literally 1.5 - 2 minutes in boiling water, no more. Otherwise, the meat will become tough, like rubber. And for a salad, we don’t need it at all.

Salad recipe with squid and cucumber

Actually, for the sake of which all this was started: we prepared a salad with squid and fresh cucumber for dinner. Sharing the recipe 😉

Recipe #1

Products:

2 carcasses of squid (about 300 g),
1 pack of crab sticks,
1 fresh cucumber
4 chicken eggs,
mayonnaise,
salt.

Cooking:

1. Defrost squids, cook, peel off the film, cut into strips or cubes.

2. Defrost crab sticks and cut into rings.

3. Three cucumbers on a grater (but you can also cut into strips).

4. Eggs are also three on a grater.

5. Put the ingredients in layers in a deep salad bowl, spreading some layers with mayonnaise. The order of the layers doesn't matter. You can layer the ingredients according to your taste.

Recipe #2

Another salad that we have not prepared yet, but would really like to try. In the last recipe, I personally did not have enough piquancy, some kind of sourness. And here, pickled cucumbers are supposed to be in the composition. They will spice up the salad with squid.