How to cook squid correctly

Squid is a very valuable seafood , an essential element of a healthy diet menu. It contains easily digestible proteins and no cholesterol. A lot of selenium and taurine are so necessary for the body.

Purchase rules
Defrosting
Cooking squid correctly is the key to a tasty dish
Let's start cooking
Important
Squid and Avocado Salad Recipe

Squid dishes are not only healthy and nutritious, but also very tasty.

Purchase rules

Frozen squid rings and frozen unpeeled squid are available for sale.

When buying frozen squid, you need to be careful and choose them correctly. Squids should not be re-frozen, i.e. Thawed and back in the freezer. Such a product will be difficult to prepare for cooking; it will be very difficult to peel it, but most importantly, dishes made from such squid will be tough and tasteless, and will have a bitter aftertaste. Therefore, when choosing frozen squid rings or carcasses, you should pay attention to the following:

there should not be a lot of ice on them;
the meat of frozen carcasses should be white; if the skin and meat are the same (pink-lilac) color, this indicates repeated defrosting - freezing of the product.

Cooking recipes

Cooking squid in the microwave, double boiler and slow cooker.

When using a double boiler, we will cook seafood without water. To do this, place pre-cleaned and washed rings or carcasses of marine life in the steamer bowl. Cook them for about ten minutes. The shellfish are tender and tasty. The only drawback of this method is the lack of broth from which you can make soup or sauce.

We recommend reading: How to Preserve Fresh Carrot Juice for a Day So It Doesn’t Oxidize

You can similarly prepare this product in a slow cooker. In this case, you need to use the “steam cooking” function.

Seafood can be cooked deliciously in the microwave . To do this, take a special dish with a lid and place the prepared shellfish in it. Add a little lemon juice, close the lid tightly and cook in the microwave for about two minutes. You can also add marinade to the squid, which will make it more aromatic and spicy.

Boiling squid with onions and carrots.

This recipe will come in handy when you suddenly have guests and you need to quickly and tasty feed them.

Lightly fry the diced onion in a frying pan.
Grate the carrots on a fine grater and add to the onion.
Bring the food until soft and add chopped or grated tomato. If you do not have the opportunity to use it, then you can find a replacement - ketchup or tomato paste.
Clean the squid and cut into large strips or rings.
Add a glass of boiling water to the vegetables in the frying pan and add the shellfish.
Cook them for about three minutes, add bay leaf.
Serve with chopped herbs and sour cream.

Boiled squid with rice.

Rice goes well with tender squid meat. Based on them, many recipes have been created that have captivated people all over the world.

Cut the carrots into strips and the onions into cubes.
Fry the vegetables in a frying pan with the addition of vegetable oil.
Season the vegetables and add soy sauce.
Add rice. To do this, wash it and add it to the vegetables. Then pour boiling water.
Prepare the shellfish and cut them into thin strips.
Add them to the pan with rice and stir.

Defrosting

In order for squid dishes to turn out healthy and tasty, you not only need to choose them correctly and know how to cook them, but initially they need to be defrosted correctly.

Frozen shellfish are defrosted naturally, namely in a cool place. You can put it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, or you can just leave it on the table at room temperature. The main thing is that you should not try to quickly defrost them by pouring hot water. You should also not defrost them in the microwave or thaw them in cold water.

Before cooking

Carcasses are usually sold frozen, in a semi-cut state. Therefore, before cooking, they must be defrosted and then cleaned. Carcasses should be defrosted under natural conditions, without forcing events. That is, they are either placed on the lowest shelf of the refrigerator, or left in the kitchen at room temperature. No “accelerating” immersions in hot or cold water, no defrosting using a microwave: all this will significantly worsen the taste and tenderness of the shellfish.

On top they are covered with a thin film-skin, which must be removed, otherwise it will give the finished dish an unpleasant sour-bitter taste. In addition, inside the squid there is a “spine” - a chord resembling a plastic “braid”, which is also removed.

How to do it? You can remove the film in the same way as removing the skin, for example, from tomatoes: put it in a bowl, pour boiling water over it, and then immediately dip it in a bowl with as cold water as possible. Due to a sharp temperature change, the skin will immediately peel off. All that remains is to pick it up and pull it off like a stocking. You need to feel the chord with your fingers and just pull it.

At this point, the preliminary stage is completed - you can proceed directly to cooking. But this is the case if frozen carcasses were purchased without heads and tentacles. If the carcass was purchased uncut, you will also have to remove the head, entrails, and tentacles. To do this, you need to grab your head at the place where it connects to the body (behind the eyes) and pull.

Let's start cooking

There are several options.

After the water boils, add allspice or peas, salt, bay leaf, you can add a couple of lemon slices, this will add flavor to the dish. Place the thawed squid rings in boiling water and cook for no more than a minute, optimally 30 seconds. After the specified time has passed, immediately remove the boiled squid from the water and cool.
Put spices and salt into boiling water, lower the shellfish and immediately remove from heat without bringing to a boil. Leave in hot water for 7 - 10 minutes.
You can boil frozen rings without defrosting. They need to be immersed in boiling water for no more than one minute, and then left in hot water for another three minutes, but removed from the stove.

How long to cook squid?

Cooking squid correctly means quickly. That is, exposure to high temperatures should be kept to a minimum.

There are 5 main ways to cook squid:

The water is brought to a boil, salted, then the shellfish are immersed in it, and they are cooked for about 40–50 seconds, after which the carcasses must be removed. You can keep them in boiling water a little longer, but no more than 2 minutes, otherwise the squid will acquire that “rubbery” quality.
The carcasses are not boiled at all, but simply subjected to short-term heat treatment: they are placed in a saucepan (but not put on fire!), poured with boiling water, covered with a lid and left to simmer for about 3-4 minutes.
With this method, shellfish are also not literally boiled. They are simply doused with boiling water several times: the first - when this is done to remove the film, the second and third - after the skin has already been removed. The length of time the carcasses remain in boiling water is a minute each time.
The water is brought to a boil, salted, squid carcasses are lowered into it in a metal sieve for literally 5-10 seconds and immediately removed. When the water boils again, lower the squid again for the same time. After this, they are cooled and then prepared according to the chosen recipe.
In the same way, boil water, lower the carcasses into the pan, cover and immediately turn off the heat without removing the dishes from the burner. The shellfish are left in the pan for 3-4 minutes, after which they are taken out, allowed to cool and prepared for the main dish.

If you are distracted and the clams are boiling for more than 2 minutes, do not worry: they can still be saved. Reduce heat and cook them for another 40–50 minutes. After this, the protein will become soft again. True, the carcasses themselves will become much smaller, but you will receive as a bonus a fragrant, rich broth that can be used to prepare seafood soup.

Important

In order for the welded rings to be soft, the main thing is not to overcook them or overexpose them in hot water, then they will not be hard and rubbery.
When asked how long to cook squid rings, the answer is no more than one minute.
Cook the squid rings in small portions.
If the shellfish are cooked correctly, they practically do not decrease in volume, but after ten minutes of cooking they lose half their volume.
If you miss the time and still overcook the squid, you need to remember that after thirty minutes of cooking, squid meat has the ability to gain 2/3 of the lost volume and become soft again. Nutritional qualities, unfortunately, are no longer restored.
Spices added to the cooking water can be taken according to your taste - dill, parsley, black or white pepper, allspice.
To prepare a salad, it is better to take peeled frozen rings; they are more convenient and easier to prepare, since they are sold already peeled.
The shelf life of boiled squid rings is no more than 2 days in the refrigerator. After this time they will lose their taste and softness.

You can prepare rings in different ways. They are good both in appetizers and julienne, but most of all they are used in salads.

In salads, the main ingredient is squid, so it is not advisable to increase the amount of the dish by adding rice and boiled eggs.

Product processing

Not many housewives know how to cook squid correctly, so they often spoil their taste.

Cooking process

If you are using fresh squid , then all you need to do is wash it thoroughly and remove the skin. Things are more complicated with the preparation of frozen sea creatures. Before cooking, they need to be properly defrosted, since their taste will directly depend on this. There is no need to pour hot water over frozen clams to speed up the process. This destroys all the beneficial properties of the product and also significantly impairs the taste.

To properly defrost squids, they need to be placed in the refrigerator, where they will gradually thaw. After a few hours (without allowing complete thawing), remove them from the refrigerator. Such shellfish are easy to process, while they retain all their nutritional properties.

Cleaning shellfish

After proper defrosting, the shellfish need to be properly cleaned . If they are completely raw, then you need to tear off their head and tentacles. By performing this operation, the insides will also be removed. After this, do not forget to remove the chitinous plates and remove the skin from them.

Purchased and decapitated sea creatures usually lack tentacles. Therefore, the entire process of processing them will be reduced to peeling.

The pinkish skin is easiest to remove from squid that is not completely thawed. It is best to use a knife with a thin blade for this process. When prying the skin, you need to remove it from head to tail. In most cases, this operation is done quickly and accurately.

If you miss the moment and the shellfish are completely thawed , then removing the skin will be much more difficult. To do this, you will need to scrape it off without damaging the carcass. After complete cleaning, the pulp is white without inclusions. It should be rinsed with cold water and you can begin the cooking process.

Cooking methods and stages

Not only the consistency and appearance of the product depends on the cooking time, but also the preservation of all substances beneficial to the human body.

You can determine exactly how many minutes to cook squid based on their size and degree of defrosting. Experienced cooks advise spending no more than three minutes on cooking so that the flesh does not become hard.

The cooking process includes the following steps:

Prepare the carcasses for subsequent heat treatment (defrost, remove entrails and skin, rinse).
Boil water in a saucepan or other suitable container. Add salt and your favorite seasonings.
Place the carcasses into boiling water.
In order not to make a mistake with how long you need to cook the squid, you can use the following trick: after lowering the seafood into the water, wait for it to boil again and count ten seconds.
Immediately after the end of the countdown, remove the seafood from the boiling water and let it cool. The rich white color of their meat can indicate its readiness.

If you adhere to the above points, the squid will be juicy and tender. Boiling seafood should be done in small portions so as not to reduce the water temperature.

If you missed re-boiling and the cooking process was disrupted, then there is only one option left. There is no need to remove the shellfish from the pan, but give them the opportunity to cook for a long time (about half an hour). After half an hour they will become soft and tasty again. The disadvantages of this option are: reduction in the amount of product and nutrients.

Boiling in marinade.

Squids are great for making salads. To further emphasize their taste, you can cook them not in water, but in a marinade. This will give the shellfish meat a special aroma and piquancy.

Boiling process in marinade:

Dissolve three tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of salt in cold water.
Wait for it to boil and add apple cider vinegar, bay leaf and a few black peppercorns.
Boil seafood in the resulting marinade.

Boiling frozen squid without defrosting.

If you bought shellfish that have already been peeled and frozen, you can cook them without first defrosting them. This will significantly save time and effort.

Stages of cooking frozen shellfish without defrosting:

Take a deep saucepan and pour cold water.
Add salt, all necessary seasonings and bring to a boil.
Place frozen sea creatures in boiling water and leave them there for a minute.
After this, remove the pan from the heat and leave for another ten minutes.
Drain the water, remove the carcasses, and let them cool.

How to prepare unpeeled squid for boiling?

Before cooking, it is recommended to clean the squid by removing the skin. If this is not done, it will spoil the taste of the dish and make it look unaesthetic. The skin imparts a slightly sour and bitter taste.

To easily remove the skin, you can dip the squid in hot water (65-70 degrees is enough) and then pour over ice water. Also note that the squid carcass has a backbone, namely the notochord - this should also be removed. The cartilage is easily removed, separated from the pulp.

After removing all excess, rinse the product with cool water and blot with a napkin or towel to remove excess moisture. Having done all this, you can start cooking, but how long to cook squid in time is a question that interests many.

Other cooking methods

You can cook seafood not only in the traditional way in a pan of water, but also using other methods. Each of them has the right to exist, but requires the use of a specific household appliance.

Set the “Cooking” mode and do everything according to our instructions. How long you need to cook the squid in this case does not depend on whether it is cleaned or not:

add water, salt, spices to the bowl and boil it;
send the squid into it, having previously defrosted it, and cover with a lid;
leave for two minutes, then turn off the multicooker and leave to sit for three minutes with the lid closed.

You will be surprised how long you can cook squid in a double boiler. This option is the longest - 7-8 minutes. The main thing is not to miss the right moment by turning off the device in time. The algorithm is as follows:

fill the tank with water, add salt, add spices;
place the squid fillet on the mesh and turn on the steamer;
after 7-8 minutes, turn off the device and leave the carcasses inside for another 2-3 minutes.

The least suitable method of cooking squid of all of the above, since the flesh of the mollusk turns out to be too hard. The cooking procedure is non-standard:

coat the defrosted clam with vegetable oil, lemon juice and spices;
place in a microwave-safe container;
turn on at maximum power or select 1000 W, and set the timer for 3 minutes.

After removing all excess, rinse the product with cool water and blot with a napkin or towel to remove excess moisture. Having done all this, you can start cooking, but how long to cook squid in time is a question that interests many.