Many do not mind eating a salad with squid in a cafe or restaurant, but they can’t dare to cook this delicacy on their own. Still, this is not the most common product in Russian refrigerators. Mistresses are afraid to do something wrong during cooking. Let's find out how to cook squid for a salad.
Where are squids sold
For Russia, this is somewhat an exotic product, so it is unlikely that you will find them in a small store near the house. But they are always available in large supermarkets or hypermarkets. These mollusks are caught in Southeast Asia, so only frozen, canned and smoked squids are generally available to Russians.
How to choose the right squid
Buy the product in large stores that can afford high-quality refrigerators. Moreover, in hypermarkets, buyers have the opportunity to closely examine mollusks, whose appearance can tell a lot.
For example, if the squid pieces were frozen in one layer and covered with a thick crust of ice, this means that they were repeatedly thawed and frozen again. Such manipulations with seafood are fraught with severe poisoning. But even if the unpleasant consequences for the stomach can be avoided, the taste of the dish will be worse than expected, and when cooking the squids will burst.
The meat should be white. The hue of the skin is unimportant - the entire gamut from light lilac to silver gray is considered the norm.
If the slightest doubt arises, ask for a quality certificate, take an interest in the date of seafood production and its catch.
Frozen squids - this is not the product that is worth buying for the future. It is better to cook them on the day of purchase, since a household refrigerator will not provide the optimum freezing temperature. In addition, during transportation from the store to the house, the mollusks will have time to melt slightly, but this is not very good.
How to cook squid: a universal way
It is widely believed that you definitely need to cook squids. The time recommended for this “execution” (you cannot call it any other way) varies within 3-5 minutes. If you ever want to serve wrinkled pieces of rubber on the table, be sure to do so.
After three minutes in boiling water, squids literally become narrower, become very dense, and eating them will be unpleasant.
Boil water in a saucepan. Add a bay leaf, a few peas of black pepper, any herbs and spices that you like. For beauty, you can put red paprika in powder, beetroot juice, turmeric, curry - these components will color the meat. If you plan to use squids in complex dishes, then adding salt is optional.
Dip the thawed squids in boiling water, wait 15-20 seconds and remove. If you cook carcasses, do not immerse them in water all at once, but boil one by one. Before processing the next carcass, wait for the water to boil. Given that each piece takes 15 seconds to prepare, this does not take much time. You can store boiled squid in the refrigerator for two days.
If you did not know all this and, by the time you read our article, have already begun to cook squids, you can, on the contrary, increase the time to 20 minutes. Then the mollusks will again become soft, although reducing their size by half can no longer be avoided, and the taste will not be up to par.
How to defrost and clean squid
Before preparing squid for salad, they need to be thawed and cleaned. You can cook them frozen, but this will increase the cooking time and, accordingly, make seafood “rubber”.
Thaw squid at room temperature. Just leave the carcass outdoors for 1-3 hours. This preserves the maximum of nutrients.
Defrosting in cool (about 20 degrees) water is permissible. But you should not use hot liquid and especially boiling water for this purpose, otherwise the squid fillet will darken, and the taste will deteriorate.
It can be cleaned both before (preferably) and after cooking. Hard plates, transparent cartilage should be removed from the carcass, the tentacles removed and the film removed from the mollusk.
After cooking, it will be easier to make the latter, but an unpleasant odor may appear. And the peel is very bitter and can easily spoil the taste of the dish.
If you clean before cooking, it is more convenient to remove the film with a knife under running water. To simplify the process, first place the carcasses in a liquid heated to 60-70 degrees for five minutes. Then the peel can easily be removed by friction, and the residues can be removed by washing seafood with cold water.
Cooking Salad Squids - Easy Ways
It is not necessary to carry out heat treatment with boiling water before preparing squid for salad. They can be eaten immediately after cleaning, but in general, even for sushi, squid is processed with boiling water. We recommend doing the same.
A universal and quick way: boil the kettle, pour the squids with boiling water, drain the water and sprinkle the clams with vinegar.
Or put chopped squid in a bowl, add salt, pepper (red or black), any spices or herbs of your choice, a tablespoon of lemon juice or wine vinegar. Pour boiling water over the contents of the bowl and drain the water after 5 minutes.
Squid and microwave
Delicious squid from the microwave - a rarity. But this method can help out if there is no stove. For example, if you are preparing a snack at work or in the country. We warn that the first time is unlikely to achieve softness and juiciness of seafood. You will have to try several times, varying the temperature and time in search of their optimal combination.
Cut the squids so that they are halved. Lay on a plate in one layer. Add salt and pepper if desired. Fill the squid with water so that it covers them half. Put the plate in the microwave for 1-4 minutes depending on the power.
You can try boiling squids in your own juice. Also lay them on a plate, sprinkle with oil and lemon juice, sprinkle with spices, but do not add water. Put in the microwave for 1 minute, setting the maximum power.
Rice and Egg Salad
Now that we’ve figured out how to “squid” squids soft, it's time to move on to salad recipes.
For this hearty meal, take 2 medium onions, cut into half rings and place for several minutes in hot water. Prepare half a kilo of squid in any of the ways described above. Straw 2 boiled eggs.
Combine 3 tablespoons of boiled rice, eggs, squid and onions. Salt and pepper to taste, season with mayonnaise.
Grape and cheese salad
This is a more refined salad with squid, and the appearance of the dish should be appropriate. Therefore, take a half bunch of lettuce leaves, chop or chop large, place in a salad bowl and mix with the juice of a quarter of lemon.
Put the squid carcass, sliced in thin strips, 150 grams of raisins and the same amount of feta cheese (or Adyghe) cut into cubes on lettuce leaves . Salt and mix gently, seasoning with olive oil.
Holiday salad
Take 750 grams of squid (already peeled and processed with boiling water). If you cooked seafood without salt, then rub it with carcasses from the inside and cut them into rings. Scalp 3 ripe tomatoes with boiling water, peel and chop finely.
Pour half a glass of olive oil into a stewpan and put the squid with tomatoes. Add 3 chopped cloves of garlic, chopped fresh parsley and 125 ml of dry white wine. Stew under the lid over low heat until soft.
You can decorate the resulting salad with calamari, pitted olives, sliced circles, and parsley leaves.
Diet salad
Cut 2 carcasses of squid, add 1 grated apple and 200 grams of chopped celery stalks to them. Season with sesame oil and soy sauce.
We told how to cook squid for a salad, namely, in the correct observance of this procedure, the main secret of dishes with these clams lies. Now he is known to you. It remains to choose the appropriate salad recipe, of which there are a great many.