There are plenty of reasons to include squid in the list of everyday products: all kinds of salads, hot and spicy appetizers are prepared from these inexpensive seafood, they are made into side dishes, they are actively used in main courses, added to rice, pasta, fried in batter, stewed in sauce. The neutral taste allows you to combine shellfish with various ingredients, obtaining unusual and quite traditional flavor bouquets. But, despite the obvious advantages, not all housewives take up the task of cooking squid, fearing that after cooking they will become tough, tasteless, as if rubbery. This can only happen if the seafood is not cooked correctly. The final result depends on the duration of cooking - if you overdo it with heat treatment, the squid will be dense and tough. Properly cooked, they remain soft and tender, and you can fully enjoy delicious squid dishes.
Ingredients:
- unpeeled squid carcasses – 5-6 pieces,
- water – 500 ml,
- salt – 0.5 tbsp. l,
- allspice (cayenne) pepper – 4-5 peas,
- bay leaf - 2 small leaves.
How to cook squid so that it is soft
Before cooking, seafood must be thawed and cleaned. Under no circumstances should we speed up the thawing process with hot water or a microwave - the water will go away along with the juice, and the squid will become tough. Place in a bowl and let thaw at room temperature or on the refrigerator shelf. After defrosting, we begin cleaning. To easily remove the thin top film from the squid, we will treat them in the same way as tomatoes. Transfer to a deep, large bowl. Boil water in a kettle, pour in the squid and leave for one minute.
Drain the cloudy water. Immediately place the bowl of squid under a stream of very cold water. After a sharp change in temperature, the skin rolls up and is removed in a few seconds.
To cook, pour half a liter of water and heat. Throw in laurel leaves and allspice peas. Let the aromatic mixture boil and cook for two minutes.
Add salt to the water with spices and dissolve. Reduce the heat to medium.
Place the squid one carcass at a time and wait for the water to boil again. Reduce heat to low. We time it exactly two minutes. After boiling the squid for the specified time, drain the broth and immerse it in cold water to stop heating.
After cooking, we clean the carcasses from any remaining entrails. We make a longitudinal cut on one side and unfold it. Using a knife, carefully scrape the inside and rinse the cleaned squid under cold water.
We cut according to the recipe: into thin strips, pieces, cubes.
Squids cooked according to all the rules will turn out juicy and soft. The slices can be used in preparing appetizers, salads and all kinds of dishes with squid.
Bon appetit!
