Why is boiled squid transparent. How much to cook squid

Squids are a wonderful product with all those magnificent qualities for which seafood is so valued. Healthy, tasty and quite easy to prepare, if you know some features. It is because of the specifics of processing that these marine inhabitants are not very popular in our region. In terms of useful properties, they are in no way inferior to sea fish and lean meat. I propose to learn everything about squids - how much to cook, how to choose, store, etc.

Choosing the Right

To make the dishes tasty, first of all you need to know how to choose the best from what is offered in stores.

The most ideal option is freshly caught squids that have not undergone any processing. They don't look like much from the outside, but they taste great! Yes, and it is difficult to buy such seafood stale - the smell will give out.

Slightly worse - unpeeled frozen carcasses.

When choosing, look at the color of the pulp under the purple outer film - it can be white, pinkish, but by no means yellow.

If the squids are packed in bags, then the quality is easy to determine - if there is a lot of "snow" inside, then these marine inhabitants have been frozen more than once.

In stores you can find already peeled frozen squids. These are better not to buy. Most likely, they were treated with different chemicals to remove the film. And the layer of ice on them is almost always thick (the so-called "glaze") - we buy water at the price of delicacies. Of course, if there are no other options, then this will do, but it is better to look in other stores.

There are also squid tentacles on sale. They usually come unfinished too. An excellent product, but it is better to choose larger ones - with small ones there is too much fuss during pre-treatment.

Preliminary processing

Before proceeding to cooking, squids need to be processed. The essence of the preliminary work can be expressed in a nutshell - we defrost and clean. It is clear that if you are incredibly lucky and the product is bought fresh, then there is no need to defrost. I don’t even dream of such luck - I live very far from the ocean, so defrosting is a mandatory step for me.

It is best to defrost at room temperature. Can be left overnight in the refrigerator. If time is running out, then we place the squids in an airtight bag and put them in warm water. The water temperature should not be higher than 40 degrees!

The next step is cleaning. If you have purchased peeled squid, then you can proceed directly to cooking. Otherwise, pour carcasses or tentacles with boiling water for 30 seconds. We drain the liquid, and directly under running cold water, remove the film with our hands. If you have tentacles, then we also remove the suckers.

The tubes have a chord - a transparent strip similar to plastic or cellophane. We throw it out too. All that's left is pinkish-white meat.

Cooking

How to cook squid so that their meat is tender and soft. It's all about boil time. The secret is simple - do not overexpose them in boiling water.

I met and tried different ways of cooking, differing in small nuances. But I will describe only the one that I use myself. I think it's better to remember one way than several, and then get confused.

Peeled and washed carcasses or tentacles are immersed in already boiling salted water with spices. There should be plenty of water so that when lowered, it does not stop boiling. Take out after 2 minutes! If you overcook for more than 3 minutes, the squid will become tough. If there are a lot of carcasses, then it is better to cook them in batches of 1-2 pieces.

Cooking squid tentacles.
You can also use kitchen helpers. Personally, I really like to cook in a double boiler (I have a special grill in a slow cooker). I pour water, fold the prepared inhabitants of the sea and after 5 minutes everything is ready.

A microwave oven is also used for boiling, but it’s difficult to figure out how many minutes to cook them - both the number of products and the technical characteristics of the microwave oven affect. The average recipe looks like this - we send carcasses to a container with a lid, add a little salt, sprinkle with lemon juice and olive oil. At full power, turn on the microwave for 1-1.5 minutes. It turns out squids cooked in their own juice.

Squids boiled in any of these ways can already be eaten. Cut into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with some delicious sauce and serve. But, of course, it is better to cook something tasty from them - a lot.

Is it possible to store boiled squid

Ideally, boiled fillets, tentacles and rings are used immediately. But storage in the refrigerator for about a day is allowed. Be sure to seal tightly!

In the most extreme case, you can put the product in the freezer. The taste will slightly deteriorate, but within a couple of months it is quite a suitable product.

How to cook a seafood delicacy for salad

Separately, you need to dwell on boiling squid for salad. In principle, any of the methods described above is suitable. But for salads, I cook a little differently. A friend of mine suggested this to me.

In all seafood salad recipes, the latter need to be chopped - into cubes, rings, stripes, etc. I do this, but just before boiling. I put the chopped squids in a colander or a metal sieve with a handle and lower it into boiling salted water for 20 seconds. Then I take it out, rinse it right under a stream of cold water, and soft tender fillet can be sent to the salad.

This simple method saves a lot of time. Seafood is ready in just a minute - no need to fish it out of boiling water, wait until it cools down, etc.

Watch the video. Another way to your piggy bank:

Why are squids bitter

Sometimes cooked squid can have a bitter taste. This happens most often with those bought in a ready-made peeled and frozen form.

There is only one reason - the mismatch of storage conditions. Simply put, defrosting and freezing were performed several times.

Still bitterness may appear if the carcasses were cooked for more than 5 minutes. The meat of these individuals contains a substance that, under the condition of improper boiling technology, when combined with water, gives such an aftertaste.

cooking secrets

In the end, I’ll tell you a few more little tricks, thanks to which squids will always be tasty and soft.

If suddenly you did not manage to take out the squids in time during cooking, that is, you overexposed them in boiling water, then do not rush to pull them out. Boil for another half an hour and only then take it out. Yes, they will greatly decrease in volume, and the taste will not be as rich, but they will definitely not be tough.

What should never be done with squid is defrosting in boiling water. So the product will not turn out soft, but inside it can also be damp. This rule is also the answer to the question of how to cook unpeeled squid. No way! First we defrost, then we clean and only then we cook.

As you can see, there are no difficulties. A little attention and healthy dishes will turn out perfect!

The benefits of squid meat for a modern person living in our country far from the sea are obvious. Meat contains many vitamins and fats that cannot be obtained from other products. If you know how to cook so that they are soft, then you can more often introduce these ingredients into your daily and holiday menu.

Is it possible to cook unpeeled squid

Answering the most popular question of the owners about how to cook unpeeled frozen squids, you must immediately say “no way”. First of all, the carcass must be cleaned, and then boiled. To clean a frozen squid, pour boiling water over it: the skin will quickly shrink and remain under water, just rinse it off. After boiling water, the meat is already half ready, therefore, it is important not to overcook it during further heat treatment.

Cooking squid for salads

Many housewives, after dousing the carcass with boiling water for cleaning, simply leave the meat in the water for another five minutes. Further, the product can not be cooked, it is already ready for processing into a salad. But now it will be necessary to additionally remove the skin, sprinkle the prepared meat with lemon juice. For those who do not like such a minimal processing of seafood, there are two ways to cook squid for salad so that they are soft.

Method number 1

You will need to take a liter of water, add salt and peppercorns to taste, bay leaf. Now lower the carcasses into boiling water and just wait until the water boils again. Then take the meat out immediately.

Method number 2

You can also cook the carcass alternately. This means the meat is dipped into boiling water. Then the hostess needs to count to ten and remove the carcass. Do the same with each product. The advantage of this cooking method is that you can control the cooking process in real time. If the carcass is large or small, then the hostess will be able to reduce the counting time, focusing on a specific situation.

Method number 3

To cook a kilogram of squid, you will need to boil two liters of water. Salt the water well and put the squid carcass. Remove the pan from the heat after half a minute. But leave the squid in the water with the lid closed for another 5-10 minutes.

Method number 4

For this cooking method, you will need a slotted spoon, it will help control the entire process. Salt is added to the water, spices to your taste. Wait until the water boils. Then, using a slotted spoon, lower the squid into the water for five minutes, and take it out after five seconds. When the water boils again, lower the same squid again and quickly get it out. Also do about five times. In such a product you can cook.

Important! In the process, how to cook frozen squid to be soft, not so important spices that are added to the water. But additional spices will give the meat a special flavor. The most commonly used peppercorns, cloves or dried dill, parsley, bay leaf.

How to steam squid

We have already found out how delicate and useful the described product is. But, with proper cooking in water, the meat still loses some of its nutritional properties and fats. To save them to the maximum, you can use the steaming method.

For this method of cooking squid, you need to have either a special steamer or a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Meat in this way is cooked longer than in boiling water: about 10 minutes. But there are a number of advantages to steam cooking. First of all, it is the juiciness and tenderness of squid. Carcasses do not decrease in size as much as when boiling meat in boiling water.

Many housewives advise when cooking squid for salad, immediately cut the carcasses across the fibers into rings or strips. But, it should be borne in mind that then the cooking time in boiling water should be reduced to a minimum: one minute. The smaller the pieces of the product, the faster they cook.

This seafood is very nutritious. Squid meat includes many vitamins and trace elements valuable for humans: vitamins B, C, PP, calcium, iodine, manganese, iron. Properly prepared product is easily digested and has a delicate, pleasant taste.

How to choose and prepare squid for cooking

Fresh squids are rarely found on sale, as a rule, already frozen carcasses arrive on the shelves. What you need to pay attention to when choosing seafood:

the fillet must be white (otherwise the product is spoiled);
skin color can be either greyish-whitish or light pink;
large squids with dense elastic meat are suitable for salad, and small carcasses are ideal for stuffing, as they are tender and soft;
frozen fillet should be easily separated from each other, if the carcasses stick together - they have already been refrozen several times;
eating expired products is dangerous to health, so pay attention to the expiration date.

Before cooking seafood at home, it should be thawed. To do this, the molluscs are placed in a container with cold or warm water (but not hot) and left for a while. After defrosting, the carcasses should be peeled. The easiest way to remove the film is by first dousing the product with boiling water. It is necessary to clean squids not only by removing the skin, but also the insides and bones.

How long to cook squid to be soft

Some housewives do not know how to cook squid properly, so they avoid cooking dishes containing this ingredient. Meanwhile, it is a very simple process that does not require any special skills. The main thing is to prevent prolonged cooking of seafood. If you keep the carcasses in boiling water for longer than the required time, instead of tender and soft meat, you will get tough and tasteless. How many minutes to cook squid? It all depends on how you are going to prepare the product.

Purified

Delicious seafood is prepared very easily and quickly. How to cook peeled squid:

fill the pot with water, wait for it to boil;
add salt, seasonings to the water;
place thawed and peeled clams in boiling water for 2 minutes (the meat should turn white), then drain the water;
if you have overcooked the product, leave the pan on the fire for another 30 minutes - during this time the fillet will become soft again;
after boiling the carcasses, cut them into rings and serve with beer.

Unpeeled

How to cook squid with film? There is no big difference in the method of cooking unpeeled and “naked” carcasses - the difference lies in the time required for cooking. How to boil squid in the skin:

defrost carcasses;
put a pot of water on the stove;
when the liquid begins to boil, add bay leaf, salt, allspice;
lower the carcasses into the pan, turn off the heat and cover the container with a lid so that the steam does not leave it;
after 10 minutes, remove the seafood from the water.

How to cook squid frozen rings

It is more convenient to cook a whole clam than rings, since it will be difficult to quickly remove all the pieces from boiling water. In addition, rings are easier to digest than large carcasses. However, if you have already purchased a sliced \u200b\u200bgoods, there are several ways to cook squid with rings:

First option. Boil water, adding spices to taste. It can be bay leaf, white / black pepper, herbs, etc. On a slotted spoon, dip a couple of rings into boiling water, counting to 10, remove them. So boil all the pieces in turn. Serve the cooked dish chilled.
Second option. Pour all the rings into boiling water, wait a minute and remove the container from the heat. Pieces can be removed from the water after 3 minutes. It is not worth keeping them in the liquid longer, otherwise they will become “rubber”.
Third method. Boil half a liter of water, season it with spices. Send the defrosted rings inside, close the dishes and immediately remove from the stove. Do not open the lid for 5 minutes, after which the dish will be ready to eat.
Fourth way. Fill the multicooker halfway with water, turn on the “Extinguishing” option. Add seasonings (you can use paprika, any pepper, marjoram, cloves, lemon juice, etc.). After the liquid boils, place the rings in the bowl and leave to cook for 1-2 minutes. Their readiness can be recognized by their white color - then the pieces can be removed.

Squid meat is appreciated by many gourmets. It is easy to cook it correctly if you know the main rules of cooking, frying, baking, as well as preliminary preparation. 6 recipes will help you prepare festive and everyday meals with protein-rich seafood.

It is extremely difficult to buy fresh squid in our country. However, you can find frozen carcasses in most supermarkets. Even the most inexperienced chef can cook them, if you know the intricacies of cutting them and, of course, recipes. Even if this is your first experience and you've never known how to cook squid, don't be afraid to try something new.

The first thing to do is to defrost the squids. A quality product is covered with a thin crust of transparent ice. If the carcasses are frozen together and sprinkled with snow, then this indicates a violation of the rules for storage and transportation. The squids themselves should be slightly pinkish on the outside, and the meat should be snow-white. Gray, yellow, purple shades directly indicate that the product has been repeatedly thawed and managed to deteriorate.

Outside, the body of the squid is covered with a thin skin, which must be disposed of. To do this, it is immersed frozen in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. After that, the skin rolls up, like on a blanched tomato, and is easily separated from the meat. Then the carcasses are cleaned from the insides.

Before further cooking, place the cleaned meat in clean water for 1 hour. Then rinse. This will help eliminate the risk of an unpleasant ammonia smell during cooking.

How to cook squid

Where squid are caught, fishermen on the shore traditionally cook their catch by roasting on coals or a grill, and also boil fish soup from it. At home, we use other seafood processing technologies. Consider 5 ways to cook squid tasty and easy.

Cooking

The main thing with this method is not to overexpose the meat in boiling water, as it instantly acquires the consistency of rubber, decreases in size, and it will no longer be possible to call it tasty. Peeled carcasses are boiled for a maximum of 3 minutes. At the same time, they throw it only into boiling water. It is best to do this with a watch in front of your eyes, because after 3 minutes the result will be disastrous.

To the question of how to cook frozen squids, there is only one answer: no way. With ice cream, they are only thrown into boiling water to remove the skin. Next, the carcasses are thoroughly washed, cut. In further cooking, they participate, already being soft.

frying

In a frying pan, the cooking time for squid is a little longer. But even in this case, it is impossible to step over the limit barrier of 7 minutes. That is how much meat is cooked in boiling oil. Preliminarily neatly cut rings or strips, carefully prepared, already without skin, are thrown into the pan.

Extinguishing

Under a closed lid, stew squid, as well as fry, can be no longer than 7 minutes. Otherwise, their meat will be hopelessly spoiled. The goal of the cook is to preserve a delicate, slightly sweet taste, which is easily lost if cooked for too long.

If vegetables, mushrooms and other products are to be cooked with it, then the time spent in the stewpan of seafood is always carefully noted, which, at the signal of the timer, must be put on a plate and served immediately.

baking

Baking squid in the oven is seriously different from other methods. Since it is impossible to achieve the readiness of stuffed carcasses in 3 minutes, the second method is used - long-term heat treatment. After 40 minutes, the meat will regain the necessary tenderness, so for such dishes, the reference cooking time is 40 minutes or longer.

Cooking in a multicooker

Many housewives love recipes for multicookers. You can set the temperature regime, time with great accuracy and not be afraid that the dish will burn or “run away”. Since the apparatus operates with the lid closed and steam pressure is created inside, the time for the squid to reach readiness is less than when baking - only 20 minutes. It is not recommended to exceed it.

In many stores you can buy dried and dried squid. Pizzas are prepared with these nutritious seafood, as well as all kinds of salads. Over time, you will learn how to properly combine various products with squid meat, forming your own "base" of recipes. We will start with the simplest and most time-tested.

Calamari in batter

How to cook squid by frying? The whole secret of this dish lies in the composition of the batter. There are many variations on this theme. Here are just a few of them.

Mix 1 egg with a few drops of lemon juice and a tablespoon of flour.
Beat 100 ml of beer with a tablespoon of breadcrumbs, 1/2 teaspoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour.
Fry half of a finely chopped onion, mix with 1 teaspoon of finely chopped parsley with green onions, an egg and a teaspoon of breadcrumbs.

Pepper, salt batter is always necessary, focusing on your preferences. Its consistency can also be different. Some people like it thinner, others like it thicker. The main thing is that when immersing rings or strips of squid, the mixture should well envelop each piece.

The meat is pre-boiled in boiling salted water for no longer than 3 minutes. Then they chill. Next, the entire volume of meat is immediately loaded into the prepared batter and mixed thoroughly. After each piece is lowered into a frying pan with boiling oil and fried until golden brown, stirring constantly.

The finished dish is unloaded on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve immediately, while the batter is still crispy.

Calamari stuffed with meat

Since the squid carcass after cleaning is an ideal bag, it is often used just like that - for stuffing. Pork, beef, chicken - any filling will be good, the main thing is that it is minced meat.

The filling must be cooked - it should not be raw. To do this, the minced meat is fried in advance in a pan with the addition of onions, tomato sauce, herbs. Instead of salt, it is better to use a tablespoon of soy sauce. Then the filling must be cooled. At this time, squids are cleaned and boiled for 3 minutes. Now they can be stuffed.

Stuffed carcasses are baked in the oven at a temperature of 250 ° C for 15-20 minutes. No need to wait for the appearance of a golden crust, instead it is better to sprinkle the dish with spices: red pepper, turmeric. Instead of baking, you can use frying, then the cooking time is 3 minutes on each side.

When baking, stuffed carcasses need to be pierced with a toothpick in several places so that the meat juice can freely flow out without tearing the squid.

This dish is called a cocktail, because it usually includes all available seafood. Most often, squid and shrimp are on hand, so the recipe with them is considered a classic. However, you can add octopuses, mussels, and crabs to the salad.

We will need:

shrimp - 300 g;
squid - 250 g;
eggs - 5 pcs.;
olives - 180 g;
greens.

Boil the shrimp until tender and carefully remove the shells. Then boil the squids, cut into rings or strips, for 3 minutes. Eggs must be hard-boiled (boiling time - 12 minutes). Olives are cut into halves, and if very large - into rings. Finely chop the greens, sprinkle with salt and your favorite spices. We mix all the ingredients.

Mayonnaise, soy sauce, sour cream, matsoni are suitable as dressings.

Calamari rings in sauce

Boiled squid rings are delicious on their own. Therefore, they can be consumed immediately, seasoned with a suitable sauce. Here is one of the recipes.

Components:

mayonnaise - 100 g;
sour cream - 100 g;
garlic - 3 cloves;
greens;
roasted pine nuts;
black pepper;
sesame - 10 g.

We mix all the ingredients thoroughly, rub the garlic on a grater, finely chop the greens. Lubricate the squid with a fragrant mixture, serve. The peculiarity of this sauce is that it is stored for a short time, so it is not worth harvesting for the future, it is advisable to use it within a day.

The festive recipe will not leave anyone indifferent.

We will need, in addition to 400 g of squid:

1 medium carrot;
1 small onion;
1 tablespoon sesame;
2 teaspoons of vinegar;
1 teaspoon of sugar;
0.5 teaspoon of paprika, black and red pepper, coriander;
2 cloves of garlic;
greens.

Cut the squid into rings and boil for 3 minutes. Then we put it in a glass container, adding carrots cut into thin strips. Sprinkle with sugar and spices, salt, pour vinegar. In a frying pan, fry the onion rings along with sesame seeds. Three garlic on a grater. We mix all the ingredients and leave the salad in the refrigerator for at least 7 hours.

When serving, be sure to sprinkle with finely chopped herbs.

Risotto with squid

This traditional Italian dish is prepared quickly and has excellent taste.

We will need:

squid (pre-boiled 3 minutes) - 500 g;
rice - 200 g;
bell pepper - 2 pcs.;
tomato paste - 2 tablespoons;
onion - 1 pc.;
butter - 2 tablespoons;
basil (or zira) - 1 teaspoon.

In a hot frying pan, heat the butter along with the diced bell pepper and finely chopped onion. After the pepper becomes soft, add the tomato paste and pour all the rice. Fry everything together for another couple of minutes, and then pour a glass of boiling water and cover with a lid.

Simmer until the rice is cooked, adding water from time to time. After that, add squid to the risotto, salt and pepper, add basil or cumin.

Secrets and tricks of cooking squid

There are a few subtleties that chefs are well aware of, but it won’t hurt us to adopt the following nuances.

It is best to buy carcasses with skins, as factory cleaning involves mandatory heat treatment. There is a risk of getting tough meat.
Freshly frozen seafood is stored in the freezer for 1 month.
The most delicious squids are small, they have more tender meat.
You can also cook meat on the grill - the roasting time on each side is only 1.5 minutes. After removing from heat, salt and pepper, and you can eat.

Conclusion

Knowing how to cook squid, you can be sure that for the festive table you will always have a win-win recipe in stock, it is enough to have seafood in the freezer. The beauty of tender meat is that it cooks very quickly. Following the simplest instructions, you can please your loved ones with a dish that is not inferior to the masterpieces of the chefs of expensive restaurants.

Meat squid low-fat, and at the same time very nutritious, containing a large amount of minerals, vitamins and trace elements. Basically, its torso is used, but it happens that tentacles are also used. Squid meat in terms of protein content, vitamins B6 and PP is superior to fish meat, and squid fats are valuable as essential polyunsaturated fats. The meat of these cephalopods contains phosphorus, iron, copper and iodine. There are also few calories in squid - 135 per 100 grams of boiled meat. Taurine present in squid helps lower cholesterol. Knowing how to cook squid correctly, you can cook a variety of delicious dishes that are easily absorbed by the body.On sale, squid meat is found in canned and frozen form. And if in the first case it is enough just to pay attention to the date of manufacture of the seafood, the expiration date and the integrity of the package, then you should be much more careful with frozen squid.The fact is that shellfish, which were thawed for one reason or another, and then re-frozen, are bitter, and spread during cooking. In order not to inadvertently purchase a low-quality product in the store, you need to see if the carcasses stick together. Squids stuck together in one lump indicate that they had previously been defrosted. If, on the contrary, they are easily separated from each other, then the meat has not been re-frozen.The skin of squid can be of different colors, from light gray to dark purple, but the meat itself must be only white. If its color is different from white, then this speaks eloquently of defrosting, during which the meat has absorbed the color of the film. The taste of such seafood can be greatly spoiled.

How to properly clean squid

Most people are sure that cleaning squid is a troublesome and unpleasant task, however, if you know some of the subtleties, this is not at all the case.In order to quickly and without any problems clean the squid from the film, it is necessary to put them in a frozen state in a deep bowl and pour boiling water over them. Almost all of the skin will immediately curl up and move away from the meat. Boiling water must be immediately drained and the carcasses cleaned of the remaining film under running water. Then you should carefully remove the transparent spine-chord and the insides. Now the squids are ready for further cooking.

How much to cook squid

Squids can be boiled both in water and steamed. Many do not know how to properly cook squid so that they maximize their taste. So, in order to boil carcasses in water, it is necessary to put already cleaned and prepared meat in boiling salted water (2 liters of water and a large pinch of salt are required for 1 kg of squid).

How long to cook squid in time depends, first of all, on the method of heat treatment of the meat of this seafood you have chosen.

After 15 seconds, take out the squids, let them drain. With longer cooking, their meat turns out to be too hard and dry, a significant part of the nutrients is lost. Spices can be added to the water: bay leaf, black allspice, white pepper.

Also, squids can be poached, that is, cooked in a small amount of liquid at a temperature just below the boiling point. The container must be tightly closed. To do this, place the squid carcasses in a saucepan in one row, add hot salted water or broth (at the rate of 0.5 liters of liquid per 1 kg of meat), close the lid tightly and stew for 5 minutes. With this method of cooking, more nutrients are retained than in the cooking process.

You can also steam squid. To do this, you need to have dishes with a tight-fitting lid or a special steamer. In this case, the meat will be cooked longer than in boiling water, and it will take about 5-7 minutes to fully cook. This method has a number of advantages: squids are more juicy and tender, in addition, carcasses do not decrease in size as much as when cooked or poached.

Turns out very tastysalad with squid, and for its preparation, as, indeed, for other dishes from this seafood, the meat must be cut across the fibers. How to cook squid for salad? Here are some tricks and if you do not know them, then you can spoil the whole dish. The squid meat will become tough and rubbery. In order for squid meat to become soft, you need to know how much to cook squid for salad. Place the squid in a pot of boiling water. Salt the water, you can add spices if desired. Keep the squid in boiling water for 30 seconds, then turn off the water, cover the pan with a lid and leave for five minutes. One of the rules for boiling squid for salad is to put it only in boiling water and cook no more than three minutes. And if you want, you can use the method above. This seafood makes delicious salads, meatballs, meatballs, meatballs, minced meat for a wide variety of snacks.

Knowing how to cook squid correctly, you can diversify your menu with a tasty and healthy product!

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