How to clean frozen squid. Cleaning whole frozen carcasses

Seafood in general and squid in particular are extremely healthy. But how to choose a really healthy seafood? How to clean squid and boil? Let's try to understand the review.

If you want to buy a "not troublesome" product - buy peeled squid. But if you need tasty and healthy seafood, choose only unpeeled carcasses.

On the Russian market about ten types of squid are represented in seafood, but only a few of them deserve attention. One of the best is the Commander squid. Appearance: unpeeled carcass. Length: 35 cm. Skin color: gray with purple, uneven. Supplier: Russia.

The Patagonian squid is also highly valued. Appearance: unpeeled carcass 2-23 cm long. Skin color: red-brown, brown, uneven. Supplier: Spain.

In general, the color of squid depends on the type of cephalopod and can be grayish white (but not gray), pink, blue, purple.

How to choose chilled and frozen squids?

Important: the younger the squid, the more tender its meat. Choose small carcasses.

What to look for when choosing chilled squids:

The carcass is dense and elastic.
Squids must have a chitinous chord (spine).
Smell: fresh fish. A slight smell of ammonia may be present.

What to look for when choosing frozen squid:

The amount of ice on the carcass - 8% of total weight cephalopod.
Frozen carcasses are easily separated from each other.
The color of the meat under the skin is only white!
The skin is intact, without obvious damage.

Do I need to clean squid before cooking?

Answer: yes. During cooking, unpeeled skin can add bitterness to squid meat.

How to easily and quickly clean fresh and thawed squid at home?

Procedure for cleaning fresh/chilled squid:

Lay the squid on a work surface.

Grab the clam's head just behind the eyes (where it joins the mantle). Pull your head forward, tearing the ligaments. The insides should slide out. Be careful not to damage the ink bag (sepia).

Feel for the chitin chord inside the mantle and remove it.

Remove the top film by carefully prying it off with a knife.

Rinse, if necessary, divide into portions.

Cut off the tentacles of the clam and fold them separately. Remove the squid's beak between the tentacles. Pour boiling water over the tentacles and transfer to ice water. Rinse, rubbing thoroughly with your fingers to remove thin skins.

The procedure for cleaning defrosted squids:

Important: frozen squid should be thawed by placing them in cold water.

Pour the carcasses of a few melted squids with boiling water. Leave for 30-60 s.
Remove squid from boiling water and place in ice water. From a sharp temperature drop, the skin peels off by itself.

Rinse the squids under running water, washing away any remaining skin.

Correctly and quickly clean the squid carcass?

This was discussed in detail in the previous part of the review.

Correctly and quickly clean the squid tentacles?

See the previous part of the review.

How to properly clean frozen squid from the film?

The test above is the most common way to clean frozen squid.

At the end of the article, you can watch a video with a master class on cleaning squid from chef Ilya Lazerson.

How to clean squid after cooking?

Squids are best cleaned before cooking, as the unpeeled film gives a bitter taste. boiled meat squid.

How to store peeled squid?

Squids are perishable products.

Purified raw squid can be stored in the refrigerator compartment at a temperature of 0 to +4⁰С for about 48 hours.

The shelf life of boiled squid should not exceed 12 hours. They should be stored in hermetically sealed packaging.

How to cook peeled squid in water after boiling for a salad and how much?

Squids are boiled in one or two carcasses to prevent the digestion of seafood.
Spices and seasonings that are used in the preparation of squid: salt, peppercorns, dill. You can also add basil or parsley if you like.
Pour 1.5-2 liters of water into the pan, add spices and salt, bring to a boil.
Place the peeled squid carcasses in boiling water. Cooking time: 2 min.
Take the seafood out of the water and put in the next batch. Ready seafood should be cooled immediately.

Important: if you cook a lot of shellfish, add water, salt and spices from time to time.

Chef Ilya Lazerson offers an interesting way to clean and cook squid. A detailed master class can be viewed in the video at the end of the article.

Video: Squid salad in two ways. Lazerson

Lots of original recipes seafood dishes remain unused if the hostess does not know how to clean squid at home correctly and quickly. But you only need to decide on an experiment once and learn a simple process. In the future, a healthy and nutritious squid will become the best part variety of salads, will decorate the table fried, boiled, stewed or pickled.

A smart choice is the key to success

In order to get a tasty and healthy seafood on the table, you need to choose it correctly in the store. It depends on how easy the films are to be cleaned and how tender the cooked meat is. It is not recommended to buy peeled squids, since some of the nutrients have already been lost, and the taste will be much worse.

You need to choose not large individuals, but smaller ones. Then you can avoid the effect rubber meat the skins will peel off easily.
If frozen squids were stored with violations and have already been thawed, they will be bitter when cooked, so you only need to pick up carcasses that have not stuck together.
It is necessary to ensure that the meat under the film is white. If a temperature regime not supported, it will become the color of the film - bluish or pinkish.

Sometimes the carcasses lie on the display case for a sufficient time to change the taste. To be sure of the correct storage, offer the seller to serve you carcasses from the briquette. If you are refused under the pretext that they "do not tear off", then such a product does not suit you, you need to purchase properly frozen squids.
Before cooking, the meat must be kept frozen, then taste qualities will be preserved and will be easy to clean.

How to remove the film from frozen squid?

The process is incredibly simple.

Prepare a pot of boiling water.
Take the squid out freezer and put them in a bowl.
Pour boiling water over seafood. At the same time, almost all of the skin will come off on its own.
Immediately quickly drain the hot water and rinse the contents of the bowl under running water, carefully peeling off the remaining film. It is better to act quickly, otherwise squids cook very quickly and can even be cooked if they are not removed from boiling water in time.
It remains only to remove the insides and the flexible spine.

Is it possible to remove the film from defrosted meat?

There are situations when squids get home already defrosted. summer heat and unforeseen delays along the way should not prevent you from preparing a delicious dish. To do this, you need to perform the following algorithm.

Prepare a pot of boiling water and seasonings (salt, Bay leaf and pepper).
Cut the carcass lengthwise and remove the insides.
Rinse the meat well.
Boil carcasses in seasoned boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
Take out the squid. In this case, the films will remain in the water, calving themselves.

How to work with chilled squids?

If the squids were just recently taken from the seabed and they fell into your hands chilled, this is a great success. The meat will be the most delicious and nutritious. However, the difference will be in the presence of the head and tentacles. Squids will have to be cleaned on their own at home. If the head needs to be permanently removed, the tentacles can be eaten. They are cut off at the very eyes. There is also a film on them, the principle of working with it is the same as for a whole carcass.

And to clean the skins, you need to perform a number of simple steps.

Prepare a pot of boiling water.
Put the squids with the insides and the chord already removed in a colander, pour boiling water over, and then immediately cold water.
Pull the skin from the larger part to the thin one, just scrape off the wings.
Treat the tentacles in the same way. The only difference is that it will be even easier to remove the film, it will practically come off by itself under the action of boiling water.

Ready-made squid carcasses can be cooked most different ways. They can be boiled for several minutes on high heat or forty minutes on low heat. You can fry thin rings separately and with vegetables. They are delicious if the meat is marinated, stuffed, stewed and baked. In this business, the main thing is to precisely control the process so as not to overdo it with heat treatment: no one likes tough meat with a rubbery taste. The time that the carcasses spent under boiling water also counts.

You have to be careful when filming. Both colored and transparent are subject to removal. If you leave a piece and cook meat with it, the piece will be hard and compressed. Properly processed seafood will become a real delicacy that can become gourmet dish haute cuisine cooked at home.

If you want to pamper your family with something tasty, nutritious, healthy and unusual, then it is likely that your choice will be squid. This once exotic mollusk began to appear more and more often on the tables of our compatriots. But whoever tried to cook them at least once was faced with the question of how to clean squids? If you do it incorrectly, it may take a lot of effort and time, as a result, the desire to cook them again will disappear. But if you know some of the nuances, cleaning will not give you much trouble. So let's get started.

To be easy to clean, you need to choose the right

If the product is fresh, then it will not be difficult to quickly clean the squid. The film that covers it easily leaves the entire surface of the mollusk, like a stocking. But usually in the store you can find only frozen squid. And, so that there are no problems with cleaning and cooking, you need to be able to choose them correctly.

The product must not be defrosted. This is a very important requirement. If squids have been re-frozen, this not only makes it difficult to clean them, but also affects their taste.

To check this in the store, you can pay attention to several factors:

squids should not stick to each other. If the seller cannot separate the shellfish carcasses from each other, this means that the product has been re-frozen.
the color of the meat should be white. If the meat has a reddish or bluish tint, this indicates that when it is thawed, it has adopted this color from the skin.

Well, do not forget that at home they should be stored in the freezer, and do not defrost before cooking.

Quickly clean squids

To properly clean the squid, you need to put the frozen carcasses first in boiling water, and then immediately in cold water. From the high temperature, the skin will easily move away from the meat and it will not be difficult for you to remove it. But be careful not to overexpose hot water, otherwise the meat may be cooked, and then it will be more difficult to clean the squid. In addition to the skin, you need to clean the insides and the chord (the soft backbone of the mollusks).

To make the dish tasty, you need the squid to be soft. Those who tried to cook it at least once noticed that sometimes the meat is harsh. To avoid this, do not overcook the squid. The best way to cook is to dip in boiling water for 15 seconds. This will give the meat tenderness. Only if the squid is cooked together with other products, such as vegetables, in pilaf, or as part of a sauce, the cooking time may be longer. Some chefs advise adding half a lemon or a bag of black tea to the water where you will boil the squid. This will add more flavor to the dish.

There are a lot of squid dishes. You can stuff them, you can bake or just boil them. The main thing is that it is healthy, dietary and nutritious meat.

So now, if you decide to surprise your loved ones with a gourmet clam dish, it will not be difficult for you to quickly clean the squids.

Squid is a fairly popular seafood from which you can cook a lot. delicious meals, but in order for it to turn out juicy, tasty and soft, it must be subjected to proper heat treatment, so consider how to properly clean the squid from the film, as well as how and how much time they need to be cooked until fully cooked, but at the same time so that they remain soft and not digested.

How to easily and quickly clean squid at home

Often on sale you can find fresh frozen squid, from which many are cooked. popular dishes at home (eg. sea salad with squid). In order for the cooked squid meat to be soft and tender, it is better to remove the film from it, which, if you do not know certain tricks, is not so easy to separate from the carcass. Consider how you can clean frozen squid carcasses from the film, giving them heat treatment and without it, as well as how to properly clean a whole squid, but before that, how many minutes to defrost squid.

How long to defrost squid?

For many products, including squid, gradual defrosting is desirable, so if you intend to cook a squid dish, it is better to defrost squid carcasses in advance by moving them from the freezer to the usual compartment of the refrigerator for food or leaving them in a bowl of cold water at room temperature.

You can defrost squid more fast way by placing them in the microwave on defrost, but if you don't have microwave oven, then defrosting squid must be taken care of in advance, using the advice presented above.

Important: you can not defrost squids by pouring them hot water or boiling water, so as not to spoil their useful and taste qualities.

Whole Squid Cleaning Sequence

True connoisseurs of seafood will not hesitate to say that it is better to buy whole squid, rather than ready-made butchered carcasses, since in factories, during the cleaning process, whole squid is subjected to mechanical and thermal processing, which loses some of its useful properties, and processed meat will not work cook very tender and tasty. In many supermarkets, you can not always find whole squids, but if you can find them, then turn your attention to them, and not frozen and cleaned clams.

Cleaning a whole squid can be divided into several stages, so consider them in more detail:

A whole squid carcass is taken (if it was frozen, it must be thawed in advance).
With one hand we take the squid carcass (the part without eyes and tentacles), and with the other by the squid head behind the eyes and smoothly separate the head from the main carcass.
We clean (squeeze out) the insides from the carcass, and also take out the chitin plate.
We cut off the tentacles from the head (it is important not to cut off the small squid beak along with them, which is quite sharp), which can also be used to prepare delicious dishes.
Under running water, gently prying with nails or a knife, remove the skin (film) from the carcass.
We wash the cleaned squid fillet well inside and out.

If you bought frozen squid carcasses already cleaned from tentacles and heads, then they will still need to be cleaned at home from the skin and film, as well as from possible remnants of the insides. There are several ways to clean squid from the film: by treating them with boiling water and without heat treatment.

How to clean squid from a film without heat treatment

According to many squid lovers, this method is the best, because during cleaning, squid undergoes less heat treatment (unlike the method when boiling water is poured over it for easier cleaning) and its meat remains more tender and soft after cooking.

The process of cleaning squid takes place in the following sequence:

The first step is to remove the skin from the carcass by prying it with a fingernail or knife, while it is easier to peel off if the squid was not completely defrosted.
Next, it is important to carefully remove the film from the squid fillet, which is also hooked and torn off in parts from the carcass.
In conclusion, the squid meat is washed well under running cold water (outside and inside), carefully examining each carcass so that there are no small film residues on it. If there are any, it is better to remove them.

As you can see, it is not difficult to clean a squid carcass and it will take only a few minutes in time. To clearly see how squids are cleaned, you can watch the video below:

How to clean a squid from a film by scalding it with boiling water

The fastest and in a simple way cleaning squid carcasses from the skin and film is their scalding with boiling water, after which the film is much easier to remove:

We prepare cold water and boiling water in advance.
We take out the chitinous plate inside from the squid.
In a separate container (deep plate or saucepan), pour boiling water over the squid carcasses, after which we immediately transfer them to a container with cold water. From the rapid temperature difference, the skin will peel off and be removed much easier.
The film is removed from the squid by hand, after which the cleaned fillet is washed under cold running water.

A more illustrative example of a quick cleaning of squid using its heat treatment will be the video below:

How long does it take to cook squids so that they are soft and tasty?

How and how much squid will be cooked depends on their softness. If the squid fillet is overcooked, it will turn out to be very tough and unpleasant to eat, so let's look at some of the most popular ways to cook squid, in which it turns out soft and juicy.

How to cook frozen squid?

You can cook squid without defrosting (the main thing is that they have already been cleaned before). The sequence of cooking frozen squid carcasses is as follows:

Pour water into a saucepan so that all the squids fit in it and bring to a boil.
Salt to taste, and if desired, add spices and bay leaf.
We put the squid carcasses in boiling water and detect for 1-1.5 minutes, after which we set the pan off the heat and cover with a lid. In this state, leave the squid to languish for 10 minutes.

Standard cooking squid (carcass, squid rings) for salad and other dishes

Is taken large saucepan so that all the squids that we will cook can fit in it, water is poured and brought to a boil. Thawed and peeled squids are placed in boiling water for 1-2 minutes (previously salt the water and add spices to taste), after which the pan is removed from the heat, and the squids are left inside in boiling water so that they cool down with water gradually. We are waiting for the complete cooling of the squid in the water.

How to quickly boil squid?

For use in many recipes, you can use the express cooking of squids, in which they practically do not decrease in size and remain soft and juicy:

Boil water in a saucepan and add salt and spices (bay leaf, black pepper, parsley, dill, etc.) to it.
After the water boils, add the peeled squids for 30-40 seconds, after which we immediately take them out of the boiling water.

We also watch a video on how to quickly and easily boil squid:

How to cook squid in a slow cooker?

Pour water into the multicooker.
We set the mode "Cooking".
Add spices and salt to your taste.
After boiling water, place rings or whole squid carcasses inside.
We cook them for 1.5-2 minutes, after which we turn off the slow cooker, but we don’t get the squids for 3-5 minutes so that they “reach”.

How to cook squid in a double boiler?

Pour water into a special section of the steamer.
We lay out the squids in a single layer on a special grill in it.
We leave the squids to cook for 6-8 minutes under steam.

The golden rule for how long to cook squid

Squid should never be boiled for more than two minutes, ideally a squid boil time of one and a half minutes (in the range of 1-2 minutes). If the squid is cooked more than this time, then it will be tough, and the carcass itself will decrease in size.

If you still accidentally digested squid, then we read below what to do in this case.

What to do if the squids are overcooked and become tough?

Oddly enough, overcooked squids, so that they are not tough, must be additionally boiled well. We put them in boiling water and cook on low heat for 30-60 minutes. After such additional cooking, the squid will become soft, but at the same time it will greatly boil down (reduce in size) and lose the main beneficial features.

In conclusion to the article, it can be noted that tips on how to properly cook squid so that they are soft, as well as how to quickly clean squid from the film before and after cooking, will definitely come in handy in every home, because many delicious dishes can be prepared from this seafood, while it cooks and cooks very quickly. Leave your advice and feedback, how long (minutes) to cook squid so that they are cooked and soft, leave in the comments to the article and share it in in social networks if it was helpful to you.

The squid is very valuable and delicious seafood. It will perfectly diversify the usual diet of your family. Many housewives do not want cook squid, assuming that clean the squid very hard. But we will prove to you that this is not the case. And when you do the cleaning, you can decide what to cook for you. Calamari can be boiled and cooked various salads, all kinds of snacks. Also, squids are fried, stewed, marinated, stuffed, dried, smoked and minced meat is prepared from them.

But how to properly clean squid?

1 Let's take as a basis the most difficult situation - you bought a whole squid. You can easily determine where the carcass has a head - it has tentacles. Grab the head with your hand and, holding the body of the squid, pull it towards you. So you can easily remove the insides. You also need to remove the chitinous plate, which is something like a hard plastic spaghetti, but flat. It is easily groped inside the carcass and no less easily removed. At the head, cut off the tentacles near the eyes. Carcasses are often sold with heads already removed. In this case, just remove all the insides. If you come across gutted carcasses, then the work will be half as much.

2 Now let's move on to removing the films. Remove both color film and transparencies, both inside and out. It is transparent films that become very rigid during heat treatment, and the whole squid carcass shrinks, which is undesirable when preparing stuffed squids. If the squid is fresh, then the film comes off by itself in one go. But if the squids were bought frozen, then everything is not so simple. We will tell you how to quickly and easily clean squid. First way(if the squids are already thawed). Take 2 containers. Fill one with ice water (use ice). And put the squid in the other. Scald the carcasses with boiling water and quickly transfer them to ice water. Now it's easy to remove the films. Do not overcook the squid in boiling water so that they simply do not cook. Dry the carcasses well before cooking. Second way. Scald frozen squids with boiling water and immediately drain the water. The peel instantly curls up and you can easily remove it.

How to cook squid

Squid meat, completely cleaned of all films, is quite tender and soft. Cooking squid can be done in two different ways. You can cook over high heat for 1.5-3 minutes (as soon as the squid meat turns white, immediately pull it out). Or cook on low heat for 40 minutes. You can fry squid rings on very high heat for 5-7 minutes with additives (fried vegetables, for example) and up to 3 minutes without additives, or simmer on low heat for 40 minutes. If you want to cook stuffed squid, then fill the carcasses, or with the already prepared filling and just fry on both sides until cooked. Or fill the stuffed carcasses with liquid and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Sometimes squids are baked in the oven. The main thing is not to overexpose the squids on fire, otherwise their meat will become "rubber" and tasteless, although this situation can be corrected by putting out the squids longer. If you have cleaned the calamari as above, the cooking time may be shortened due to scalding.