How and how much to cook squid: cook dinner in 5 minutes

Enthusiasm for preparing salad from squid can easily change to a small nervous breakdown if you do not know how much to cook squid and how to do it properly so as not to kill the whole evening onthe creation of just one, as it turns out, a tasteless dish. Avoiding pitfalls is easier than it may seem: be prepared to learn how you can tame these shellfish in just 5 minutes!

Product selection

Squids are one of the few products that are equally popular with both nutritionists and amateurs of mayonnaise salads. Being a practically dietary seafood with a minimum amount of fats with a high protein content, the squid is perfect for athletes and those who want to lose weight. But a rare festive table does without his participation, what can we say about delicious squid rings in battered or squid grilled beer at a picnic. It is not surprising that with such a wide range of dishes and an acceptable price, this shellfish is bought extremely often, but do you really think about what kind of carcasses it is better to buy?

Unfortunately, in the Russian market, the squid is mostly frozen, which means that judging the freshness of the product in appearance and smell is problematic. Color of the skin, too, will be able to tell about the quality: within the limits of the norm it can be of various shades of pink and purple. The only thing that really helps you to buy a better product is the compliance of the freezing standards. If the carcasses are not stuck together in the package, and when you buy by weight the seller does not have to pick them off with a knife from the almost monolithic block, then your chances for a tasty supper increase: such squids have not been repeatedly re-frozen, which has preserved not only their taste qualities, but also the wall strengthcarcasses for stuffing without fear of tears. By the way, quality freezing can also save your stomach: the product, thawed and re-frozen even once, can no longer be guaranteed to be safe for your digestive system.

Advice

It is believed that pre-cleaned frozen squid is a bad choice because they have already been subjected to heat treatment, and also because it is impossible to judge their freshness on the skin. In fact, everything is not so scary: shorten the cooking time a little and pay attention to how they are frozen, so that the dish is not only quick, but also delicious.

Pre-defrosting

Without defrosting, only cleaned frozen squid can be welded. With the carcasses in the skin this trick may not work: at best, the skin will stain white meat in an unappetizing purple hue, and at worst - the insides, which are often poorly removed from the carcasses, will give the meat a bitter taste. Therefore, before cooking it is important to defrost the shellfish. But just do not do it with the help of express methods: a microwave oven or placing a packet in warm water is also a heat treatment that will interfere with your calculations when cooking, where, as you will soon learn, it goes for seconds.

Advice

If you are going to cook peeled squid without defrosting, lower the carcasses into boiling water, cook them for 3-4 minutes, and then leave in hot water on the switched off stove for another 10.

Quick cleaning

When in the 90s the squid appearedin free access, and the Internet, to find out about all the intricacies of their preparation, was not yet, the landlady had to get to the truth by experience. Perhaps some representatives of the old school still do not have this wonderful knowledge, but for you it will no longer be a secret: to save time and keep the nerves squid need to be showered with boiling water. The habitat of squid does not have such high temperatures, therefore, when it comes into contact with hot water, the skins curl, instantly welded. This fact is also significant in the question of how to properly cook squid, but more on this later.

Probably, this way of cleaning will seem barbarian inhabitants of the Mediterranean or real gourmets and connoisseurs, but the cold method of skinning according to the stocking principle is not at all suitable for frozen squid. You can pick up the skin and remove it in one motion only with a chilled fresh shellfish or with very good quality freezing. In our case, it is better to first arm ourselves with a bowl and a kettle, and not with a knife.

So, first, pull the inside of the carcass and the ridge out of the carcass so that they do not stain the meat and give it an unpleasant aftertaste. And then you have two options.

1. Pour the carcasses with hot water in a bowl and after a few seconds drain the water. Plus the way: with short-term heat processing, the meat will not color. Less way: the skin can not fold in some places or curl up insufficiently to brush the carcass easily.
2. Boil the water in a saucepan and dip the carcass for several seconds in turn. Plus the way: the skin will come off completely, you will only have to rub a little carcass. Minus of the way: if you overstate the carcass in the water a little, the meat can become stained, and the squid processing will require a little more time.

Council

Of course, I want salad meat to be beautiful squid, but you can cook it without preliminary cleaning if the aesthetic side of the dish does not really matter to you. Simply select the second method of cleaning, but instead of a few seconds, hold the squid in a saucepan for about a minute. But it's necessary to defrost and remove the entrails before cooking.

Cook carcasses correctly

If you can remember the case how much they cursed when, after cooking, miniature calamari were taken from the pan, the size of half the defrosted carcass, your experience is not unique: we were all there. And all because in our head sat down the idea that it is necessary to prepare everything, especially meat, for a long time. Vegetables, extinguished in Vietnamese manner? Is the pasta a little damp inside? Steak with blood? No, we do not do this, and this is another reason why the mistresses in the 90s had to tighten, while they understood how to cook frozen squid. They did not know that the heat treatment of meat could be so short: only some 60-120 seconds.

To be honest, squid can not be cooked at all: pour them with boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, and it's done! But if you still decide to boil them, then choose the most convenient way for you.

Immerse all squid in boiling water, cook for about 30 seconds, then turn off the heat and leave them in hot water for 10 minutes.

• Dip each carcass into boiling water alternately, taking out with a noise in 1-3 minutes. Over time, you will understand what time is optimal for you.
• And yes, these cooking recipes are designed for a hot cleaning method. If you can still clean the carcass by the "stocking" method, increase the cooking time by literally 30 seconds.

If you get rid of the fad that poorly cooked meat is dangerous to health, until it turns out, then cook squid about half an hour: in this case, they will also be quite tasty, but the amount of meat you will not please. The cooking time in the interval from 3 to 25-30 minutes guarantees rubbery, tasteless meat, so it seems that the preparation of squid is exactly the moment when extremes are good.

Board

Very quickly squid cooked in a microwave: one minute at maximum power in a bowl of water - and you can begin to cut the salad!

You should not avoid squid just because you do not know how to properly clean and cook them. It seems that we just saved you from this problem! Now is the time to start applying this knowledge to practice. Delicious snacks, salads and main courses!

Read the article on how to quickly defrost the dough