Squid is a very valuable seafood , an essential element of a healthy diet menu. It contains easily digestible proteins and no cholesterol. A lot of selenium and taurine are so necessary for the body.
- Purchase rules
- Defrosting
- Cooking squid correctly is the key to a tasty dish
- Let's start cooking
- Important
- Squid and Avocado Salad Recipe
Squid dishes are not only healthy and nutritious, but also very tasty.
Purchase rules
Frozen squid rings and frozen unpeeled squid are available for sale.
When buying frozen squid, you need to be careful and choose them correctly. Squids should not be re-frozen, i.e. Thawed and back in the freezer. Such a product will be difficult to prepare for cooking; it will be very difficult to peel it, but most importantly, dishes made from such squid will be tough and tasteless, and will have a bitter aftertaste. Therefore, when choosing frozen squid rings or carcasses, you should pay attention to the following:
- there should not be a lot of ice on them;
- the meat of frozen carcasses should be white; if the skin and meat are the same (pink-lilac) color, this indicates repeated defrosting - freezing of the product.
Squid and Avocado Salad Recipe
- 200 grams of squid rings;
- one medium-sized avocado, not firm;
- half a can of canned corn;
- a little salad (light) mayonnaise.
Cut the avocado into two halves and remove the pulp with a teaspoon.
Cool the squid rings boiled using one of the methods described above and cut into small cubes.
Mix chopped avocado, pieces of squid, corn and season with mayonnaise. Fill the avocado peel boats with salad and serve.
Frozen squid rings are also included in sea cocktails.
If you bought a fish mix - a seafood cocktail, then it is advisable to cook it without defrosting. This is a fast food dish.
Fry the onion in heated vegetable or olive oil, add spices and sour cream, and bring to a boil. Add frozen fish delicacies. After boiling, simmer for no more than 5 minutes and turn off.
Defrosting
In order for squid dishes to turn out healthy and tasty, you not only need to choose them correctly and know how to cook them, but initially they need to be defrosted correctly.
Frozen shellfish are defrosted naturally, namely in a cool place. You can put it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, or you can just leave it on the table at room temperature. The main thing is that you should not try to quickly defrost them by pouring hot water. You should also not defrost them in the microwave or thaw them in cold water.
How to properly cook frozen clam rings
This product must be defrosted in cold water or allowed to warm up in the room. You can do without defrosting by immediately placing the rings in boiling water. Since squid absorbs water very well, you can take advantage of this property to give the dish an original taste. To do this, you need to use sets of different spices. If you didn’t know how to cook frozen squid rings before, now you can do it without difficulty. To do this, you just need to lower the rings into salted boiling water, you can add a bay leaf for scent, wait until it boils, cover the pan with a lid and keep it on the fire for 1.5 minutes. After this, you need to immediately drain the boiling water.
Let's start cooking
There are several options.
- After the water boils, add allspice or peas, salt, bay leaf, you can add a couple of lemon slices, this will add flavor to the dish. Place the thawed squid rings in boiling water and cook for no more than a minute, optimally 30 seconds. After the specified time has passed, immediately remove the boiled squid from the water and cool.
- Put spices and salt into boiling water, lower the shellfish and immediately remove from heat without bringing to a boil. Leave in hot water for 7 - 10 minutes.
- You can boil frozen rings without defrosting. They need to be immersed in boiling water for no more than one minute, and then left in hot water for another three minutes, but removed from the stove.
Cook the squid for ten seconds
To understand how to cook squid for salad correctly, you need to try several different methods and choose the ones that are most acceptable to you.
In some cases, 10 seconds is enough for the carcass to reach readiness. According to this recipe, squids need to be immersed in boiling water for 10 seconds, to which 1 tablespoon of salt, a few peppercorns and a couple of laurel leaves have been added. It is better to boil each carcass separately so as not to overcook it in boiling water. After each carcass, you need to wait for the water to boil again and place the next squid there.
Important
- In order for the welded rings to be soft, the main thing is not to overcook them or overexpose them in hot water, then they will not be hard and rubbery.
- When asked how long to cook squid rings, the answer is no more than one minute.
- Cook the squid rings in small portions.
- If the shellfish are cooked correctly, they practically do not decrease in volume, but after ten minutes of cooking they lose half their volume.
- If you miss the time and still overcook the squid, you need to remember that after thirty minutes of cooking, squid meat has the ability to gain 2/3 of the lost volume and become soft again. Nutritional qualities, unfortunately, are no longer restored.
- Spices added to the cooking water can be taken according to your taste - dill, parsley, black or white pepper, allspice.
- To prepare a salad, it is better to take peeled frozen rings; they are more convenient and easier to prepare, since they are sold already peeled.
- The shelf life of boiled squid rings is no more than 2 days in the refrigerator. After this time they will lose their taste and softness.
You can prepare rings in different ways. They are good both in appetizers and julienne, but most of all they are used in salads.
In salads, the main ingredient is squid, so it is not advisable to increase the amount of the dish by adding rice and boiled eggs.
How to cook frozen squid (without pre-thawing)
It turns out that if you don’t have time to defrost squid, you can cook them this way. But there is still something you need to know. How to cook frozen squid?
Ingredients
Preparation
1. Take the carcasses out of the refrigerator and place them in one layer directly in the sink.
2. Boil the kettle and pour the carcasses on top. Use half of the prepared water.
3. Turn over to the other side and pour over the remaining boiling water.
4. Remove the skin and wash the seafood with running water.
5. Place in a pan with salted and bubbling water, you can add spices.
6. Cook in the usual way for two minutes.
How to cook squid for salad with lemon (vinegar)
Adding lemon juice or vinegar to the broth makes seafood especially tasty. And squid is no exception. Such seafood fits especially well into hearty salads with mayonnaise. But how do you cook squid with vinegar for salad?
Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons of table vinegar;
• or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice;
Preparation
1. Throw vinegar into the water, add a pinch of salt and put it on the stove. Instead of vinegar, you can use lemon juice in the same way.
2. While the water is boiling, clean and prepare the carcasses.
3. Place the squid in boiling water, turn the heat to maximum and cook for four minutes.
4. Remove from the broth with a slotted spoon, cool and you can prepare delicious salads!
How and how long to cook squid pieces (rings)
Squids can be cooked not only whole, but also in pieces. Most often these are rings; less often, chopped carcasses are prepared into cubes or strips. And sometimes in the store you can find frozen rings, ready for cooking. But how long should you cook squid pieces so that they remain soft?
Ingredients
Preparation
1. Lightly salt the water and put it on the stove. If desired, add herbs, spices, lemon juice.
2. Clean the carcasses, remove the chord and chop into rings one centimeter thick.
3. Place the prepared pieces in boiling water, boil for a minute and remove.
4. If the squids are cut smaller, then cook for even less time.
5. You can immediately cut the seafood into cubes or salad strips, in which case it is enough to boil for 15-30 seconds, and then simply drain into a colander.
How to cook squid with onions and carrots
A recipe for a second dish of squid and vegetables, which will simply help out if you don’t have time and need a quick lunch or dinner. The amount of vegetables can be added at your discretion.
Ingredients
Preparation
1. Cut the onion into cubes, throw it into the frying pan and fry for a minute.
2. Add grated carrots and cook the vegetables together until soft. At the end add the grated tomato. You can replace it with tomato paste or ketchup. It will be even faster.
3. While the vegetables are fried, clean the squid and cut into rings or just into strips, but not very small.
4. Add a glass of boiling water to the vegetables in the frying pan, add salt and pepper.
5. Place the squid pieces and cook for three minutes.
6. Add a bay leaf and you're done!
7. Place on plates, add herbs, you can add a spoonful of sour cream.
How to cook squid with rice
Rice and squid are a classic combination. There are many different recipes based on these two products and you need to try at least one of them. But how and how long to cook squid with rice?
Ingredients
• 2 spoons of soy sauce;
Preparation
1. Chop the carrots into strips. Peel the onion and cut into cubes. Fry everything together in a deep frying pan.
2. Add soy sauce, stir, add pepper. You can add seasoning for pilaf, a mixture of spices for rice, cumin, cumin.
3. Add washed rice, pour boiling water and simmer under the lid for 15 minutes.
4. Pour boiling water over the squid and let sit for a minute. Rinse with cold water, remove the skin, remove the chord and cut into thin strips. But not very long.
5. Open the rice, add the squid, mix and leave covered for a couple of minutes. You can turn off the stove until they are ready.
6. Place on plates and decorate with herbs.
Selection rules
Squid is a perishable product and quickly becomes unusable when fresh, so in our stores you can only buy it frozen. In most cases, sellers offer the consumer tentacles or carcasses of already cleaned sea inhabitants. However, you should choose them carefully and under no circumstances rush into it.
Basically, all seafood brought to us is exported from Asian countries. To maintain an attractive appearance, they are treated with chemical solutions that have a detrimental effect on the preservation of beneficial substances. Therefore, we recommend that you spend a little more time and money searching for and purchasing unpeeled shellfish.
Squid should have a faint odor of iodine. This fact will indicate the freshness of the product and its proper freezing. If marine life smells like fish or has no smell at all, then this indicates a repeated process of freezing and thawing. The meat of such seafood will spread and there will be no benefit from eating it.
We recommend reading: How to Make Jelly From Shredded Blueberries With Sugar and Fresh Fruit
Tips and tricks
- If necessary, squids can be left uncooked. Just put them in a deep bowl, sprinkle with salt, spices and pour boiling water over them. We wait four minutes - and the tender meat is ready.
- If the cooking time is short, add vinegar to the water. It will not only improve the taste of seafood, but will also kill all germs.
- When boiling shellfish, add lemon, orange or grapefruit zest to the water. This will give the seafood a unique aroma and taste.
- Squids can not only be boiled, but also fried. Place them on a hot frying pan and fry for a couple of minutes. Squids prepared in this way will have an appetizing and crispy crust.
Squid is a healthy and necessary product for the body. Knowing all the intricacies of boiling it, you can easily make a delicious dish from these sea creatures.
Rice goes well with tender squid meat. Based on them, many recipes have been created that have captivated people all over the world.
