Grilled squid: cooking tips

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Light seafood dishes are especially popular in summer, when the air temperature approaches 30 degrees. One of the most popular products used in the preparation of such dishes are squids.

As a rule, they are boiled or fried in a pan, but these are far from the only ways to cook them. Although they are very attractive when fried, this way of processing masks rather than emphasizes their rich taste. This meat pairs best with the smoky flavor of the grill.

How to butcher a squid?

Of course, the best seafood is freshly caught or chilled. However, such squids can only be purchased in regions close to the sea. A frozen product is much more accessible, which is found in a variety of forms. The quality of squid does not suffer from this in any way - this seafood is frozen and thawed very quickly.

If you bought a shelled seafood, you will only need to cut it into rings or ribbons if you do not want to cook the whole carcass, and leavetentacles as is. If you find a squid in its natural form on sale, cleaning it will not be difficult. This is done in minutes over the sink and doesn't even require the use of gloves.

You need to stick your hand into the gap starting from the tentacles - it should pass easily. Run your fingers inside the carcass and pull out the small transparent insides. If desired, you can also scrape the skin off the carcass with your nails, but this is not necessary - it is edible.

Carefully place the rest of the squid on a cutting board and, using a sharp knife, cut off the portion between the eyes and tentacles. Check all edible parts for cartilage, separate them. Then rinse the carcass and tentacles under cold running water. Now the grilled squid can begin to cook.

If you like all parts of the seafood, you can use it whole, including the tentacles. If you are picky about the appearance of the products, you can take the filet. How to cook squid tasty and easy? You just need to fry them on the grill with a little spice. This seafood is good when cooked this way with a little lemon juice and olive oil.

What do you need to keep in mind?

For all the simplicity of the recipe, grilled squid spoils very easily. The problem is that this seafood is a very "wet" creature with an incredibly high water content. Checking if all excess moisture is removed is very simple. Squid will not be on topbrown if a lot of water is present on its surface.

Despite the fact that these seafood are sold already cleaned, they can still contain sand and other impurities, so you should wash them before cooking. After that, they must be dried thoroughly before being placed on the grill, otherwise they will not be fried, but cooked in their own juice.

First, you should thoroughly blot the carcass or seafood pieces to remove as much surface moisture as possible (as much as possible), and only then rub it with oil to prevent it from sticking to the grate. Second, you need to cook the squid over very hot coals.

Grill temperature

Your grill should be around 150 degrees or higher. Thanks to this, excess moisture evaporates in a matter of minutes, and the product is cooked very quickly. Therefore, before placing food to cook, make sure the grill is hot enough.

If grilling squid with tentacles, cut them into pieces of the same size and thickness.

Toss the seafood with a little oil so it doesn't start to stick to the grate. The ideal amount is about 1 tablespoon of oil per 0.5 kg of chopped squid.

Some more useful tips

Try grilled squid marinade with anything other than s altand pepper. Smoked paprika or chili powder works well.

Don't worry about the thin tentacles falling onto the coals or the burner - most grates are narrow enough to prevent this and small pieces of seafood will stay in place. In addition, grilled squid can be strung on thin skewers or wooden skewers pre-soaked in water.

Remember that your possibilities are endless. You can cook whole carcasses, rings or pieces.

Cooking time

Cooking grilled squid is somewhat tricky due to the timing of frying.

There are only two ways to make a dish good: fry them for just a couple of minutes to keep the meat tender, or slow cook them for at least 30 minutes, which will restore tenderness to the meat. Everything that is done in the intermediate stages will have one result - very tough meat. The second option cannot be done on the grill, so the cooking time should be minimal.

This means that when talking about how to cook squid deliciously and simply, you must remember that you should not overcook them. The frying time should not exceed three minutes on all sides, otherwise the meat will become "rubber".

Grilled squid: cooking recipe

You should know that any salad that offers the addition of fried shrimp will turn out great if you replace them with squid. The simplest and easiest recipe is as follows. Toss cooked seafood with arugula andolive oil. This way you will get natural and tasty grilled squid.

A more complex recipe will include more ingredients. For example, you can pour fried seafood with fish sauce and lime juice, sprinkle with sugar, and add thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes, mint, cilantro, and watercress. This dish is amazingly tasty and refreshing, especially in hot weather.