How to cook squid for salad? Salad with squid

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

Many are not averse to eating squid salad in a cafe or restaurant, but they do not dare to cook this delicacy on their own. Still, this is not the most common product in Russian refrigerators. Housewives are afraid to do something wrong during cooking. Let's find out how to cook squid for salad.

Where squids are sold

For Russia, this is a kind of exotic product, so you are unlikely to find them in a small shop near the house. But they are always available in large supermarkets or hypermarkets. These mollusks are caught in Southeast Asia, so Russians mostly have access to only frozen, canned and smoked squid.

How to choose the right squid

Buy the product in large stores that can afford quality refrigerators. Moreover, in hypermarkets, buyers have the opportunity to closely examine shellfish, the appearance of which can tell a lot.

For example, if pieces of squid are frozen into one layer and covered with a thick crust of ice, this means that they have been repeatedly defrosted and againfrozen. Such manipulations with seafood are fraught with severe poisoning. But even if unpleasant consequences for the stomach can be avoided, the taste of the dish will turn out to be worse than expected, and when cooked, the squids will burst.

Meat should be white. The shade of the skin is unimportant - the whole gamut from light lilac to silver gray is considered the norm.

If you have the slightest doubt, ask for a certificate of quality, be interested in the date of production of seafood and their catch.

Frozen squid is not a product worth buying for future use. It is better to cook them on the day of purchase, as a household refrigerator will not provide the optimum freezing temperature. In addition, during transportation from the store to the house, the clams will have time to thaw slightly, which is not very good.

How to cook squid: a universal way

It is widely believed that squid must be boiled. The time recommended for this "execution" (you can't call it otherwise) varies between 3-5 minutes. If you ever want to serve wrinkled pieces of rubber to the table, be sure to do so.

After three minutes in boiling water, the squid will literally shrink, become very dense, and it will be unpleasant to eat them.

Boil water in a saucepan. Optionally add bay leaves, a few black peppercorns, and any herbs and spices you like. For beauty, you can put red paprika in powder, beetroot juice, turmeric, curry - these components will tint the meat. If you plan to use squid furtherin complex dishes, then adding s alt is optional.

Dip defrosted squids in boiling water, wait 15-20 seconds and remove. If you cook carcasses, then do not lower them into the water all at once, but boil them one at a time. Wait for the water to boil before processing the next carcass. Considering that each piece takes 15 seconds to cook, this will not take much time. You can store boiled squid in the refrigerator for two days.

If you didn’t know all this and by the time you read our article you had already started cooking squid, the time can, on the contrary, be increased to 20 minutes. Then the clams will become soft again, although their size will not be avoided by half, and the taste will not be up to par.

How to defrost and clean squids

Before you cook squids for salad, they need to be thawed and cleaned. You can also boil them frozen, but this will increase the cooking time and, accordingly, make the seafood rubbery.

Squid is defrosted at room temperature. Just leave the carcass in the open air for 1-3 hours. This preserves the maximum of useful substances.

Defrost is acceptable in cool (about 20 degrees) water. But you should not use hot liquid for this purpose, let alone boiling water, otherwise the squid fillet will darken and the taste will deteriorate.

You can clean both before (preferably) and after cooking. Hard plates, transparent cartilage should be removed from the carcass, the tentacles should be removed and the film removed from the mollusk.

After cooking makethe latter will be easier, but an unpleasant odor may appear. In addition, the skin is very bitter and can easily spoil the taste of the dish.

If you clean before cooking, it is more convenient to remove the film with a knife under running water. To simplify the process, first place the carcasses in a liquid heated to 60-70 degrees for five minutes. Then the skin is easily removed by friction, and the remains can be removed by rinsing the seafood with cold water.

Cooking squid for salad - easy ways

It is not necessary to heat the squid with boiling water before preparing the squid for the salad. They can be eaten immediately after cleaning, but in general, even for sushi, squid is treated with boiling water. We recommend doing the same.

A universal and quick way: boil the kettle, pour boiling water over the squids, drain the water and sprinkle the clams with vinegar.

Or place the sliced squid in a bowl, add s alt, pepper (red or black), any spices or herbs of your choice, a tablespoon of lemon juice or wine vinegar. Pour the contents of the bowl with boiling water and strain the water after 5 minutes.

Squid and microwave

Delicious microwave squid is a rarity. But this method can help out if there is no stove. For example, if you are preparing a snack at work or in the country. We warn you that the first time it is unlikely that you will be able to achieve softness and juiciness of seafood. You will have to try several times, varying the temperature and time in search of their optimal combination.

Cut the squid so that theywill be halved. Arrange on a plate in a single layer. S alt and pepper as desired. Fill the squids with water so that it covers them halfway. Microwave the plate for 1-4 minutes depending on the power.

You can try boiling squid in your own juice. Also arrange them on a plate, sprinkle with oil and lemon juice, sprinkle with spices, but do not add water. Microwave for 1 minute at maximum power.

Salad with rice and egg

Now that we figured out how to "boil" squid soft, it's time to move on to salad recipes.

For this hearty dish, take 2 medium onions, cut into half rings and place in hot water for a few minutes. Prepare a pound of squid in any way described above. Cut into strips 2 boiled eggs.

Mix 3 tablespoons of boiled rice, eggs, squid and onions. S alt and pepper to taste, season with mayonnaise.

Salad with grapes and cheese

This is already a more sophisticated squid salad, and the appearance of the dish should be appropriate. Therefore, take half a bunch of lettuce leaves, coarsely chop or tear, place in a salad bowl and mix with the juice of a quarter of a lemon.

Put the squid carcass cut into thin strips, 150 grams of sultana grapes and the same amount of feta (or Adyghe) cheese cut into cubes on lettuce leaves. Season with s alt and gently toss with olive oil.

Holiday salad

Take 750 gramssquid (already peeled and treated with boiling water). If you cooked seafood without s alt, then rub the carcasses with it from the inside and cut them into rings. Scald 3 ripe tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin and chop finely.

Pour half a glass of olive oil into a saucepan and put the squid and tomatoes in it. Add 3 chopped garlic cloves, chopped fresh parsley and 125 ml dry white wine. Simmer covered over low heat until soft.

Decorate the resulting squid salad with pitted olives, chopped slices, and parsley leaves.

Diet salad

Cut 2 squid carcasses, add 1 grated apple and 200 grams of chopped celery stalks to them. Season with sesame oil and soy sauce.

We told you how to cook squid for salad, namely, the correct observance of this procedure is the main secret of dishes with these mollusks. Now he is known to you. It remains to choose the appropriate salad recipe, of which there are a great many.