After buying 2 fresh squids and a bag of prawns today, I immediately set down to cleaning them upon reaching home. After half an hour of sorting out and deveining the prawns, I took out the squids to clean, slice and season them. Well I am totally new to cooking squids 'cos my husband's usually the one who cleans out squids and fresh fish for me.
Imagine my SHOCK after I pulled out the head/tentacles off one of the squid. One would usually get a clear view of the transparent 'bone' in the squid, ink sac and organs etc......
.
Imagine my SHOCK after I pulled out the head/tentacles off one of the squid. One would usually get a clear view of the transparent 'bone' in the squid, ink sac and organs etc......
.
Something sharp grazed my fingers while I was cleaning this
interesting squid (25cm without the head/tentacles)
Upon reaching into the squid to pull out whatever that's usually to be discarded, my fingers were cut by something thick and sharp (I usually look away when I pull out the innards...).
Refused to come out after some tugging - the squid must have been in
the process of digesting the head of the fish (hence 'stuck' to the bottom)
.
Puzzled, I turned to look at the squid and saw a TAIL. I thought... "wow - this fellow's got lots of guts and goo..." The piece of 'tail' remained stuck. So I yanked harder and a WHOLE FISH came out. The squid was nearly 25cm and the fish 20cm. The entire fish intact, gills still red.
.
.
I wasn't expecting a free gift from the squid - and one so large!!!
There shouldn't be a shred of doubt about the freshness of the seafood I bought today! Looks like Mr Squid was caught just as he was about to start digesting his dinner last night....
Home mumusings #64: Dealing with squids
Until I did some reading on squids after today's grisly encounter (I do have a bugaboo about innards and gruesome stuff...), I never knew that squids have such interesting anatomy and features. They actually have 3 hearts! Squids also have such scary large eyes that I usually turn them away before using a pair of scissors to cut away what can be cooked. I don't even know what's what staring at the white blob of mass in front of me!
Anyway, squid is one of my favourite seafoods but most of the time, I only see them when I eat calamari rings, sambal sotong and deep-fried baby squids. These dishes come cooked at restaurants or as part of a takeaway meal.
So here's mumusings' second time cleaning squid and first time finding a fish in one. I hope there won't be a second. I must have screamed really loudly because my toddler came running into the kitchen to see if I was fine.
(1) Pull out the head/tentacles and whatever that's attached. Cut away some tentacles as these can be eaten.
(2) Remove anything else within the squid (squid-food, lining, ink, sacs etc) and rinse it under running water.
(3) Cut open the squid or into rings (depending on what you're intending to cook) and tear away the lining (the purplish-specked thin layer).
(4) Do some criss-cross cuts across the flesh and cut into smaller pieces.
(5) Season with some sugar and sesame oil if you're doing a Chinese dish. Do keep it in the chiller and cook them within 2 days.
Similar posts:
Cleaning fresh fish maw
Fish-in-squid again (Jan 2012)
Prawns and squids with chilli crab paste
Stir-fry squid with Korean bean paste
An interesting article I found on cleaning squids by Kathryn Hill via search engine
Understand that it is scary, I usually get smaller 'gifts' with squids.
ReplyDeleteHahaha... cooked it today with chilli crab paste for guests. (I didn't eat any - simply couldn't...)
ReplyDelete