Grilled fresh squid, and how to clean them

[wilburpan]

For our first wedding anniversary, my wife and I took a trip to Italy. It was the first time for both of us. One of the meals we had was in Murano, which is well know for its glassmaking tradition. But what I remember most from that part of our trip was eating a plate of grilled squid. It was very simple: squid, cleaned, grilled, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and some lemon. So simple, yet so delicious. It’s a meal that I still remember even though it was more than 15 years ago.

We were at the Korean grocery store picking up food to do Korean BBQ. At this grocery store, I always stroll through the seafood section even if I’m not intending to get any seafood. I noticed that they had fresh squid for sale. I picked up three of them, to see what I could do with them.

Here’s the squid.

As it turns out, cleaning and prepping squid is pretty simple. The first order of business is to cut the tentacle end from the body. I made a cut between the eye and the tentacles. Once I did this, the guts came out easily. Then I rinsed the squid under running water, to rinse away the ink and any slime from the inside of the body.

The bodies have a long thin bone in them. It looks clear, almost like plastic. You can just grab it and pull it out. The bodies are also covered with a thin skin. It’s easy to peel the skin off. Once the skin is off, the fins can be peeled off the main part of the body. Some people say that removing the skin and the fins isn’t necessary. I took the skin off all the squid bodies, but I left the fins on two of them.

For the tentacles, there’s a sharp beak in the center. This just pops out.

After I was done disassembling the squid, I patted them with a paper towel to make them as dry as I could. Then I sprinkled some olive oil on them.

Cook the parts on the grill at high heat. I once posted a picture of Smaug cooking just four hotdogs. Cooking just three squid is equally ridiculous.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper on them, and add a drizzle of lime juice (we were out of lemons), and you’re done.

These squid were really  good. The one thing I didn’t anticipate was the development of a slimy juice inside the bodies of some of the squid as it cooked. The juice that developed had an interesting taste to it. If you like the green stuff inside a lobster, or uni (sea urchin sushi), this stuff tasted like that. I think it was a result of me not rinsing out the squid enough. The fins were indeed edible, but not as nice as the body. It was a little tougher.

I’ll definitely be doing this again, although next time I’ll be sure to rinse the squid more carefully.

[tony b]

Great tips, Wilbur! I do love grilled squid and octopus. Never tried to make them myself. 

[bosco]

When I was in school I worked st a seafood super market.  Squid is very interesting to clean lol.  

You can leave Th head on and just do a side cut.  Rinse the cavity well, I cut a small piece from the top so that water flows through nicely.  

The die sack can pull out clean if you are not to aggressive with it.  

Squid can be very tough rubbery when Cooked.  A trick that my boss (an east coaster) taught me was to marinate them in milk for 24 hours.  This will tenderize them and stop them from being tough.   

[CeramicChef]

Wilbur - this is an interesting cook.  I'm an inland guy and we don't get much squid or octopus around these parts.  Even down in Houston or NOLA I wasn't around much squid.  Yours looks good, really good.  In fact, I'd like to give this a try if I can get squid here in OKC.  Thanks for the idea!

Nice cook!  Kudos to you.

[_Ed_]

one very good technique with squid is to open them out after you have cleaned / deskinned them, and then very lightly crosshatch the inside face at half-centimetre intervals. This allows the squid to curl beautifully on the grill, also keeping them tender and avoiding any buildup of 'fishy' juice on the inside. It also allows any marinade or seasoning to cling better to the squid. The other thing I like doing with squid is dressing them aggressively with lime / chilli / cilantro and treating it like a salad...

[tinyfish]

Nicely done Wilbur. 

[Syzygies]

13 hours ago, CeramicChef said:

I'm an inland guy and we don't get much squid or octopus around these parts.

Trust frozen squid. It's fine, one could call freezing a tenderizing technique. Look again, especially in any ethnic market freezer. I clean then freeze my own, handy in a chest freezer for paella or the even better Catalan Fideuà (noodles replace rice).

I had been avoiding eating octopus because they're so smart. They're actually lawyers; when boom times turn bust they don't extend each other this courtesy!

[CeramicChef]

@Syzygies - I'm with you on the smart octopus.  An academic friend was an octopus researcher and his sunsets were almost smarter than half my undergrads.

[ckreef]

Great writeup about cleaning squid. I've only seen it in a store once and passed it up. Next time I won't. I want to try stuffed squid one day.

Reef's Bistro

[wilburpan]

For those of you who want to try squid (and if you like calamari, I suggest that you do), there is a difference between fresh and frozen whole squid. Both of them can be cooked well, but the fresh squid has less issues with becoming tough while cooking. As far as tenderness goes, I wouldn’t change a thing about this cook. The way this cook came out, I don’t anticipate that I’ll need to do the milk soaking or cross hatching methods in the future if I’m using fresh squid. I have seen both of these techniques used for frozen squid.