Squid is what? Features of the preparation, the best recipes

Today, squid is a popular and widespread product that can easily be found on supermarket shelves, fish shops and even ordinary markets. Pleases and its price, it is quite affordable even in times of crisis. And how much you can cook from this product - just do not count.

The squid is perfect even for a daily diet. But most of the recipes for dishes with squid refer to the festive cuisine.

Product Features

Many are concerned not only with taste issues, but with the quality of the product. Before you start cooking, it will be superfluous to learn about the characteristics of the product: nutritional value, calorie calories, nutrients. The use of any seafood is primarily the content of valuable substances. The squid contains iodine, selenium, phosphorus, iron, copper. As in many seafood, Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are present. Quite a few in these mollusks and vitamins of groups B, C, E, PP.

But the main value, perhaps, is the high content of protein, which is almost completely absorbed by the body. In squid meat, 20% protein, only 2.2% fat and 2% carbohydrates. Caloric content of the product is 122 kcal.

Squid in the kitchens of the peoples of the world

It's easy to guess which nations love this product most of all. Of course, those who live by the sea-ocean. National cuisines of the countries of the Far East are simply unthinkable without products such as squid with shrimps, mussels, octopuses. Food with seafood and Mediterranean cuisine is also common .

Love squid and those who live far from the big water. And all because this product is perfectly stored and transported in a frozen form, and does not lose any flavoring qualities.

Product Varieties

Squids are invertebrates, which belong to the class of cephalopod mollusks (Detachary squad). In the world there are many varieties of squid.

In the network of Russian fishermen, the Commander squid, a medium-sized mollusk (about 20-30 cm with tentacles), most often falls. As a rule, it has a greyish pink skin color and tender white meat. As a rule, he goes on sale without a head and tentacles.

Loligo is a species very popular in Europe. He is like the Commander squid, and catch it not only in the ocean, but also in the seas - the Mediterranean and the Adriatic.

The Pacific squid is found in the Far East, it is Japanese and Chinese who use it most often for cooking amazing dishes.

There are on the shelves of snow-white fleshy carcasses of the Peruvian squid. For many, they seem much more attractive than other species. But the Peruvian squid has a peculiar feature - without proper processing, the meat simply smells of ammonia odor. Catch buys China, where carcasses are cleaned, frozen, soaked in a special brine, and then again frozen. It is necessary to recognize, after such processing does not remain and a trace from awful smell, and taste of a product turns out enough gentle.

These are the main types of squid, which are represented almost everywhere. But there is another category of product that many people take for a separate look. This is the so-called squid-baby. The size of the carcass does not exceed a hen's egg, and in a kilogram you can count a dozen and a half babies (while a full-fledged squid can weigh more than one kilo). But this is not at all a subspecies, but young animals, which often rise to the surface in the natural habitat and enter fishermen's networks. Baby has a delicate taste and less dense structure of meat. It can be used in the same recipes as ordinary squid.

Product compatibility

Squids are used for cooking a wide variety of dishes: snacks, salads, gravy, sauces. As a garnish, boiled rice, pasta, fucoze and homemade noodles are ideal for them.

Calamaries are harmoniously combined with fresh and baked vegetables, boiled eggs and omelets, pickled mushrooms, olives, young greens, and sea cabbage. There are a huge number of recipes, in which, along with squids, cuttlefish, shrimp, fish, caviar are used - in short, everything that the sea has given a person.

Decorative properties

Squid tentacles usually remain in the importing country, but sometimes a "full set" is also on sale. It is necessary to recognize that, according to taste and structure, they are not as interesting as octopuses, so many fishermen separate them at once. But, as they say, on bezrybe ...

Not so often in our country you can see a dish decorated with tentacles. Therefore, you can safely use this part for decorative purposes. Typically, the tentacles are cut into strips or cubes and spread over the dish. Cook them just like a carcass.

Pre-cutting

As we have already explained, squid is an invertebrate animal. But inside their body there are peculiar "stiffeners", which are a rudiment of the inner shell. They look like translucent knitting needles. Before cooking, they must be removed.

If you bought a whole uncleared squid, cut off your head with your eyes and tentacles. Take out the insides. Eyes and mouth-beak do not eat. Cut off the tentacles from the base.

If the carcasses are covered with skin, scald them with boiling water, and then dip into cold water - everything will be easily removed.

How to cook squid?

Many people know, but we will still recall: these shellfish are cooked very quickly! Load the carcass into a steep boiling water and note exactly 2 minutes. As soon as the arrow of the dial reaches the second circle, take it out and cool it.

The structure of digested squid resembles low-quality rubber, and not a Mediterranean or Far Eastern delicacy.

Salad "Neptune"

Boiled squid, sliced - is an excellent option for many salads.

But the most popular, perhaps, is the salad "Neptune". It's just a win-win option. For its preparation use 1-2 kinds of fresh vegetables and seafood. As a vegetable basis, you can use Peking cabbage, red onions, bell peppers, wild garlic, spinach, cucumbers. The "marine" part by volume should be the same as the vegetable one. Cooked prawns, mussels and squid, crab sticks, caviar, anchovies will suit it. Usually, these salads are filled with mayonnaise, but you can also prepare a more useful and tasty dressing. Mix 2 tbsp. L. Natural yoghurt without flavor, as much low-fat mayonnaise, add finely chopped dill greens (1-2 tsp) and a few drops of lemon juice.

Can I bake squid in the oven?

Not so long ago, the recipe for "piglets", prepared from stuffed squid carcasses, became popular. Here for this recipe, the squid-baby is perfect, because before serving you do not even have to cut a dish for servings.

As a forcemeat use cheese, cottage cheese, mushrooms, rice or mashed potatoes. You can prepare the dish in the following way.

Cut the onion into small pieces, and grate a couple of carrots on a small grater. Stew vegetables together, pour 100 g of mushrooms, bring to the ready. Mix with boiled rice (1 glass). If desired, you can add 2-3 boiled eggs, finely chopped.

8-10 carcasses clean, rinse, cut off the tails. Start the rice and vegetable mixture and lay on the deco. Make ears and noses of scraps of tail, and with the help of nails or pepper-peas, decorate the eyes. Lubricate the "piglets" with mayonnaise and send it to bake for a quarter of an hour. Stuffed squid is a very beautiful and tasty dish.

Fried squid rings

This snack is a great option for gathering with friends. It is perfect for beer or white wine. But the most important thing is that you will spend very little time and energy to cook such a treat. Squid - delicious and simple to prepare, only you need to know some nuances.

Slice the carcass with rings. Each diplet dip first in flour, then in a raw egg, and after - in crackers. Fry in preheated oil for 1.5 minutes on each side. You can also use a fryer.

Pickling

Do you know what squid is like in Korean? This appetizer is popular all over the world, and it is very easy to cook it.

Grate 100 g of carrots on a Korean grater, season with salt and let stand. Cut the onions into half rings, fry in oil and cool. Boiled squid (600 g), cut into rings, mix with vegetables, add 40 ml of soy sauce. If you love a sharp one, sweeten the dish with a pair of hot chili peppers and a clove of garlic. To insist on the dish should be no less than 12 hours.

How to cook caviar

In some carcasses caviar is caught, and even in fairly solid quantities. Do not rush to treat her cat! Squid caviar can be salted, as well as fish, or boiled and also added to a salad.

Not for the faint of heart: "The dancing squid"

Have you ever been to Japan? If you go there for the first time, be careful in local restaurants. For example, "Dancing squid" - this is a favorite dish of the people of the Land of the Rising Sun, but an unaccustomed person it can shock. It's all about the stub of a squid (head, eyes and tentacles), seated over the dish. The cook directly at the guests water his sauce, because of what the squid begins to "dance". After dancing from the shellfish, they simply cut the pieces and eat them.

In fact, the squid during the "dance" is not live, the tentacles move only due to chemical reactions. But not everyone likes this spectacle. Yes, and raw tentacles, too.

Squids in the children's and diet menu

Many mothers are concerned about the question of when to introduce the baby to healthy seafood. Nutritionists agree that although the squid is an easily digestible product, it is desirable to introduce it into the diet after three years.

Caloric content of squid, properties, high content of nutrients attract athletes. For those who undergo a training course on muscle mass, this protein-rich product is simply indispensable.

Excellent squid and for the diet of convalescent patients who underwent surgery, long courses of taking medications, prolonged illnesses. This product helps to restore strength, renews blood, fights toxins. And his wonderful taste can not but rejoice.