Why yes, squid CAN be tender and sexy

This dish is simply magical: tender beyond belief with the faint scent of the sea, enormous squid are turned into ethereal feathers here that will defy you to stop eating. 

A specialty of the best seafood stalls in Taiwan when I lived there, this employs an ingenious way to prepare the squid that is nothing more than learning how to slice them correctly and blanch them briefly.

Once you master this technique, the world of “squid blossoms” will open up to you and entice you to turn these divine little squiggles into things like stir-fries, ones with tasty sauces that can bounce against the gentle flavors of the main ingredient without fear of overwhelming the senses. A good choice would be using them instead of poultry in Kong Pao Chicken, but add the raw squid only at the last minute.

Cut tubes in half

Here, though, is a simple take on these wonderful sea creatures, ones that are as yet underappreciated in the West and so extremely cheap. 

You can get the cleaned bodies—called tubes—in the freezer sections of various grocery stores, but especially in Chinese markets. 

Or, you can clean whole squid yourself and use both the tubes and the tentacles here; cut the tentacles off below the eyes, squeeze out the beak, and then cut between the tentacles, slicing them lengthwise in half, if necessary.

The sauce below is merely one suggestion. You can just as easily take any of the chili sauces in the Basic Recipes section as the basis for your own dipping sauce, adding soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, or whatever you like. Think of this as a basic template.

Blanched squid with garlicky dipping sauce

Tàng yóuyú  燙魷魚

Southern Fujian, Taiwan
Serves 4 to 6

Score the bodies lengthwise

           

Sauce:

3 tablespoons finely minced fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons regular soy sauce

6 tablespoons rice wine (mijiu)

2 teaspoons sugar

Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Squid:

4 large squid tubes (about 6 to 8 inches long), preferably wild-caught, cleaned and skinned

Boiling filtered water

1. First mix the sauce ingredients so that the flavors have time to mingle. This can be done up to a couple of hours ahead of time if you cover and refrigerate the sauce. Don’t make it too far ahead, though, as the garlic can turn overwhelming. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding chopped chilies or whatever else you like.

2. Defrost the squid tubes, if necessary, and clean them out, removing any bits of skin or membrane on the outside. (Here again is a link to directions on how to clean them.) Drain the tubes and slice them lengthwise in half so that you have 8 triangular pieces. Work on one piece at a time: lay a piece on a cutting board with its interior face-up and the pointed end at 3 o’clock. Use a very thin, sharp knife to make shallow cuts all the way down the length of the inside about ⅛ of an inch or less apart, being careful not to cut all the way through the body.

Cut crosswise at a deep angle

3. Now, turn your knife to a deep diagonal slant (about 30 to 45 degrees) and make shallow cuts across the width of the body, again about ⅛ of an inch or less apart, to create a frilly surface. Note that this is one of the two things that make the squid so tender. What you do next determines whether you will create large rolls for stir-frying or thin frills for blanching. To make larger pieces, simply cut the squid lengthwise into two halves and then crosswise into 1-inch or so strips; these will curl up when they hit a hot wok. If you want to make long strips like in the photo here, make “book” slices by cutting crosswise not too deeply one time and then all the way through the next time so that the piece will open up like—you guessed it—a book. Whatever you decide to do, repeat until all of the squid has been cut up. When you get to the pointy ends at the top, you can cut the triangles off after they have been frilled, as they will mingle in nicely with whatever style you’ve decided on doing.

4. Bring about 4 cups filtered water to a full boil over high heat and have a slotted spoon and a bowl of ice water ready if you plan to serve them later. (If you want to eat these warm, then skip the ice water, have a rimmed plate ready, and serve the squid immediately.)

A "book" cut

5. Drop no more than a handful of the squid into the boiling water and cook them only until they turn opaque, which should take mere seconds; do not under any circumstances overcook them, as this short blanching is the other thing that makes the squid so tender. So, as soon as the squid pieces straighten out and turn from translucent to white, they are done. Fish them out with the slotted spoon without delay and either toss them in the ice water or into the rimmed plate, and bring the water to a boil again before tossing in the next handful. This goes pretty quickly, so if you are planning to eat the squid right away, have everyone get to the table by the time the last handful is thrown in the pot. Drain off the excess water and serve with the dipping sauce. Otherwise, if you chilled the squid, bring a large pot of water to a full boil just before serving, toss in the squid, and after about 3 seconds dump them into a colander placed in the sink; this way they will remain tender.

Deep fried calamari Taiwan style

Sometimes the simplest preparations are the best, and this recipe is no exception. Smaller squid, or calamari, reward just about any sort of quick cooking with delicious results.

Squid by themselves are full flavored, and so they can be prepared, as here, with little more than a dipping sauce to make them complete, or they can be cooked quickly with a big handful of savory elements, their texture and lovely briny flavor more than a match for even garlic, ginger, and chili peppers. Very soon I'll provide a recipe for the fancier preparation, but today we'll look at a particularly easy way to cook squid: deep frying with just a dusting of sweet potato flour.

As we've seen before, sweet potato flour is popular in southern China, and it is especially beloved in Taiwan, where it makes almost every deep fried protein a thing of beauty.

Sprinkle on sweet potato flour

Unlike the cornstarch used in the previous recipe for chicken wings, which fries up to a thin, smooth shell, sweet potato flour is thick and crunchy all by itself. No need to fuss around with a batter here; just toss the squid in an egg white and the flour, and then carefully drop them in hot oil. That's it.

There are, of course, little things you should be aware of in order to make this dish a success. But they are so few that even a beginner cook will be able to serve these with pride the first time around.

A couple of posts back we looked at the way to prepare squid, so if you haven't read that yet, now is a good time to check it out. Squid are, as I note, not that difficult to prep, and once they are ready, this dish can be on the table in a matter of minutes. Just be sure to have that beer chilled beforehand.

Deep fried calamari 
Suzha xiaojuan 酥炸小卷  
Southern Fujian, Taiwan
Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer or bar snack

2 cups (or so) cleaned calamari or smallish (6 inches or less) squid
1 egg white
Sweet potato flour (diguafen or fanshufen)
Frying oil

Calamari coated with flour

Sea salt or fleur de sel
Dipping sauces (see below)

1. Cut the tentacle "flowers" in half at their base if they are at all large. Then, cut the calamari tubes (or bodies) into rings that are about ¾-inch wide. Lay the calamari out on a couple sheets of paper towel and pat off any moisture.

2. Place the egg white in a work bowl and beat it until it is loose and foamy. Toss in the calamari and use your fingers to mix them around so that each piece is lightly coated with the egg white. Sprinkle some sweet potato flour on the calamari and toss them with your fingers, adding more flour as you go until each piece is nicely coated. Prepare a heatproof plate covered with either tempura paper or a couple of sheets of paper towel. Heat an oven or toaster oven to about 225 F.

Gently lower into the hot oil

3. Heat a couple of cups of oil in a wok or frying pan over medium heat until wooden chopsticks inserted in the oil immediately are covered with small bubbles. Hold a lid or spatter screen in one hand while you gently slide a small handful of the calamari into the oil. Immediately use that same hand to separate the pieces with your chopsticks, but keep the lid or screen between you and the hot oil so that any moisture in the squid doesn't pop into your face. Gently move the calamari around in the oil until they are separate from each other, and fry on both sides until golden and crisp. Remove the pieces to the paper covered plate as they are done, and keep the fried calamari hot by placing them in the heated oven. Repeat these steps to fry the rest of the calamari.

4. When all of the calamari has been fried, serve it hot with some dipping sauces and cold beer.

Dipping sauces

Ketchup with some finely diced raw garlic and a bit of soy sauce provides traditional Taiwanese flavors.

If you like mayo and spice, mix some sweet chili sauce into mayonnaise, preferably Kewpie brand. 

The photo at the top shows one of my favorite dipping sauces: lots of garlic lightly fried in a bit of fresh peanut oil, with balsamic vinegar and soy sauce added at the end.

Tips

Fry until golden

Get the calamari as dry as possible, as moisture will explode in the hot oil. Water tends to cling to the insides of the tubes, or bodies, of the squid, so lightly press down on them as you pat them dry.

After you get the hang of this, you can vary the flavors by adding things like five spice powder, chili powder, or other spices to the flour. Raw garlic shouldn't be in there, though, as it will burn in the hot oil and turn bitter; save it for the sauce.

Do not cook more than a small handful at a time in a wok, as otherwise the larger amount of calamari will lower the temperature and start sweating rather than frying. They will then take a longer time to crisp up -- that is, until all of the moisture evaporates -- and the calamari will toughen up. So, just fry up small amounts at one time.

If you are preparing lots of squid here, consider using a couple of wider, deeper frying pans, or even a deep-fry cooker.

How to prepare squid with little fuss

Squid is the first "weird" food I fell madly in love with. This was way back in high school, the day my family went to an old Italian restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf area on the northern tip of San Francisco, back when going to the City was a big deal for us South Bay denizens. 

We were getting ready to order dinner at Scoma's when my eye fell on the exotic word calamari. Ooh, tentacles. Guaranteed to make my poor mother gag, and so, as I was your average teenager, this was what I ordered.

I did get plenty of tentacles on my plate. But what I hadn't counted on was liking them and the tender squid rings to the extent I did. The little guys had been lightly breaded and fried, and then served with what I think were little bowls of tartar and cocktail sauce, those old standbys of ancient Californian cuisine.

My mise en place

Ever since then, this has been what I've ordered whenever given the slightest chance, and by ending up in Taiwan I expanded my squid world by many dimensions. 

The Chinese too have a long-standing love affairs with all sorts of squid -- they even have different names for the various varieties -- so that I came to adore this little creature even more. 

Regular squid is called youyu, while fat cuttlefish are known as moyu or wuzei. (Some dictionaries get this turned around, though.) The Taiwanese refer to the squid as shown here as xiaojuan, and the list goes on and on.

Dried squid, which might not sound like much, is quite good, too, and provides a completely individual flavor to whatever dish it graces, although it needs to be soaked in alkaline water to perk it up. And Taiwan even has a dried cuttlefish snack that is completely tenderized and cut into thin strips; highly recommended if you love funky foods.

Calamari au naturel

But today I want to talk about fresh squid and how to clean it, because if you have never done this, it can appear so daunting that you'll just resign yourself to eating it in restaurants. Mastering squid prep is easy to do, though, and so I'll break this down into steps that will guarantee success your first time out.

First, get your hands on some very good, very fresh squid. This often means buying a brick of frozen squid, which may seem scary in and of itself, but take heart -- it will be worth it. These bricks are usually about 3 pounds, leaving you with around 4 cups of prepped, raw squid, which you then can make into any number of wonderful things. (See the upcoming recipes for some suggestions.) 

Once you lug the squid home, place it in a large bowl in the refrigerator where it can slowly defrost over about three days. The box generally will have a window where you can see how fast the squid are softening, and I usually start poking at it out of impatience. When they are more or less defrosted, it is time to set aside about half an hour to clean them.

Cut off the tentacles

You first want to have your mise en place set up. This is very important, as it is this layout that will help things go very smoothly. Mine looks the the arrangement in the second picture from the top, with the squid lying in a colander set in a sink with a garbage disposal. (If you don't have a garbage disposal, or if yours is on its last legs, see the Tips at the bottom.) On the counter next to the sink have a washable cutting board (I like plastic for this, since I can put it in the dishwasher), a bowl for the cleaned squid, and a sharp little knife.

Before you start, rinse the squid in the colander and pick out any that look or smell wrong. If any of the squid are still frozen, place them in the bottom of the pile. Then, get to work:

Lay a squid on your cutting board and pull the tentacles and head off of the body; they should come out with relatively little effort.

Squid beak inside the head

Next, cut off the tentacles below the eyes. Do this carefully the first couple of times, as the "beak" or mouth is in the center of the tentacles, but if you aim right, you can avoid it and leave it in the head with the eyes. If the beak does end up with the tentacles, just squeeze it out, since it looks like a little ball with a dark beak in it. 

Place the tentacles in the bowl, toss the head and any trailing guts in the sink, and then turn to the body of the squid.

The next thing to do is pull of the thin skin on the body. This step is not necessary, but the dish will look nicer without the inky skin messing with your colors. Also, it's extremely easy to do: just pull on it until it tears, and then slip it off. If one or two of the fins come off, don't worry about it, as there is not that much meat there. 

Peel off the skin

When the skin is removed, reach inside the opening where the head was and dislodge the cuttlebone, which should be like a thin piece of clear plastic, and pull it out. Then, hold the tail end of the squid and use your other hand to squeeze out all of the guts, sort of like flattening a tube of toothpaste. Quickly run a finger around the inside of the squid to make sure there's no cuttlebone or lumpy bits left inside, and then toss it in the bowl with the cleaned tentacles.

After all of the squid have been cleaned, wash out the colander and dump the prepped squid back in there. Rinse the pieces under cool running water, lightly rubbing them between your hands. The purpose of this step is to clean not only the outsides, but also the inside of the squid, so rinse, squeeze, repeat. Drain the squid as thoroughly as you can, and if you are not cooking them right away, place them in a resealable plastic container. Use them within two days, at the most.

Pull out the clear cuttlebone

You will find that actually cleaning the squid will probably go a lot faster than reading about it.

Tips

If you have access to fresh squid in your area, be sure and try it. Otherwise, I have to admit that the frozen ones are quite good.

Pay attention to the origin of the squid (or any fish you buy), as some are farmed in very poor regions, which means that they could be contaminated with all sorts of things. I always get California squid, which used to one of the mainstays of the Monterey economy, and it's a nice tie to the local Steinbeckian history we enjoy.

Washed & ready to cook

Cleaning up after you have finished prepping the squid is really quite fast if you have a garbage disposal. Just rinse all of the guts and skin and heads into the disposal and grind away. Put the cutting board in the dishwasher, or else scrub it clean with hot water and soap. Wipe down the counter, and you are done.

Squid guts left to rot have to be one of the most disgusting smells in the entire universe. So, if you don't have a garbage disposal -- or if yours is on its last lap -- toss the guts into a plastic wrap, tie it tight, wipe off the outside, and make sure it does not leak. Then, put it into your freezer until garbage pickup day. Your neighbors will thank you.