Taste Life

By Danielle Cardozo

I love seafood.

I do not know many people who don’t love seafood, but there are a few. I’ve met them, so I know they do exist.

In fact, I am friends with a seafood non-lover. His name is Darren. It breaks my heart really. Amazing person, but doesn’t like seafood. In my books, that’s typically a friendship deal breaker. Why you ask? Because I love to entertain. And in the summer, that means seafood. So it makes it fairly difficult to be friends with someone when they refuse to eat your cooking… but Darren has agreed that this summer he will give seafood a second chance.

What I have learned is that often people do not like seafood because they had a bad experience with it. Not fresh, cooked improperly, the reasons can be numerous. And so, I typically ask my non-seafood loving friends to give it another chance. And more often than not, I can convince them that at least one or two water born meals are enjoyable. And the easiest is usually squid.

Squid is what I consider a neutral water protein. It has a particularly mild flavor, and if cooked properly has a wonderful texture. I do have to stress that it’s always best to prepare squid at home. While I can appreciate the world’s desire to make certain foods more accessible to the average home cook (I am not 100% convenience food free. I too buy the occasional boxed meal), I do not support pre-breaded calamari rings at all. Plain and simple. They’re not good.

While some might be a little intimidated by the idea of preparing your own squid at home, I promise you shouldn’t be. It’s ridiculously easy! You can find frozen squid at your local Loblaws/Superstore. Yes, I said frozen. When it comes to squid (and octopus) I am completely okay with advocating frozen. Now I am sure someone is going to jump on me, but here is my reasoning. By freezing squid or octopus, and defrosting, you allow the meat to break down just a little. This is why frozen fish is typically mediocre at best. Soft proteins become soggy when they break down. However, because squid and octopus are such strong proteins, a small amount of breakdown is a good thing.

With that said, if I recommend that you prepare your own squid, it’s only fair that I teach you how to. So we’ll start by introducing you to the squid. They’re really incredible creatures. I always encourage people to learn about their food. I believe it to be important to have an appreciation for what’s on your plate.

Preparing the squid is really easy. The first step is to remove the stabilizing fins. You can do this by starting to remove the membrane that surrounds it.

The long tube is called the mantel. What you see at the end of the mantel is the eyes and tentacles.

You want to remove the eyes and tentacles, as well as the parts of the squid within the cavity of the mantel.

You can do this by holding on firmly to the beak of the squid, which is located approximately between the eyes of the squid.

As you can see, it pulls out in one piece. There is a plastic like piece of the squid that you will remove called the quill. If it does not come out with the rest of the cavity innards, search the cavity for it. You do not want to leave these inside. It’s quite inedible. Lastly, you will want to remove the tentacles from the eyes and beak of the squid. Simply cut the tentacles off with a knife. Be careful to avoid cutting into the eyes; they can get messy.

And voila! There you have it! The mantel and tentacles!

And with that you can prepare your squid however you prefer! I decided to turn this beautiful squid into a nice dish inspired by my own heritage. A stuffed squid, which I first cooked in my Sous Vide Supreme, and then scored, stuffed, and pan-fried with a nice pepper puree.

You can prepare your squid however you’d like! One popular way is calamari fritti (fried squid). For a simple recipe try this one!

Calamari Fritti

1 lb of cleaned squid

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons dill

Sea salt and white pepper to taste

Canola oil for frying, heated to 375 degrees F

Lemon, in wedges

Dipping sauce of choice

1. Cut squid into 1 inch rings and trim tentacles to manageable size (up to two inches).

2. Mix buttermilk and eggs. Add squid. Let marinate for one hour.

3.  Dredge squid in mixture of flour, paprika, dill, salt, and pepper.

4. Fry for 1 to 3 minutes until golden brown.

5. Remove from oil and place on a plate with paper towel to drain oil.

6. Serve with lemon wedge and dip.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Watch out for my upcoming post Clam Bakey 2014. On June 21, my friends and I will prepare over 100-lbs of fresh seafood from the coast of Vancouver! This is when Darren has agreed to give seafood a second chance, including learning how to shuck an oyster, crack and clean a Dungeness crab, and more. So stay tuned to find out how that goes!

Enjoy!

Danielle


Xoxo

– Danielle Cardozo is a mom of three, entrepreneur, and shameless idealist. Whether it be creating it, sharing it, or writing about it; the culinary world is her ultimate passion. Danielle placed eighth on the first ever season of CTV’s MasterChef Canada, and has continued blazing her trail in the culinary world since. Danielle contributes her success to hard work and being stubborn, as she’s never believed anyone who has told her she can’t do something.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/danielle.c.cardozo

Website http://daniellecardozo.ca/

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