grilled squid (Overnight drying TECHNIQUE) イカの一夜干し
In my last post, I cooked fish. Today, I’m going to show you how to break down a giant squid and how to grill it. And if you want to try a Japanese delicacy, we’ll be making squid liver sauce for dipping. The recipe follows.
In the US, you can find small squid at many grocery stores but not giant squid. In Japan, giant squid is a very popular ingredient and it’s cooked in many different ways. Sometimes it’s simply grilled, simmered with yam, served as sashimi, fried into rings of calamari, stuffed with sticky rice and simmered, or sauted with veggies, just to name a few ways to prepare. You can usually get giant squid at Japanese grocery stores in the US, and today we are going to use “surume ika” for grilled squid (ika means squid in Japanese). Now let’s see how to break down a whole squid, dry overnight, and how to grill it!
Surume ika (squid) 1
Water 300cc (a little more than 1 cup)
Sea salt 9g (0.3 oz) (approximately 2 teaspoons)
Kelp approximately 1 inch square size
Remove the triangle part at the top of the squid with your hands.
Place the side, that used to have triangle, down on a chopping board.
Cut the outer meat of squid lengthwise. Don’t cut too deep otherwise you will break the liver of the squid.
Using your hand, pull the legs up and remove the legs and the liver all together. Place on the side for later.
There will be some soft bone and white innards remaining on the squid, so remove them with your hand and dispose.
Cut off the legs with a knife from above, very close to the eyes.
If you are going to use the squid ink and liver (brown part of squid) for sauce or another use, pinch the ink (long black part) with your finger and remove. Remove the soft skin out from the liver. You can accidentally break the liver easily, so pull out the skin very gently. You can use the ink for a pasta sauce and the liver for a dipping sauce. (See the recipe below)
The mouth is in the legs; remove with your hand (squeeze it out and remove).
The legs are bunched together since they are connected at the top in a ring. Open them up by cutting the the connected part.
On a tray or a bowl, combine salt, kelp and water and mix to dissolve the salt.
Put the squid body, legs and triangle part in the tray.
Leave inthe fridge for 2 hours.
Drain water and wipe off the excess water with a paper towel.
Place squid on a cooking rack with a tray and keep in the fridge overnight. You’ll remove excess water out form squid.
The next day, if you are not cooking right away, wrap with a paper towel and a plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until you’re ready to grill.
When you’re ready to cook, place the squid on an oven tray with a rack. (The same way as grilling fish) To prevent the squid from curling while grilling, stick two metal or bamboo skewers through the squid. (See the pictures above) If you don’t have skewers, you can cut into 4-6 pieces and grill.
Set the oven rack second from the top and heat on high broil. (The same way as grilling fish. See this article for the details)
Cook 3 minutes one side, flip and cook another 2-3 minutes.
Cut into bite size pieces and serve with mayonnaise and shichimi pepper (7 spice mix) or squid liver sauce (see the recipe below).
Squid liver sauce
Squid liver 1
Salt 1.5 Tablepoon
Unsalted butter 5g (very small piece)
Sake 1 Tablespoon
Soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon
Place squid liver in a small bowl and sprinkle with a lot of salt, approximately 1.5 Tablespoons.
Cover with a plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.
Rinse off the salt with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
Cut a shallow slit at a middle of the liver, then remove the inside of the liver from the thin skin with a knife.
Make the liver into a paste by placing on a chopping board, pressing down with a knife, and pulling towards right. Repeat this several times until the liver becomes a smooth paste.
In a small pot, put butter, squid liver, sake and soy sauce and cook over medium heat.
Keep mixing constantly until the sauce thickens.
Turn the heat off and serve as a dipping sauce for grilled squid.