“Whole squids are kinda squicky,” says Tod after we attended a fish cooking class at A Taste of Culture.
We started with very fresh whole squid, cleaned them, stuffed them with their own legs and some rice, then simmered them for an hour. They turned a lovely red color and softened into the most delicious, chewy treat.
But cleaning squid is not for the squeamish. Today’s class wasn’t too much of a problem for me, as I had ample practice when I worked in an Italian restaurant ten years ago. As lowest prep cook on the totem pole, I got to clean at least five jillion partially frozen, still defrosting squid for calamari.
But poor Tod got stuck with a rather large squid that was quite attached to its innards. The ink sac broke, the guts refused to drop out, the legs were recalcitrant—but he somehow managed to pull the cartilege quill out before the rest came free.
Elizabeth sent us home after class with our completed “ika meshi” squids plus a spare, uncooked squid, so tomorrow I’ll make a spicy Indonesian squid sautee for dinner. Mmmmm.
Posted by kuri at November 16, 2002 10:01 PM