I hope I haven't gotten myself in over my head. I was wanting some calamari pasta recently so I picked up some frozen calamari without paying enough attention to the box. I have gotten myself into some whole, uncleaned calamari.
First, I have three pounds uncleaned, but need one pound cleaned, am I going to have way to much? I'm sure I can find more use for the rest if I do.
Second, I have done my homework and think I know how to clean these, although I have to admit they do have me a bit intimidated. But if I clean them, can I put them on ice in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until I ready to cook with them, or do I have to clean and cook straight way? Since it looks like a time consuming process, I want to be sure to budget my time accordingly.
Finally, if I have more than I need for this recipe, can I clean the squids, vacuum-seal , and re-freeze the processed ones for later use. I like to think food safety is an extremely high priority in my kitchen and don't want anything hanging around that could harm us later.
First, Calamari is not a seafood that translates by weight to portion ration like conventional seafood or meat. You need to use about 10 ounces when you are making pasta with an average of 6 ounces of other meat types. It's just not that dense and shrinks with cooking.
Second, Just for others. If the calamari are whole, which most are not, then you must remove the beak and then separate the tube from the tentacles. Inside the tube you find a piece of clear colored cartiledge. Your fingers will immediately recognize the texture. Remove it. I would either use a bread proofing wheel or a very sharp meat fork to tine the tubes and make small holes in them. Follow by a seasoned buttermilk bath for an hour, for frying. Or, a light flavored marinade for 2 hours if you are going to saute'. If you are going to saute make sure the marinade is slightly acidic to help soften the tube and tentacles. Once marinated, cut the tubes into 1/2 inch rings and reserve for cooking.
Third, use the vacum machine to seal the extra calamari that you have left over. Let what marinade that sticks to the calamari stay but don't fill the bag with the rest. And once you vacum the bag, DO NOT freeze this product. You can refrigerate it, and because of the acidic nature of the marinade it will last 5-7 days without question and up to 10 days if sealed perfectly. Make sure your vacum machine is set on moist setting and put paper towels near the open end of the bag to prevent leakage and a poor seal.
FoodDude, The Smokin Man
Depending on the quality of your frozen squid, you should NOT necessarily need to marinate it. Most squid actually arrives at your fish market frozen, not fresh (unless you happen to live along the Mexican or Spanish coast). Squid has a wonderful, delicate flavor all it's own and should not be diminished before cooking.
One think that I noticed missing from FoodDude's reply was the outer skin. There is likely a purplish outer skin that you should remove from the main tube.
After you remove the skin, beak and tentacles a neat little techique is to insert a chef's knife into the cavity of the main tube. Then, using another knife cut "slices" in the tube. This leaves half of the tube cut and the other half intact and will create a bit of an accordian effect when cooked. It makes a nice presentation.
You seem to indicate that you have cooked calamari before, so I will assume you know that timing is everything. I like to cook the tentacle pods seperately since they cook at a different rate. Another nice touch is to cook them almost all the way through, then deep fry them quickly for some crunch.
All of this assumes that there is no ink to speak of. If there is, oh my word have you got some fun in store!
Thank you for all your help. We had a "fun" time. With 3 lbs of squid, they took about an hour for my daughter and I to clean. They were completely whole and she got a fun biology lesson. They were very tasty, even though I couldn't convince the kids to eat the tentacles. I sliced the tubes into ring and called them "cheery-o's." The kids even made sponge-bob references, so hopefully this made introducing them to a different food less intimidating. I cooked them in a pasta dish, and they came out perfectly.
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