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Squid is a staple diet in many of the countries in South-east Asia. We were approached by many fishermen wanting to sell, trade or give us some squid and we always refused because we had no idea how to clean and prepare the squid. It's actually not very difficult, just time-consuming and messy. Preparation Time: 1 hour for 1 Kilogram |
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1. Hold the body in one hand and the head in the other hand. GENTLY pull the tentacles and head away from the body. The insides of the squid should pull out. The ink sac is pearly white with a tinge of blue, which you might want to retain if you are going to cook the squid in it's own ink. |
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2. Cut the tentacles from the head - as close to the eyes as you can get.. |
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3. Turn the tentacles over and squeeze out the beak-like mouth with your thumbs - discard the beak and keep the tentacles. |
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4. Use a knife to scrape from the pointed end of the body to the opening, to squeeze out any innards left in the body. This will probably scrape away some of the purple skin, which needs to be removed anyway. |
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5. At the open end of the body you can feel the end of the Quill (it's like a piece of clear plastic). Pinch the end of the Quill with your finger nails and pull it out of the body. |
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6. The squid body has a purple skin and two fins, which need to be removed. Using your finger and thumbs, squeeze one of the fins away from the body and then work your fingers under the skin to remove the other fin. Pull the skin from the body. |
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7. The edible bits are the cleaned body and the tentacles. |