Giant Squid

[Guest]

[quote name='Marlene Mitchell' date='Apr 1 2003, 11:39 AM']<img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />  Can someone please answer the question about HOW Calamari steaks are made. I have been told that a "steak" is formed of small pieces or ground up  squid. My friend says it is just a large squiid that has been cleaned & cooked.  Thanks for any info you may have on this issue.gramsy10@aol.com

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Here is a picture of a Humbolt Squid that will soon be cleaned & turned into "Calamari steaks" The tube is opened & appropiate sized steaks are cut. The skin is removed from both sides and it is lightly pounded and cooked in any manner you prefer.

There are thousands of these presently being caught off the coast of southern California. They are breeding in 80-100 foot of water only 2-3 miles from shore. Any white or chrome jig dropped to the bottom & reeled in at high speed seems to work. They are between 10 -75 lbs. 7 put up quite a fight. You better wear raingear when fishing for them as they "squirt" everthing with their ink.

[Guest]

[quote name='sean' date='Dec 2 2004, 05:36 PM']I think that a calamari would be pounded out like a tough cut of meat.  just put between a layer of plastic wrap and pound with your meat hammer.  I am sure that would atleas do somthing to tenderize it.  I have not tried it though so, I am pretty much making this up as I go along. LOL.  I would think after pounding it , you could wrap somthing in it, and tie it if you wanted to and broil for awhile.  I mean, it is just protein right.  Just like a tough cut of meat.  Damn, now I want to try it.  I will try and let ya all know

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Hi all, My husband recently went Giant Squid fishing and came back with 3. The steaks are about 3/4 of an inch thick and about the size of a piece of bread.

We removed the membrane on one side of the steaks and I pounded them like they were Abalone, pounding just until the meat gives up some of its tension.

Then we deep fried and pan fried strips for approx 2 -3 minutes only. All of ours came out with this HORRIBLE lemony sour taste. Our neighbor did the same and his were sour too. It was very disappointing. We tried Panko crumbs, tempura batter and nothing at all but oil and garlic. It all went in the trash. If ANYONE has any ideas as to what we did wrong I would greatly appreciate it.

[glen]

Hi Harris,



There was a giant squid recipe at the following page. You need to scroll down a fair way down the screen. It is in a box on the right side of the page with the title "Making calamari from jumbo flying squid".



[url="http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/outdoors/20050129-9999-lz1s29squid.html"]http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/outdo...z1s29squid.html[/url]



Hope this helps,



Cheers, Glen

[Guest]

Try soaking it in milk, it takes the bitter taist away. I did that yesterday and it turned out good.

[esteponapj]

I just came back loaded down with squid. Great fishing out of Bodega Bay with Captain Rick Powers. A very full day of fishing.

Now, a question for the forum - I had my first steak tonight - egg wash and seasoned flour. Sauted it in olive oil for about 5 miutes. Lemon juice on top just before serving. It was horrible. Way too salty. I soaked the tubes in freash water overnight as I was told to do. Both my wife and I , plus the cats, couldn't eat the steaks. Any ideas? Please I have 40 lbs in the freezer and don't want to throw them away.

Thank you in advance.

Peter

[Guest]

[quote name='esteponapj' date='Mar 11 2005, 02:32 PM']I just came back loaded down with squid.  Great fishing out of Bodega Bay with Captain Rick Powers.  A very full day of fishing.

Now, a question for the forum - I had my first steak tonight - egg wash and seasoned flour.  Sauted it in olive oil for about 5 miutes.  Lemon juice on top just before serving.  It was horrible.  Way too salty.  I soaked the tubes in freash water overnight as I was told to do.  Both my wife and I , plus the cats, couldn't eat the steaks.  Any ideas?  Please I have 40 lbs in the freezer and don't want to throw them away.

Thank you in advance.

Peter

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Well, you cooked them wrong! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



I have had great successes down here in San Diego on the Daily Double squidding and also cooking the monsters of the deep. Great boat, excellent price!



First off, you need to clean the squid at the end of your trip. The acids in their stomach can make 'em go bad pretty quick. I can't recall smelling anything in my entire life that smells worse than bad squid. After gutting them and throwing away all but the body, we'd slice them into 4 steaks, rinse, and take home. The trick is now skinning them. It's like skinning a catfish, if you know how. Start the edge of the skin with a fillet knife. The outer layer is very tough, and tends to come off better in one direction than the other. The inner layer is almost unnoticeable, but it's there. So know you've got skinned steaks, which I then slice in half to where I have 8 pieces total per squid, each piece about 3/4"-1" thick, and about 3"X6". Now you need a really sharp fillet knife to slice the 1" steaks into two thinner fillets. All of this takes practice, but what do you have to lose, right? 40 pounds of squid? Now you need to slightly tenderize the fillets using one of those spiked hammer looking meat tenderizers. MAKE SURE YOU COVER FILLETS WITH SARAN WRAP otherwise, squid juices will be everywhere!!! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' /> Then you cut the tenderized fillets into about 1/2" strips, and soak in a beaten egg. The egg helps fluff up the batter a little better (than beer or milk) Hopefully, you have a favorite batter. I suggest 50-50 blend of medium grind corn meal to self rising flour, plus some Tony Chacere's Creole Seasoning. Get your Frydaddy hot, then throw a handful of the squid into a tupperware with a lid and batter and shake it. Separate any clumps, shake again, Toss them in the grease, 4-7 minutes, until lightly golden. They really don't need anything else, but you could squeeze a lemon and dip in marinara or cocktail sauce. Killer!!!!



Hope this helps, one of the old timers broke it down to me one night.



Fish-On!



Bull_sprigs

[Guest]

Bajanet gets the cupi doll!



I went out on a twilight fishing boat for the Humboldt squid that have been caught off the southern California coast since January. These squid are running 15-50 lbs each. When cleaning them, the crewman cut off the tail just forward of the planes, cut off the head just forward of the mantle and discarded both. He slitted the mantle along both sides of the "backbone" (spline) and discarded that as well. He then removed the outer skin from the outside of the mantle, "chunked" it into three or four pieces, then bagged it for the customer. This resulted in three or four "steaks" of about 1 inch in thickness, 4-6 inches in width, and 16 inches in length. There is a secondary membrane under the outer skin which must be removed as well as a membrane on the inside of the mantle. The steaks may then be further filleted horizontally to reduce them to about 1/3 inch for breading and quicker cooking. Don't add any salt or use a salted spice when cooking until you have tasted them--they are salty enough! (and I'm a salt-lover!)



Hope this answers.



I was disturbed by what I perceived to be considerable waste in discarding the head and tail so I asked for one not to be filleted by the crewman and took it home to experiment with less wasteful methods.

[esteponapj]

I guess that milk is going to be the thing. I tried to soak the steaks in water for 48 hours, changing the water frequently. Floured the staeks, dropped them in beaten egg, and into the olive oil. Aweful. I ate salad that night. I am 0 for two tries. Milk next, and then I might do a soup or sauce and cook the damn steaks for a long time.

Thank you for all your answers.

Peter

[John]

Has anyone tried cutting the steaks up into small bite-sized chunks (after a good, proper cleaning, i.e., membranes, skins, etc.) and cooking them in a cioppino base with all the other goodies, i.e., tomatoes, fish, crabs, shrimp, red wine, etc.?

[John]

[quote name='Skypilot' post='6113' date='Feb 14 2006, 10:34 AM']Has anyone tried cutting the steaks up into small bite-sized chunks (after a good, proper cleaning, i.e., membranes, skins, etc.) and cooking them in a cioppino base with all the other goodies, i.e., tomatoes, fish, crabs, shrimp, red wine, etc.?[/quote]



My wife and I just got back from Monterey where we went out with "________." Had an awesome time. Picked up 3 of the Humboldt squid at approx. 40 - 45 lbs each along with quite a few sand dabs and mackerel. The crew did the initial cleaning and we iced everything down and came home. We started "processing" at 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon and finished up around 9:30 last night with everything weighed, packaged and in the freezer. Tentacles and tubes were all cut up into steaks, chunks for cioppino, strips for frying and the fins skinned for cutting up into "scallops" at a later date. As info, to tenderize the steaks, we use a needle or bladed meat tenderizer.



Thanks for the info everyone. Made Saturday a much nicer and rewarding time.

[t6014rl]

I went to Trader Joe's and bought 4 delicious calamari steaks from Chile for 5 bucks and some change and they were delicious - just sauteed in a pan with some olive oil and basil salt and pepper and lemon juice. It sounds a lot easier to just buy them from Trader Joe's then to go through all the trouble of cleaning them and soaking them, etc. and still having them taste funky. Just defrosted them and threw them in a pan for about 4 minutes and voila, delicioso!. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/beer_mug.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />