I first tried fresh squid when working at Elements in Lyall Bay and have never looked back. If you have only tried the pre-frozen tube variety then you don’t know what you are missing. Once chemically tenderized, frozen and then defrosted there is virtually no flavour left and I don’t even bother these days. Whole fresh squid seems to be gaining a little bit of popularity and should be prepared simply. One of my favorite ways is to salt n pepper fry it with some sticky soy sauce; it was the first way I ever tried squid and is still one of my favorites. The other is to sear and lightly cook in a hot pan with some chilli and garlic and tossed with some freshly squeezed lime and picked coriander.
To prepare the squid
Cut the squid down the length of the tube and remove all the insides. Cut off the tentacles and throw out the offal and beak (or save for an awesome burly next time you’re fishing!). Cut the suckers off the tentacles and you are ready to go.
Totally agree with the fresh squid. What scallops do you use now? At Oskars we use Japanese ones out of Hokkaido with no nasty chemicals to retail water or colour like some companies
Scallops is a hard one. Its one of those items like whitebait that I would usually run as a special when they are in season and available fresh, but here in the Maldives I am using frozen Atlantic diver scallops which are pretty good although bloody expensive.It all depends in what dish and how you cook them; different products for different applications. Like the ones you use, anything with a low water content and no chemicals has always got to be the best option!
Love squid, but the fresh ones are getting really expensive these days. Great on the BBQ.
That’s a shame, back in NZ they were still pretty cheap, about $6NZ/kg. I have also seen the smaller ones stuffed with pork and Asian flavours. Makes me wish I had my BBQ here!