i butchered my first japanese squid!

recently i had some remarkably delicious curried squid in my school lunch. i decided that i needed to learn how to prepare this sturdy, lean seafood at home. although it’s rich in the trendy omega-3 oils and low fat, in researching how to prepare the creature i learned that squid is one type of seafood noted for its high cholesterol levels [the others being prawns and roe]. as i’m genetically bound to have a heart attack any day now, i was a bit dismayed but undeterred. a friendly grandmother in the seafood section patiently explained to me how to go about making the purple sea dweller come out like my school lunch.



mine could’ve been plucked from this batch, although truthfully it wasn’t. when i started cooking dinner i didn’t realize this would be a conquest worth documenting, so i failed to get a shot of the squid in it’s natural supermarket state, in a habitat of styrofoam and saran wrap.

i wrapped my thumb and forefinger around the joint between the body and head, just below the eyes, as granny had told me to do. the head [with attached innards] didn’t pop off nearly as easily as she had described. with all the pressure i was applying, the body cavity let out a slurping, sucking sound that scared me into flinging the thing into the sink accidentally. the comeback kid got it in round 2 though. then, following instructions, i slit open the tube and cleaned all the guts [rather sparse] out.



granny acted like it would be easy to remove the skin if i started at the rear, which made much more sense before i was actually looking at the thing. i picked and scratched and cut and tugged but couldn’t seem to get the metaphorical ball rolling. then i realized there was a cartilaginous strip connecting the rear spade and the body that i surely wasn’t gonna eat, thus it had to be removed. as i sliced down it’s edges i realized this is the backbone that granny had mentioned [i thought i’d tugged it out in the intitial cleaning]. after cutting the meat away from this ridge, i pulled it towards the head [that was no longer attached] and watched the skin peel effortless off. unfortunately i’d already scored and scratched the skin so much it didn’t come off in one piece, but with this head start, removing the purple membrane wasn’t too much off a hassle.



after a little marinade of olive oil, chili peppers, lime juice, lemongrass, garlic, salt and pepper, i grilled the squid and tossed it with spaghetti and veggies…a lil thai style spicy goodness a la tiffany emerged.



tiffany – 1 squid – 0