Squid is a fast and easy seafood ingredient to cook but it’s also likely you’ll end up with rubbery squid. Avoid tough and rubbery adobong pusit or squid rings with these tips:
1 Not using freshly bought squid immediately.
Like most seafood, squid spoils quickly, so the best practice is to cook it the same day it’s bought, so you taste the best that the squid can offer.
2 Disregarding the tentacles.
It’s unsightly for some people, but if you are a true connoisseur of good food, you’ll know that the flavor is best in the tentacles, not in the body from which the rings are cut from.
3 Not cooking it fast enough.
It cooks fast, literally in seconds while stir-frying over high heat. This means that once the squid has become opaque, cooking it any further means squid becomes tough and rubbery–totally the opposite of what it should be, which is soft and tender to the bite. But if you’ve cooked it past tender, there is a solution….
4 Not cooking it long enough.
Ok. So, you’ve just got tough, rubbery squid. The only thing left to do is to continue cooking it. That’s right. Keep cooking it. In fact, stew it. Braise it over low heat in a flavorful liquid until the squid becomes tender again and loses its formerly tough, rubbery texture.
5 Cooking squid.
Kilawin or kinilaw, depending on where you’re from, isn’t just reserved for fish and shrimps! Squid “cooks” just as simply and becomes just as tasty when vinegar, lemon juice, or any other acid is used as part of a ceviche marinade. In fact, it’s easily one of the fastest, easiest, and tastiest dishes you will ever make. You can marinate it minutes before serving, as little as 5 to 10 minutes, and it is good enough to “cook” the squid. Just remember to not let it sit too long in the marinade because it, too, can “overcook” in the acid and become rubbery.
With these tips in mind, you’ll never have to suffer through gnawing on a rubbery calamari again.
