Garlic Calamari

Here is the recipe for those interested in the garlic calamari that we had at the New Year’s party.

First you need to clean the squid. This involves pulling the legs off the tube head part. Next, reach inside the tube part of the squid and pull out the long cuttlebone (looks like a long thin piece of plastic).

For the tentacles, you’ll want to use your fingernails or other object that has an edge, and scrape against those little round suckers. You may see these things coming off that look like little round pieces of plastic. Rinse those off.

For the tube part, you need to remove the thin membrane. Use your knife to get between the membrane and meat then just rip it off.

Here we see the squid all nice and clean.

For the tentacle portion, just cut it up into 1 to 1 1/2 inch long pieces.

For the tube portion, slice down the side to open it up into one flat piece. Score a diamond pattern on the flesh then cut it into bite sized strips.

Okay, now you’re ready to start cooking. Heat up a tablespoon or so of oil in a pan and lightly brown about 3 cloves of garlic.

Next add in the calamari, 1 teaspoon of katsuo dashi, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons shoyu. It doesn’t need to cook too long, just a couple minutes. Give it a taste and add more seasonings if necessary.

And that’s it, here’s the finished product!

It turned out very tasty and tender. Although I’m not usually a big fan of calamari (I use it as fishing bait more than anything else), I really enjoyed this dish!