Sautéed squid with ginger soy sauce イカの生姜焼き

Just after we got married, we rented a house that had a locally-owned grocery store within walking distance. The fishmonger there was Asian and really knew his fish. As a result, we were able to get some remarkably good and interesting fresh seafood. It is really good the store was within walking distance because the refrigerator in the house was from the 1950s and the freezer was only large enough to hold a box of frozen peas. As a result we had to stop almost everyday to buy food for dinner. One day, I came home and there was a bag of fresh squid sitting in the kitchen sink. Apparently, my wife bought fresh uncleaned squid from the fish monger. According to my wife, the cashier asked her, during checkout, if she knew how to clean and prepare squid. She answered with a definitive "NO", but said she assumed, since her husband was Japanese, he would know. Luckily, she assumed correctly. She should have realized, however, that not all Japanese, especially men, know how to clean and prepare squid. I can not remember what I made from the squid that day, just that my wife had such implicit faith (well placed or otherwise) in my culinary skills.

In contrast, where we now live, most squid is of either the previously or "presently" frozen pre-cleaned variety. To my pleasant surprise, however, I found fresh squid (uncleaned) at one of our regular grocery stores. Naturally, I had to get some. Although the freshness was nothing close to those available in Japan (many are still alive), this is much better than frozen ones. Although the exact variety is unknown to me, it was larger than most frozen squid.

I pondered what to make from this squid but decided to make it in a classic Izakaya or street food way; grilled squid with ginger soy sauce. Otsumami yokocho おつまみ横町 page 74 has a similar recipe but this type of squid dish is rather classic. I remember this type of squid (served on a stick, see image on the left) was one of my favorite food stand foods during Japanese festival days* or "en-nichi" 縁日 when I was a kid. (Image from http://wallpaper.free-photograph.net/jp/photobase/yp5821.html).

*The closest equivalent I can think of in the U.S. would be a county or state fair.

Just in case you have never cleaned squid: You first have to remove the innards by gently pulling the tentacles while holding the body. If you pull it correctly, all the innards come out in one piece. Then remove the cartilage which runs the entire length of the body of the squid. My squid must have had a hard life. The cartilage was broken in the middle in almost all of them. In that case, you have to go back with you finger into the body cavity of the squid and get the remaining cartilage out. As for the tentacles, I cut into them just beneath the eyes and go under the "beak" to cut them from the eyes and innards. If the beak was still attached to the tentacles, make sure you remove it. I then cut the tentacles at the base into two parts. I removed the skin from the body tube, although you do not have to do it. I did not remove the "fin" at the top of the body called "enpera" エンペラ. I scored the tube in an oblique fashion on both sides to make it easier to eat.

I first marinated the prepared squid in a mixture of sake and soy sauce (1:1) and grated ginger root (1/2 tbs) for several hours in the refrigerator. Since I could not have a charcoal fire to grill the squid, I sauteed it instead. After I removed the squid from the marinade, I carefully dried them with paper towels despite this liquid came out from the squid while cooking and prevented it from nicely browning. This was unavoidable since I did not grill on a charcoal fire. After a few minutes turning once I added a small amount of the marinade and reduced the heat for 2-3 minutes and made a sauce to coat the surface of the squid (see below). If I was grilling I would have brushed on the marinade towards the end of the grilling.

This was not one of my best efforts but the squid was very tender and soy sauce ginger flavor was perfect. For a good measure, I also added a small dab of freshly grated ginger root. We had this with cold sake.

Deep Fried Items 揚げ物

Squid Tempura イカの天ぷら

Like any bar food in United States, deep fried items 揚げ物 are very popular in Izakaya. Mark's book contains quite a few deep fried goodies. Deep fried chicken nuggets ("tori no kara-age" 鶏の唐揚げ and "Tatsuta-age" 竜田揚げ, recipe in Mark's book p84) are definitely Izakaya teiban 定番 (regular or classic) items.  On our last trip to Japan, we were in Kanazawa in June. It was the season for small white shrimp called "Shiraebi" 白エビ.  The Izakayas we ate at in Kanazawa offered this seasonal treasure in either "kara-age' (simply fried) or as "Kakiage" かき揚げ (more about this later). We loved the kara-age version of it. In addition, it was also the season for tiny, fluorescent squid called "Hotaru-ika" 蛍イカ or "firefly squid" (firefly for obvious reason). We had this squid in a very simple preparation called "Okizuke" 沖漬. What a treat!

The picture  above shows a fried squid dish I happened to make the other night since relatively fresh squid was available at the near-by Barducci's gourmet market. Talking about squid in U.S., nothing comes even close in terms of quality, variety, and freshness to the squid available in Japan. An extreme example of which was the "live" squid sashimi (生き造り) we had at the port city of Hakodate in Hokkaido. (I am sure we will have a chance to share our experience with that regional delicacy with you another time). You could use legs げそ as tempura especially in a form of "kakiage" but I used only the body parts this time. The problem with squid is that it contains lots of water which makes it splatter in the hot oil while cooking and makes it difficult to achieve a crispy crust. Also, cooked squid meat could be very chewy. A few preparation steps required to prevent this.

1) After cleaning the squid (if it is not already cleaned), cut open the tube, and make sallow criss-cross cuts. These are called "kanoko-giri" かのこ切りor "matsukasa-giri" 松かさ切り (see the diagram on left). Then, cut into small bite sized pieces. This will make the squid meat less chewy and easy to bite off.
2) Dry the squid by sandwiching it in a paper towel.  If you have time, you could refrigerate the squid in the paper towel "sandwich" for 10 minutes.
3) Before dipping into tempura batter, coat the squid with flour (I use potato starch).
4) There are many version of tempura batter but I use a whole egg (classical recipes use egg yolk only), 1 cup of cake flour and ice cold water mixed to the desired consistency. But do not over mix. You want a light flour so you do not want to develop the gluten in the flour. For vegetables, I prefer a thin watery batter--for shrimp and squid a slightly thicker batter.
5) I use peanuts oil since it imparts a nice peanut flavor to the squid and has a high smoke point. To test if the oil is hot enough I drip a very small amount of the batter into it. If the batter sinks into the oil half way and then immediately floats back to the surface, the oil is ready. (another method I use to check if the oil is ready, that was taught to me by my mother, is to put the tip of a bamboo cooking chopstick into the oil and if bubbles come out of the chopstick, the oil is ready). Depending on how things go, you may want to "double" fry the squid. Be careful to take out any stray pieces of tempura batter left in the oil ("tenkasu 天かす which can be used as a topping for needle in a soup dish and has other use) after the squid is cooked through and removed, otherwise they will burn making an unpleasant taste. Increase the heat and crisp up the crust for the second time (just 15 -20 seconds). You may need to try this several times before you will get it right.

6) Traditionally, tempura is eaten using a warm dipping sauce "tentsuyu" 天つゆ (dashi, mirin, sugar, soy sauce or buy in a bottle) with grated daikon and ginger root. But we usually eat it with "green tea salt" 抹茶塩 (a mixture of Kosher salt and powered green tea) and lemon. The  night I made this tempura, we went more traditional .

Sashimi big eye tuna "akami" and "Hotaru-ika" firefly squid メバチマグロの赤身とほたるイカ

 Spring is the season for a species of small squid called "Hotaru-ika" ほたるイカ or Firefly squid. It is so-called because it emits a bioluminescent light like a firefly. Some years ago when we traveled to Kanazawa 金沢 and Kyoto 京都 in spring, we really enjoyed “Hotaru-ika” at various Izakayas 居酒屋. Because this squid has parasites, it must be cooked (boiled) or frozen at -30C for 4 days. That means a regular home freezer (-22 C or 0F) is not adequate. This is not a “ DIY (do it yourself ) home project”. The squid has to come from a commercial source with the resources to at least freeze it properly. While in Kanazawa, we learned, through multiple tastings that our favorite way to eat it is “Okizuke” 沖ずけ. Although this dish is made of uncooked marinated squid it is special to Toyama prefecture 富山県 (Kanazawa city is the capital) where they know to make it safe by appropriately freezing it before making it into okizuke 沖ずけ.  “Oki-zuke” literally means “offshore marinated”. Traditionally, fishermen took the marinade with them on the boat and as they caught the squid , threw it into the marinade. By the time, they got back to shore, it was perfectly marinated. Although traditional, this method is not safe since the parasites will not be killed in a marinade. 

In any case, recently, I mentioned to my wife (who is particularly fond of firefly squid), that  it was the season and I was reading that many of the food bloggers I follow, were enjoying this seasonal delicacy. We had hotaru-ika at Tako Grill some years ago so we thought we should be able to get this in the U.S. A quick search of the internet turned up a company called “Regalis food”. They sell boiled firefly squid among other gourmet food items. They are more geared up for supplying restaurants rather than individual customers, however, so the minimal amounts required for purchase are a bit large. Nonetheless we ordered the minimum 300 grams (or three trays) of boiled firefly squid (which was shipped from Long Island) and the minimum 3 lbs. of big eye tuna akami  (which was shipped  from California). Although coming from different places both shipments arrived at the same time; (over night delivery).

The first picture shows one of the trays of hotaru-Ika.

 

This picture of the tuna akami is the tail portion near the back with skin on. The piece arrived whole; I cut it into portions before this picture was taken. Since I did not have much time, I did not cut the tuna into sashimi blocks (or “saku”). I just removed “chi-ai” 血合い cut it into 4 portions with skin on.  I only prepared one portion for sashimi.  The rest, I vacuum packed and froze for a later time. 

I served the akami with some vegetables. After removing the hard “eye” or “beak” from the firefly squid, I served them with sumiso 酢味噌 dressing.

The Akami of big eye tuna is not too bad. Certainly much better than frozen yellowfin tuna we often have.

Serving the squid with sumiso sauce is certainly a very common presentation. The plate of hotaru-ika shown here is half of one tray (so, the two of us finished a whole tray or 100grams). I think what makes hotaru-ika so special is that the squid are very small and each squid makes one pleasant mouthful. The first part of the experience is the pleasing texture of biting into the soft squid body followed by the  release of the lovely taste of the squid meat then the rich flavor of the innards especially the slightly bitter taste of the liver. Trust me, it tastes much better than the description sounds. 

We feel very fortunate we can enjoy the firefly squid in U.S. Hopefully we can visit the Iizakaya in Kanazawa and enjoy local sake with okizuke firefly squid again sometime soon.

Squid and daikon, simmered イカ大根

This is a sort of standard dish using squid. I made this dish using the half of the squid package from Vital Choice. I posted a similar dish before. In that post, I mentioned that to make squid tender, you have to cook it either very briefly or a very long time. This time I cooked the squid briefly. I made a slight modification and included a grilled fish cake tube or "Yaki chikuwa" 焼きちくわ. The daikon and even the fish cake absorbed flavor from the squid and this is great "teiban" 定番料理 for the squid. The below is a picture of the serving immediately after I made this dish. 

The daikon was hiding in the bottom.

Ingredients:
170 gram (6oz) frozen squid, thawed, washed, body cut into 1/2 inch thick rings, tentacles separated
3 inch long daikon, peeled, sliced in 1 inch thick pieces
4 thin slices of ginger, cut into small match sticks
1 frozen fish cake tube or "yaki-chikuwa" 焼きちくわ, thawed and cut into bite size
Green beans, cooked, cut in bias, arbitrary amount

For simmering liquid
1 cup (240-50ml) Japanese broth (I used a bonito and kelp dashi pack)
50-60ml "x4 concentrated" noodle sauce (from the bottle) or half and half soy sauce and mirin

For pre-cooking the daikon
Water enough to cover the daikon
One pinch of uncooked rice (or water in which uncooked rice was rinsed "kome-no togijiru" 米のとぎ汁).

Directions:
Simmer the daikon for 30 minutes or longer until cooked though and soft, rinse off the rice grain if needed (you could prepare the daikon ahead and keep this for a few days in the refrigerator before using).

Add the simmering liquid and the ginger in a pan on medium high flame and let it come to the boil, add the squid and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the squid just becomes homogeneously white/opaque. Take out the squid and set aside.
Add the daikon and the fish cake and turn down the flame and simmer for 15 minutes.
Taste the simmering liquid and if needed add more noodle sauce (or soy sauce/mirin).
Add back the squid and simmer to warm up (30 seconds to one minute).
Garnish with the green beans and serve warm (or cold).

The next day, I served this cold with the other squid dish I made. This dish is usually served warm but even cold, this was a great dish.

The below was two  (quite different) simmered squid dishes both served cold as a starter.

These were a good taste contrast; one is very fresh bright tasting and the other is a very traditional flavor In both dishes the squid was tender due to brief cooking. In the squid-daikon dish, both the daikon and fish cake absorbed the squid flavor. The addition the chikuwa made it taste like you were enjoying more squid than was actually in the dish. 

Rare tastes 珍味

A Japanese word "chinmi" 珍味 is often used to describe food items which are rare and/or limited to certain regions of Japan. You can assemble these rare tastes more easily nowadays by mail order and because of many special sales featuring these rare and regional food items (usually held in department stores in Japan). Even in the U.S., more and more of these "chinmi" items are becoming available, albeit much more limited compared to Japan. Tonight, we had an assortment of these rare tastes with sake.

Dried "Shishamo" fish 寒干しししゃも　

This small fish called "Shishamo" ししゃも or 柳葉魚、Spirinchus lanceolatus, is harvested only on the southern pacific coast of Hokkaido. I grew up with this fish and they are very popular drinking snack items especially in Hokkaido. These are usually semi-dried and we get them frozen in the United States. My mother sent these to us. They were (supposedly) "fully dried" in the cold northwind of Hokkaido. They can be eaten as is but I grilled them briefly over the gas fire and served them with grated daikon 大根おろし and soy sauce. They are a bit chewier than semi-dried (which has to be more thoroughly grilled) but they are very flavorful. To my surprise, even my wife liked them.

Raw  Octopus marinated in wasabi sauce たこぶっかけ (lt)、Salmon roe with grated daikon いくら甘酢大根おろし (ctr)、Raw Squid mariated in hot red peper sauce イカぶっかけ (rt)

My wife and I love "squid and guts" or squid "shiokara" いかの塩辛. This is definitely an acquired taste but most people who love sake will love this as well because both go together so well. Shiokara is made from fresh squid which is salted and slightly fermented with squid innards (mostly liver). The homemade variety made with a light amount of salt (this kind does not last long) is the best. Many commercial ones are too salty but more recently, we can get a less salty kind in a small plastic pouch in the frozen case of the Japanses grocery store. Last time we were in Hakodate we had commercial but local "shiokara" which was excellent. Another similar preparation is called "okizuke" 沖漬け. "oki" in Japanese means "far-away from the shore". Supposedly, fishermen start marinading the freshly caught squid (sometimes other fish or shell fish) while in their boat and by the time they come back to shore (overnight or one day), the dish is done. Once in a blue moon, Chef Kudo at Tako Grill makes squid okizuke which is exquisite.  Last time we were in Kanazawa, a small fluorescent squid called "hotaruika" 蛍イカ or firefly squid was in season. We really enjoyed "okizuke" of this small squid. Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to get a fresh squid suitable for making these dishes in the U.S. What we have here is the closest substitute.

In the above image, from left to right are raw octopus with wasabi sauce たこぶっかけ、salmon roe with grated daikon いくら大根おろし (grated diakon is seasoned with sweet vinegar which is only item I prepared)、and raw squid with hot sauce イカぶっかけ. These squid and octopus dishes are variations of "shiokara" and "okizuke" and are called "bukkake" ぶっかけ in which small pieces of raw octopus or squid are marinated in a spicy sauce. Here, the octopus is marinated in "wasabi" sauce and squid in red pepper sauce. Both come in a small plastic pouch and bought frozen. These are perfect accompaniment for sipping sake.

Cheese stuffed squid チーズいか

This is another item, my mother sent us. A Japanese word "Ikomi" 射込み means to "insert" or to "stuff" and this one is a type of "ikomi" squid. This is a commercial product in which a small squid was stuffed with cheese and cooked. This is eaten as is. Interesting combination of tastes. I served one for each of us but my wife went back and got another one. She must have liked it.

Smoked scallop 帆立ての薫製

This is a smoked whole scallop from Lake Saroma 佐呂間湖 in Hokkaido. To us, it is a bit too smoky and chewy.

"Udon" pasta with squid and marinara sauce イカとマリナラソースのウドンパスタ

 I ordered fresh whole squid from Hmart via the Instacart. Since there was a minimum of 1 pound for the order so I specified 1.5 pound to be safe. I was expecting one large intact squid. Instead I got a substitute; "cleaned and packaged" squid. Since this squid did not include innards 1.5 pounds translated into quite a lot of squid; three large packages, much more than I  expected. When my wife unpacked the bag she commented, "That's a lot of squid!" Since it was "cleaned" it was also more expensive per pound. I was thinking the body portion of the squid I bought would be intact so I could either stuff it or cut it into squid rings to fry. But the body portion had been opened to remove the innards. (Removing the innards even if the body has not been opened is not that hard and is what I do to prepare squid). In addition the thin skin (which is very hard to remove) and the small wings at the top were still attached. This all made it relatively easy for the person packaging the squid but not necessarily the customer left with the harder part of the prep. What I would have preferred is the body left intact but the thin skin and wings removed. Oh well, I kvetch.

I set to work and removed the wings ("enpera" エンペラ in Japanese. Supposedly, this word originated from "emperor" since the shape of the wings resembled Napoleon's hat) and removed the thin skin using a paper towel to grasp the edge of the skin and peeled it off. Most importantly, the good news was that the squid was fresh (i.e. no smell).  It was much fresher than anything we would get from Giant. It was a fairly good size with tentacles so overall I was pleased.  

I quickly boiled the tentacles in salted water with a splash of sake. (We enjoyed these as appetizers for several evenings with cucumber and wakame seaweed dressed in "sumiso" 酢味噌 vinegar miso dressing). I shallowly scored the body in crisscross fashion and cut it into one inch by a half inch rectangles. I used about a third of the prepared squid for squid in tomato sauce "udon" pasta. The rest I froze. This was lunch on Saturday.

I thought I used a quite a good amount of squid but once it was cooked, it did not feel like a lot.

 

Ingredients:
1/2 lb squid, body, cleaned, thin skin removed, apply crisscross shallow cuts on one side and then cut into 1 x 0.5 inch rectangles (see picture below).
1/2 cup marinara sauce (This was my usual homemade)
Cooked pasta (I used cooked udon noodles)
4-5 fresh basil leaves, cut into chiffonade,
Garlic, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil

Directions:
Add the olive oil in a frying pan on medium flame. Add the garlic (if using) and stir for 1 minutes or until fragrant. Add the squid and sauté for 30-40 seconds, add the noodle and the marinara sauce. Stir and warm up for few minutes. Garnish with the basil and splash good olive oil.

This was a good pasta dish. The squid was not chewy at all. 

Squid stuffed with rice いか飯

A few weeks ago, I found frozen squid at our Japanese grocery store. I am not sure what the actual name is of this creature but I would say this must be "Surume-ika"スルメイカ or "Yari-ika" ヤリイカ. I have no idea what the English name would be. The only thing I do know is that this is a relatively large squid. While this type of squid is widely available in Japan we never see them at the regular grocery store in the U.S. Since many squid dishes can be made from the more commonly available small squid, I decided to make something different which requires the use of a large squid such as this one. I decided to make rice stuffed squid or "Ikameshi" イカ飯. Actually, in Hokkaido, this is the “star” of the most famous station-box-lunch or ekiben 駅弁 at Mori-machi 森町 station near Hakodate 函館 where squid is one of the famous local catches from the sea.



I served this as a small drinking snack with the side of blanched broccolini. We quickly switched to sake for this dish.



After serving 4 slices for both of us, this is what remained.

The frozen squid was about 10 inches long (just for the body or head portion). I let it thaw out at room temperature for a few hours since I did not have much time (upper left in the picture below). Since this was not cleaned, I had to clean it. I just separated the innards from the body using my fingers then gently pulled the legs until all the innards came out in one piece. I then removed the "cartilage" (transparent long and narrow structure) by just pulling on the end. I cut and separated legs and innards just above the eyes and discarded the innards. There was a hard "beak" in the center of the base of the legs which I removed. I then cut the legs into individual pieces*. I further cleaned and washed the cavity of the body of the squid (upper right in the picture below). I pondered whether I should remove the skin. In the end I did using paper towels to get traction.



* I marinated the legs in the 1:1 mixture of mirin and soy sauce and then grilled them over a charcoal fire when we did "Yakitori" the next day--but did not take pictures. The legs can be cooked with the rest of the squid or even used as a stuffing (cut into small pieces) with rice.

Cooking liquid: I made the cooking liquid with dashi broth (2 cups made from kelp and bonito flakes), sake (1/3 cup), mirin (3 tbs), sugar (3 tbs), and soy sauce (1/2 cup).

Rice: I washed and soaked  "mochi-gome" 餅米 or "glutinous" rice over night in the refrigerator  (1 cup, this can be had in a Japanese grocery store. It is sticker than regular Japanese rice. This is a particular kind of short grain rice from which "mochi" 餅 or rice cake is made).

I stuffed the squid with the drained glutinous rice. The amount of the rice is crucial. I just filled a bit less than half of the cavity (do not try to use up all the rice). I closed it using a toothpick. Not over filling is important since, when cooked, it will swell up and if overstuffed, it will burst.

I then placed the stuffed squid in a shallow pan and poured in the cooking liquid. I placed an "Otoshi buta" 落とし蓋 and a regular lid and cooked it on a very low flame for over 1 hour turning it once (lower left in the picture above). I took out the cooked squid and let it cool a bit before slicing.

This was a good dish. The rice is very sticky and absorbed all the flavors of squid and the cooking liquid. Just before eating I  poured a small amount of the cooking liquid over the rice. I could have made a sauce by reducing the cooking liquid but I did not.

For the leftover piece, a few days later I micro waved  it to warm it up a bit which worked well. I hope I can get this type of squid again but this happens only sporadically.

Squid three kinds いか塩辛、明太、柚子胡椒

We like octopus and squid. So when we went to our Japanese grocery store, we got two kinds of  pre-made packages of "ika shiokara" イカ塩辛 (thinly sliced raw squid marinated or fermented in its inards  - mostly liver-  and salt. My wife refers to this as "squid and guts"),  and squid in spicy cod roe or "Ika mentai" イカ明太. Both came from Hakodate 函館, Japan's squid capital. Both packages touted  "direct from the manufacturer" and  "O-sashimi shokkan"おさしみ食感 (texture of raw squid). We also got frozen squid sashimi which was cut into similar thin strips (called "Ika So-men イカソーメン,  somen is a thin Japanese noodle).

Although, the package of "Ika somen" came with packets of soy sauce and wasabi, I decided to make a sauce from "Yuzu kosho" 柚子胡椒 and soy sauce. My plan was that I would make the third squid item. Yuzu kosho is a spicy paste made of Japanese "togarashi" pepper (usually green but could be red pepper), Japanese Yuzu citrus zest and salt. I used the kind that comes in a tube. Since this was a newly opened tube, more yuzu kosho than I intended came out and the mixture was one part yuzu kosho and 2 parts soy sauce. I dressed the "Ika somen" in this mixture and served all three in our newly-acquired three-well dishes. These multi-compartment dishes make it possible to serve 3 small food items compactly instead of in individual containers--greatly reducing the number of dishes to clean.

From left to right; squid "shiokara", squid "mentai" and squid "Yuzu kosho". All great with sake. "Shiokara" is not too salty and slightly sweet. "Mentai" is a bit spicy but the squid texture is exactly like raw squid. "Yuzu kosho" has a nice yuzu citrus flavor with some heat and went well with the two others.

This type of snack is made for sake. We had our tried-and-tested house sake "Mu" daiginjo 無大吟醸 served in Izakaya style.

Just a bit of squid and sake really went well. We like to enjoy squid sashimi this way more so than the usual wasabi and soy sauce.

Firefly squid grilled in miso-scallion sauce ホタルイカのネギみそ焼き

 One of the delicacies of Spring in Japan is firefly squid or “hotaru-ika” ホタルイカ.  Like last year, we got boiled firefly squid from Regalis Food. Since I started seeing “Hotaru-ika” in the Japanese food blogs I follow, I checked the Regalis site but they were not available yet so I asked to be notified when they came in. A few days later, I got an email saying firefly squid was available. I looked for something else to purchase from their site but nothing drew my attention so I decided to fill out the order with two packages of the squid. A major part of the preparation of this squid is removing the stone hard eyes and beak before serving/cooking. (It is more difficult to remove the beak than the eyes. Unfortunately I was not completely successful in beak-removal on some of the squid as my wife so kindly pointed out to me after crunching down on several of the ones I accidentally left behind). I served the firefly squid with “sumiso” 酢味噌 with “wakame” 若芽 seaweed twice which is the most common and basic way to enjoy this. For some reason, this year’s firefly squid tasted better than the ones we got last year. Since this is such a simple way of serving the squid the quality really makes a difference. I then proceeded with other preparations to serve.

One of those new preparations is shown below;  “firefly squid grilled in miso scallion sauce”. This is a perfect drinking snack and went so well with the cold sake we were having. 

The recipe came from e-recipe (in Japanese).

Ingredient: (for two small servings)
Firefly squid, about 20, both eyes and beak removed.

For sauce:
Scallion, finely chopped, about 2 tbs
Miso 1tbs
Japanese “dashi” broth 1tbs
Sugar 1-2 tsp
Soy sauce and white sesame (small amount, optional)

Directions:
Mix the all ingredients for the sauce (taste and adjust the amount of sugar and broth).
Place the firefly squid in a single layer in a oven-proof ramekin (picture below).

Cover the squid with the miso sauce (picture below).

Cook in the toaster oven until the surface becomes brown (6-7 minutes in toast mode). If needed, broil the surface for additional browning. Serve immediately.

Since grilled miso by itself is great with sake, this combination with firefly squid makes this dish perfect. 

"Saki ika" dried and seasoned squid tempura さきイカの天ぷら

As I mentioned in previous posts, Japanese have many pre-packaged drinking snacks. The variety of which far exceeds American counterparts of mixed nuts, gold fish– cracker not the real fish, beef jerky and mini-pretzels. One rather common snack is thin strands of semi-dried and seasoned squid called "Saki ika" さきイカ meaning "torn squid". This is a modern commercial product derived from an old fashioned dried squid or "Surume" スルメ.

When I was growing up, "surume"  was a rather common snack, not necessarily just a drinking snack. This was a dried whole flattened squid. To eat, you have to first grill it lightly and then tear it along the grain into thin strips (it can easily be torn into strands by hand with an occasional application of teeth). It is very chewy like old leather and you have to work on it for a while in your mouth before it’s soft enough. As you chew, more flavors will come out. In fact a Japanese saying, "The more you chew, the more flavor you get" 噛めば噛むほど味が出る equates the effort you need to extract full flavor from dried squid to the effort you need to extract meaning and joy out of life; or subtle but real goodness can only be appreciated with substantial effort. But even in Japan, vigorous use of the masseter muscle is not an exercise people like to do. So much-easier-to-eat pre-cooked, seasoned, and pre-torn dried squid in a package is more common, replacing the old-fashioned "surume".  You could just eat "saki ika" as is (there are many variations but, in general, it has a somewhat sweet seasoning). Or you could used it in a dish. This tempura or fritter version is supposedly a classic Izakaya affair.  I have not seen or eaten it before so I decided to try it.

I checked a few recipes but, in the the end, as usual, I used my common sense and altered or combined several recipes.

The picture to the left is the "saki ika" I bought from the near-by Japanese grocery store. It said "a letter from shore" and "directly sent from where it was caught" but, who knows, this may have been made from squid caught off African shores and previously frozen. In any case, this is how I made this dish.

Dried and seasoned "saki ika" squid: I am not sure how much is in one package but I used the whole thing for two good sized servings. I first soaked the squid in an equal mixture of sake and water (2Tbs each) in a bowl and let it soften for 30 minutes. I then wrung out the excess moisture and wrapped it in a paper towel.

Tempura batter: I have experimented in the past what made the best tempura batter including the use of Vodka in a mix. This time I used cake flour, club soda (carbonated water) and dried "aonori" 青海苔 seaweed. I first mixed the flour and aonori in a bowl (the amount is arbitrary, the proper consistency is what you are after, you have to adjust the amount of flour and the water, accordingly). Just before frying, I mixed in the cold club soda and quickly mixed to make a runny pancake batter consistency. I added more flour and water as I needed to make the amount of batter I needed. But do not over mix otherwise the gluten will develop.

Oil: I used peanut oil for deep frying. I heated the oil to about 170C (335F). I placed the softened squid strips in the batter to make a small bite size portion. As I placed it in the hot oil, I tried to spread it into a flat disk-shape so that the strands of squid didn’t bunch up too much. I fried for few minutes turning once. The oil may have been too hot. The edges got a bit too dark (the seasoning of the squid apparently contains sugar) but it was not burnt and did not affect the taste too much.

As you can see in the first picture, I served this with a wedge of lemon and mayo mixed with soy sauce and Japanese 7 flavor red pepper flakes 七味唐辛子.

This is an excellent drinking snack. The "saki ika" squid has just right consistency, not chewy but not too soft, with very light crispy tempura crust. I was afraid the squid may became too fishy but that was not the case. Using carbonated water in the tempura batter really worked. Among other methods I tried, this is the simplest and most effective. As much as we liked this dish very much, it is not particularly "healthy". To compensate, I served a simple refreshing "sunomono" 酢の物 salad dish following this.

This is just cucumber, wakame (did not show up well in the picture) and tomato dressed in seasoned sushi vinegar and topped with crumbled soft semi-dried scallop from Hokkaido 北海道.

Italian-style squid salad イタリアンカラマリサラダ

When I was getting our usual filet of salmon, I could not resist getting cleaned squid. Since I did not have much time to deal with the squid when I got home, I decided to boil the entire one pound (tubes and tentacles).   Since cleaned squid we can get here is previously frozen and thawed ("for your convenience"), it can not last long and needs to be cooked immediately.  From the prepared squid, I made two dishes. One is Italian style squid salad. I made a similar dish before without any recipe. This one is loosely based on the recipe I saw on line.

The base green is our home grown arugula. It was getting a bit tough but it has so much flavor even without any dressing. I let the squid marinade for several hours in the refrigerator before serving.

This must have been the next day. I just made it to our usual sumiso 酢味噌 dressed Japanese-style salad with cucumber and wakame seaweed.

Ingredients (this will be 4 servings for us as a small appetizer).
• 2/3 lb cleaned squid
• 1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon red-wine vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/4 sweet (Vidalia) onion, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
• Skinned Campari tomatoes (4-5), halved or quartered if large
• 1 celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• Parsley, several sprigs, stem removed, chopped

Preparation of squid:
Rinse squid under cold running water. Halve tentacles lengthwise and cut bodies  crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide rings.

Cook squid in a boiling salted water with a splash of sake, uncovered, until just opaque, 40 to 60 seconds. Drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop the cooking. When squid is cool, drain and pat dry.

Directions for salad:
Whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then stir in onion, squid, olives, tomatoes, celery, and parsley in a large bowl. Toss with dressing and season with salt and pepper. Let stand at least 15 minutes to allow flavors to develop (I refrigerated for several hours).

Both preparations were good. The Italian-style has more complex flavors with a burst of saltiness when you bite into the olive. For this we choose to have American brewed G-sake on the rocks.

Natto, squid sashimi and cold tofu イカ納豆と冷や奴

This was inspired by a post in an Izakaya blog I follow. The blogger Mr. Hamada 浜田さん is rather well-known Izakaya  aficionado in Japan. He frequents "tachi-nomi (Standing-up)" 立ち飲み izakaya called "Yakiya" やきや in Ogikubo 荻窪 in Tokyo.  On one such visit, he had this dish which was a combination of natto, squid sashimi and cold tofu いか納豆と冷奴 and his write-up  piqued my interest.

I bought both natto and squid sashimi frozen at our Japanese grocery store. I garnished the Squid-natto with chopped scallions and perilla from our herb garden. The cold tofu is from "otokomae tofu". It is comes in a package of three connected small squares filled with silken tofu called "san-ren-chan" 三連チャン. For this dish, I cut one of the tofu squares half and topped it with chopped scallion and bonito flakes.

I premixed the natto (one package divided among us) using my natto stirrer with the sauce that came with the natto and a bit of wasabi. I placed the squid sashimi next to it (below). I premix the natto to make it more palatable for my wife.  (A thorough mix will add air thus reducing the ripe...very ripe cheesy smell).

I then garnished it with chopped scallion and perilla (from our herb garden).

Instead of straight soy sauce, I added concentrated noodle sauce and mixed the squid-natto well. We ate the squid-natto as is but based on the advice of Mr. Hamada in his blog we mixed the natto with the cold tofu. He was right this is a good combination. My wife pointed out that the combination of round natto beans and long strips of squid made it difficult to eat with a spoon or chop sticks. (The spoon worked for the natto but not the squid while the chop sticks got the squid but made eating the beans very difficult. She suggested cutting the squid into shorter strips so that it is closer in size to the beans making it easier to eat with a spoon. According to Mr. Hamada, at Yakiya, they use a specific part of fresh squid to make their squid-natto. What I made probably is not quite up to that standard but, for us, it was still pretty good with our new house sake "tengu-mai" daiginjou 天狗舞大吟醸.

Grilled marinated squid 炙りイカ

I had a large frozen squid in my freezer and it had been living there for some time。My wife complained it was taking up too much space and it was time to evict it. I decided it wasn’t getting any better with age so I used it one weekend. This squid was identical to the one I used to make “squid rice”. I cleaned the innards and cartilage and removed the dark thin membrane of the skin. I removed the fin (“enpera” えんぺら), separated each tentacles, and cut the body into rings. When I prepared it, I thought I would make fried squid rings (breading with panko bread crumbs and deep fried) but the day turned out to be a nice sunny but cool fall day. We figured the cool weather would keep the mosquitoes relatively inactive. Conditions were perfect for cooking the squid on our small Japanese Yakitori grill. Because the squid was going to be grilled, I marinated it for several hours in an equal mixture of soy sauce and mirin and added grated ginger root.

The picture below shows the squid when it came off the grill. The legs were particularly good, not too chewy.and perfectly cooked.

This was also the first time, I used the Looftlighter to start the charcoals for the Yakitori grill (below). I just made a mound of charcoals in the middle and started the fire. Since I did not have to transfer the lit charcoal from the chimney starter, it was much less dangerous and much easier.

The below are marinated squid parts.

The squid cook rather quickly.

I turned them over after 1 minute or so and the squid rings firmed up and showing nice char marks. Another minute should be enough.

The squid was very good especially with cold sake.It was seasoned enough and not needing any sauce. Probably this was better than the fried squid rings I originally planned. With the help of the infrared heater, we stayed outside after the dark and enjoyed our grill (more items were grilled of course).

Squid in beer sauce tapa イカのビールソース煮タパ

We like squid. The only type of squid available in our regular grocery store is relatively small, cleaned and previously frozen. We can occasionally get a frozen, larger whole squid (probably "Surume-ika" スルメイカ) at the Japanese grocery store. In any case, here again, I got a pound of squid from our grocery store. I asked my wife how I should cook it and she reminded me of a tapa dish I used to make frequently but have not made in a long time. So, I consulted my tapas cookbook  and made this squid in beer sauce.

The recipe calls for small squid (less than 4 inches long). Many of the squid I had just bought were that size but some were larger so I cut them into two or three pieces. I served the dish at (room temperature) garnished with a wedge of Meyer lemon and chopped parsley as a small starter dish.

This went well with the Tempranillo we were enjoying (Ribera del Duero 2010 Matanegra Vendimia Seleccionada, WA 92 points).

Ingredients:
1 lb small squid tubes and tentacles, cleaned. If much larger than 4 inches long cut into several pieces.
1  medium sweet onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and peeled
1 bay leaf
1 medium tomato, skinned, seeded and chopped (I used 5 skinned Campari tomatoes)
4 tbs olive oil
Salt, pepper and sugar (1/4 tbs)
1/2 cup beer (I used rather hoppy Samuel Adams Brown ale)

Directions:
1. I put 2  tbs of olive oil in a sauce pan on a low flame and added the garlic stirring until fragrant and starting to turn color and added the onion and let it gently cook for 10 minutes with a lid on (#1 below).
2. After the onion was cooked, I added the tomato, bay leaf, sugar, salt and ground black pepper (#2) and kept cooking for another 5 minutes uncovered.
3. In a shallow casserole (I used my antique Pyrex ware), I added 2 tbs of olive oil and heated on a medium flame and sautéd the squid (#3) for 2-3 minutes and added the beer (#4), covered, lowered heat, and simmered for 10 minutes.
4. I added the onion-tomato sauce (#5), covered and cooked another 25 minutes (#6).
5. I removed the squid to a plate and set aside. On a medium flame, I reduced the sauce in half or until thickened (#7).
6. I returned the squid to the pan and cooked 10 more minutes (#8).

The squid was very tender and the sauce was great. My wife reminded me that we used to use this as a pasta sauce.