Grilled Soy Glazed Squid Pt. 1

We recently visited family in Washington D.C. and for those that haven’t been, it’s a wonderful city with innumerable things to do.
One of our favorite things was how easy it was to get around even without a car and after a long day of sightseeing, and binging on Shake Shack, we needed something a little fresher. So it was a no-brainer when we found a sushi spot close to where we were staying.

We ordered the normal fare, salmon rolls and spicy tuna, but one thing on the menu really piqued our interest; grilled squid.

We had to try it.

Right away, we realized that it was, by far, the best dish of the night. When we got home, we immediately found ourselves craving that delicious flavor and since then, it was settled.

We gotta make this at home.





We have a fantastic Asian market in our area that has great prices and selection on their seafood, so it wasn’t hard to find fresh squid. Better yet, at around $3.50 each, it was a steal!

Preparation

(approx. 30 mins)

The name of the game here is to clean thoroughly!!

Start by removing any bony cartilage from the suckers of the tentacles. This is quite simple actually, just run your thumb and forefinger down the tentacles and they’ll pop right off.
Apologies for not having any of this pictured, but it's really easy, I believe in you. Rinse under running water to remove any excess sucker bits.

Next, we’ll remove the head from the mantle (flappy body bit). Lift up the lip of the mantle and you’ll find two membranes connecting the head to the rest of the body. Cut through those and run your knife along the inside of the mantle to separate any organs that are attached. 

Give the head a slight pull and the two parts should come apart fairly easily.

Be careful not to puncture the stomach or ink sack. Both of these are very delicate and you don’t want any of that nasty stuff in your food.

Once you’ve got the head and tentacles removed, you’ll want to turn the mantle inside out. Before doing this, though, you’ll want to remove the cuttlebone. Make a small cut right on the pointed end of the mantle nearest the head and simply pull the bone (cartilage) out.

Now for the hard part, flip that thang inside out. Nothing complicated, it just doesn’t wanna do sometimes.


Give it a thorough cleaning under running water and then turn back to the original side and set aside for later.

The only thing left is to cut the tentacles off. You’ll want to put your knife right between the eyes and the base of the tentacles and cut straight down.

If done properly, you’ll cut right above the beak, which easily pops right out. (or if you’re like me, you’d rather cut it out)
You’ll be left with a ring of tentacles; chop that bad boy into two halves and set everything aside until you’re ready to grill.