Having been on a special diet for nine looooong months because of my food intolerance, I can’t help but cook this recipe last month when I was allowed by my dietitian to have a bit of soy sauce in my food for reaction test. This squid recipe is so easy to prepare. However, whether you want it quick or slow-cooked is up to you. I prefer mine slow-cooked.
Toni's Squid Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Kilo squid; 1 head of garlic; olive oil; quarter cup of Kikkoman soy sauce; crushed black pepper; chopped parsley for garnishing
The squid must be cleaned, ink sack removed. You can leave some of the ink though if you want as this adds more flavor to the sauce. Remove the outer reddish/purple-ish skin layer of the squid, but this is optional as well because some like to cook the squid as is. Cut the squid in rings. The white fat inside the squid should not be removed because that’s what brings more flavor to the dish.
Optional: chillis; sesame oil
Procedure:
Pour olive oil in a pan (non-stick preferably) on medium heat. Saute finely chopped garlic. Don’t brown garlic; cook until it’s tender only. Put in the squid and saute continuously for a minute. You don’t need to add water here because all the liquid and juice from the squid will come out. That is enough to cook the squid in but if you want more sauce then you can add a bit of water. Cover the pan with a lid and put the heat down. Simmer for few minutes. Pour in the soy sauce and season with black pepper. Put the lid back and keep the heat low. Cook between 15-30 minutes depending on how much remaining sauce you want. I prefer mine nearly dry and the remaining sauce very sticky. Yum!
Serve with steamed rice and garnish with chopped parsley. The optional chillies and sesame oil can be added right after you turned off the heat. The sesame oil will give it a bit more of Asian flavor while the chillies is for some heat which some people really like but I don’t.
This recipe is inspired by the Tokyo Tokyo food chain (Manila local) which I and my sister love! We came up with this recipe several years ago when Tokyo Tokyo pulled out the squid meal from their menu. Bon apetito!