Squidzilla

Back from his surfing at Real, Quezon, my adventurer-slash-Xtreme sports enthusiast cousin brought home an ice-chestful of squid. The ice chest weighed around 15Kg. It must have been a lot of squid, I thought. I was worried about cleaning each and everyone of it. To my surprise, there were just 3 pieces of really, really big squid that measured a little less than 2 feet each! My worry was replaced by awe and delight! I still worry though about how to store it in the freezer already full of stuff. And that I might run out of recipes.

We ended up eating squid for 4 days. The monster squids were expertly turned into the following:

Grilled Squid
Calamares
Ginataang Pusit
Adobo Negra, and
Dried Pusit

Even the cats enjoyed a marathon meal of it!




Since I had not enough room in the freezer for the monster creatures, I cut open one of them and sliced it into squares for drying. I salted the squid squares and put on a bilao then let it dry under the sun. It took me 3 days to have it really, really dried. The dried squid meat resembles the fry and pop chicharon when still raw. I had it fried. It tasted like commercially prepared dried squid but a bit more chewy. Maybe because the squid meat was really thick. I should have pounded it before letting it dry.






Calamares

I made Calamari out of one monster and it was a hit! Here's the recipe:

1 squidzilla
2 eggs, beaten
salt
pepper
generous amount of flour
oil for frying

Prepare the squid by cleaning it. That is taking out the innards and skeleton and washing it well. Since the squidzilla is monstrous, I thought it will be tough so I blanched it with boiled water and took off the skin. The skin peeled off easily after blanching.

Then cut the squid into rings. They made bigger than usual rings that even after shrinking during the cooking process, they remained big!

Prepare in separate bowls the following:
flour
beaten egg (incorporate a little milk in it, if you have)
seasoned flour (with salt and pepper)

Make sure the squid rings are completely patted dry before dredging them with the first coating of flour. Shake. Transfer to the egg bowl and then to the final bowl of flour. Shake again, preferably using a mesh. Chicken wire is perfect for this task.

Deep fry. Once it turns golden brown. Transfer to paper towels using a slotted spoon.