sous vide calamari salad

Canugghead

Defrosted a pack of squid tentacles, cleaned and vac sealed with little salt, white pepper, garlic powder and five spice powder...


Had to use my diy red neck sous vide setup, since Anova was busy with 72-hr chucky cook.  Most calamari recipes call for 138F (probably OK for large squid body pieces), but my small pilot batch at 138F for 2.5 hrs came out too tender.  Tried again at 135F for 2 hrs, turned out much better, a little al dente...


my daughter did the seasoning ... lemon juice, cilantro, red wine vinegar, salt, sugar, sesame oil, chili + ? ... it's a keeper.

Chubbs

You always amaze me. Nice job. My kids would run if I served that. 

Darby_Crenshaw

135 at 2hrs was too tender? Very interesting.  I would have thought it was something that needed to go longer

like that you like them with more bite. Same here

don't have an SV here. Just surprised at temp/time 

Canugghead

@Chubbs Thanks, if I may I would hazard a guess it's a cultural thing 

Little Steven

Gary,

Glad you used the tentacles. There's been some other calamari discussed here lately that I don't even wanna think about.

Canugghead

@Darby_Crenshaw I was surprised/disappointed at the over tenderness of the first trial too, recipes I googled generally call for 138F in the 2-4 hrs range. Like I said, probably because these are previously frozen skinny tentacles. Larger, thicker squid rings would likely need higher temp longer.

I'm actually tempted to try again at 30min shorter, i.e. 1.5hr @ 135F.  With the chamber sealer I can use an oversized bag, reseal (must remember to cool it first!) if longer cook time is required, and throw it back in the bath.

Canugghead

Little Steven 

just wondering if it has anything to do with the shape of squid torso? 

caliking

Nice cook! The plated shot looks very good I haven't tried much seafood in the SV, so thanks for the details.

I'm assuming the seasoning was done after pulling form the bath, or did you season with anything in the bag?

badinfluence

And some people say eating tongue is gross....yuck

theyolksonyou

Interesting cook. I'd try that!  As long as you didn't aquire the calamari in Dixie. 

nolaegghead

Looks great!

Lots of different types and ages of squid...they can live a long time (where I'm certain they get tougher).  Nice job.  I have not done them in SV....yet.

Canugghead

@caliking I added salt, white pepper, garlic powder and five spice powder in the bath, probably won't bother with that again since all flavours ended up in the discarded liquid, the squid hardly picked up any.  

The key marinade is lemon juice, etc. after the bath with the squid rinsed and patted dry.

edit: OTOH if I deep fry them post s.v. with batter next time I'd definitely add five spice powder etc

Canugghead

badinfluence said:

And some people say eating tongue is gross....yuck

c'mon you should try some at least once!

Little Steven

caliking said:

Nice cook! The plated shot looks very good I haven't tried much seafood in the SV, so thanks for the details.

I'm assuming the seasoning was done after pulling form the bath, or did you season with anything in the bag?

I think seafood benefits the most from sous vide. You gotta try it. White fish fillets with some butter and parsley....no sear. Lobster tails are the bomb too.

Canugghead

@theyolksonyou if you want to try unusual 'creatures', visit a Chinese restaurant!

Canugghead

@Little Steven what temp/time do you sv fish in general?  what about shrimps?

bgebrent

Very nice cook sir!  Looks delicious!

Canugghead

@nolaegghead  thanks, good to know, these must be baby squids!

Canugghead

Thanks @bgebrent

Little Steven

Canugghead said:

@Little Steven what temp/time do you sv fish in general?  what about shrimps?

Depends on thickness, type of fish and quality. Good fish 118* for like half an hour, frozen stuff a little longer and a little warmer. Shrimp I've done between 135* and 165* till the turn pink. Usually between 10 and 30 minutes if I remember. I wouldn't do good tuna sous vide. (if I could afford good tuna)

badinfluence

I have tried them before. Maybe it was the way it was cooked but I could not eat it. I would be willing to try it again if cooked different as when I had it before it was like chewing on a rubber band.

Canugghead

@Little Steven  Thanks!

@badinfluence Cooking squid can be tricky, that's why I decided to try sous vide. Here's a good writeup by SeriousEats, it even explains why it can be like rubber band!
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/08/how-to-grill-squid.html

caliking

Canugghead said:

@caliking I added salt, white pepper, garlic powder and five spice powder in the bath, probably won't bother with that again since all flavours ended up in the discarded liquid, the squid hardly picked up any.  

The key marinade is lemon juice, etc. after the bath with the squid rinsed and patted dry.

edit: OTOH if I deep fry them post s.v. with batter next time I'd definitely add five spice powder etc

I stopped seasoning in the bag for the same reason. Seems like a lot of folks season with fresh herbs in the bag. Maybe that works better than spice powders?

caliking

Little Steven said:

Canugghead said:

@Little Steven what temp/time do you sv fish in general?  what about shrimps?

Depends on thickness, type of fish and quality. Good fish 118* for like half an hour, frozen stuff a little longer and a little warmer. Shrimp I've done between 135* and 165* till the turn pink. Usually between 10 and 30 minutes if I remember. I wouldn't do good tuna sous vide. (if I could afford good tuna)

Duly noted. I tried salmon once and lobster tails another time. Both turned out well, but I don't think I nailed either one. Times and temps are all over the place on various websites. Will give it a shot again some time.