How to prepare squid ready for cooking

Cleaning and preparing squid ready for cooking is easier than you may think. Follow our simple steps and you’ll be on your way to making the perfect stir-fried salt and pepper squid dish.

1. Begin by holding the squid’s head in one hand and its body in your other hand and gently pull the head away from the body, taking the milky white intestines with it.

2. Next, remove the tentacles from the squid’s head by cutting them off just in front of the squid’s eyes. Once cut, make sure that the remaining head is thrown away and that the tentacles are put to one side.

3. Continue by taking the tentacles and squeeze out the beak-like mouth from the centre of the tentacles and throw this away.

4. Next, remove the ink sac from the body and discard. The ink sac will be a small, pearl white pouch with a slight blue tinge located amongst the intestines. This will need to be carefully cut away from the body.

5. Continue by holding the squid’s body in one hand and with the other hand reach inside it and pull out the clear, plastic-like quill. This quill will need to be thrown away.

6. Next, pull off the two fins from either side of the body pouch and continue by pulling away the brown, semi-transparent skin from the body and fins. Make sure that the body pouch is clean by washing it with water.

7. Take a sharp knife and make a long slit along the body pouch so it opens out flat. Make sure that any leftover membrane or intestines are removed and thrown away.

8. Finally, take the body and score the inner side of the squid with a knife creating a diamond pattern and then cut the squid into small pieces, approximately 5cm.

Now you’ve prepared your squid you’re ready for cooking! For recipe inspiration, sign up to Rick’s recipe of the month email newsletter here.