DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9709300041
SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BETTY DOUGLASS, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

FINDING, PREPARING CALAMARI IS EASIER, CHEAPER THAN YOU THINK

CALAMARI is just a fancy name for squid.

That tube-shaped member of the mollusk family with muscular tentacles, a beak and big eyes is featured not only in suspense films but on plates throughout the world. Squid is inexpensive, low in fat and abundantly available on both the East and West coasts.

Mark Bittman in his book ``Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking'' (Macmillan, 1994) says, ``This underappreciated shellfish with an internal skeleton has advantages: Like shrimp, squid freezes well, and can be defrosted and refrozen with little loss in flavor or texture.

``Squid is easy to cook, and although its flavor is mild, squid has a sweet, nutty character that manages to permeate most dishes in which it is featured,'' Bittman says.

We checked several Hampton Roads supermarkets and fish markets and found squid is available locally in the freezer case. Fresh squid is available usually from October through the winter months, check with your seafood dealer.

Selection: Look at the color of the meat. Purple to white is acceptable, brown is not. The smell should be clean and sweet (spoiled squid smells, particularly foul) and the skin should shine. Avoid freezer burn in frozen squid.

Purchase one quarter to one half pound of squid per person for quickly cooked dishes. Because shrinkage is greater when the squid is braised or stewed, allow a half pound per person.

If you begin with fresh, uncleaned squid, assume you will lose about 25 percent from cleaning.

Storage: Store squid in the freezer or refrigerator until ready to clean and use. Cleaned unfrozen squid can be kept, well wrapped and refrigerated (preferably on ice), for a day or so.

Cleaning: To clean whole squid for quick-coooking methods, Bittman gives these directions:

``Medium (8 to 8 inches) and large (over 8 inches) squid are easier to clean, have a higher ratio of meat to innards and yield more meat after cleaning than small squid. Squid with bodies about eight inches long are best for most recipes.

``Begin by grasping the squid's head where it enters the body (reach into the body a little if possible) Pull off the head and, with it, as much of the innards as possible (don't worry about getting all of it here; for many recipes you can open the bodies for cleaning).

``Just above the squid's eyes is a hard ball (called the beak) that creates a slight bulge. Cut the tentacles above that bulge. Discard the head and innards and reserve the tentacles. (This step really isn't worth it if you are saddled with really small squid, under four inches or so - just pull out the head, innards, and tentacles, and toss the whole mess.)

``With your fingers, peel off the mottled purple skin. It usually comes off in one or two pieces. Don't bother with the skin that remains on the `wings' - no one will see it on the plate. And don't fret about bits of skin that hang tough; this ethereal membrane virtually disappears during cooking.

``Using a thin-bladed knife (such as a small boning knife), slit the squid bodies open lengthwise. Remove the quill (the hard translucent cartilage that runs the length of the body) if it didn't come out with the head and innards. Using the dull edge of the knife, scrape any remaining innards.

``Rinse the tentacles and bodies and dry well before proceeding with your recipe.''

At this point the squid can be refrigerated for at least a day.

To clean whole squid for stuffing follow the directions above, with these changes, says Bittman:

``When pulling out the head, get your thumb and first and/or second fingers deep into the body. Most of innards will come out cleanly. Then reach into the body with two fingers and grasp the quill and any remaining innards; pull them out (this step is troublesome with very large squid, because few of us have 10-inch long fingers).

``A dull teaspoon may be used on any innards that prove stubborn. Rinse out the squid's interior. If you've done a perfect job, the squid's body will hold water, but it doesn't matter much as long as any leaks are small.''

Cooking: Timing is important in cooking squid. When undercooked, squid has a rubbery texture. Overcooking makes it tough. Long slow cooking retenderizes it. That explains the saying, prevalent in the seafood trade: ``Cook squid 20 seconds or 2 hours.''

The length of cooking time is determined by the amount of heat and the type of dish you are preparing, follow directions closely. MEMO: Betty Douglass is a free-lance food writer and home economist in

Portsmouth. All recipes in this article have been kitchen-tested by the

author.

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