Catch and Cook — Joe Riley

CATCH and COOK

Joe Riley was once an Australian representative fly fisher. Now he spends most of his time chasing saltwater species that he loves to eat. Over the next few issues Joe will explain how to catch and cook our favourite Tasmania species.

Joe Riley with the ingredients.

Squid are an amazing creature, fast growing, aggressive feeding, eat anything, get eaten by everything creatures, they are a huge part of the oceanic food chain. Whether it is southern calamari or Goulds (Arrow) squid they are great fun to catch and awesome to eat. Squid are also arguably the best bait in the ocean, so when you catch them, if you only eat the hood, the the legs and wings can become fantastic bait and need not go to waste.

From the shore Calamari are an easily accessible species to catch. Apart from needing a squid jig, there’s no need for any specialist gear. A light spinning rod used for trout or other smaller fish species is sufficient. A 2-4 kg rod and a 2500 spinning reel is perfect. Any line or braid will suffice, no real need for ultra fine tippets or anything over the top, in fact a 12lb to 15lb leader is preferable so you don’t lose too many jigs when they inevitably snag on weeds. Special Egi rods are available, but aren’t really necessary unless you catch the ‘egi’ bug and want to fine tune your squid catching awesomeness.

Calamari are catchable all year round, except there’s a short closure each year during the spawning season, first along the North Coast of Tasmania and then in Great Oyster Bay when the squid gather in the shallows to lay eggs on sea grass beds.

Techniques:

Squid can occupy all sorts of depths, from less than a meter along the shoreline out to hundreds of metres deep along the continental shelf. For the recreational angler targeting squid in depths up to 6 meters is easy with basic gear. Squid are catchable day or night, they are attracted to light so night time fishing on a jetty or pontoon where lights are on is a good option. I’ve even seen keen anglers take a little generator and portable

Kill your squid quickly.

Removing the outer layer is important to me. It can be skun just like removing fish skin.

work lights on pontoons to attract squid, creating opportunities to bag a feed of squid.

Squid hang around reefs and weed beds where they can attack unsuspecting prey. Gutters and depressions also give good holding areas for squid to group up. More often than not squid will hang in groups from pairs up to schools containing big numbers. This is a good point to remember when you begin to catch a squid, there’s nearly always another one or two close by where you catch the first one. They don’t easily spook so if you get one, you’re in with a good chance of getting two or three more.

The basic technique is to cast out, let the jig sink until it is close to the bottom, staying in contact as the jig sinks. Once the jig sinks to the depth you want, give the rod a strike to cause the jig to dart up in the water, then let it sink again while taking up the slack you have created. This is done to get the attention of squid from a distance, get them curious so they come to your jig. Once the slack is taken up on your line wind the jig in slowly, keeping it close to the bottom. The main thing is to keep the jig down where the squid are. Once you hook the squid, play it lightly as they will pull firmly as they try to swim away, keeping a gentle pressure on the squid you won’t break off a tentacle and lose your catch, wind it in gently. Once you’ve got your squid now for the cleaning and cooking.

Cleaning and Preparation

Cleaning and cooking squid is relatively straight forward, however there’s tricks which will make squid tender and delicious. Firstly you need to remove the outer skin, wings, legs and gut contents. There are scaling/cleaning bags which you tow behind your boat which bounce your squid along behind the boat cleaning most of the outer layers off the squid. I’ve had a couple of disasters, losing my catch on the way back to the ramp, so no more for me, but perhaps I was going a little fast.

I don’t like to do calamari rings, there’s an outer layer of skin on the calamari hood which will leave you with that little rubber band on the ring. So my preference is to cut the hood open, remove the gut and cartilage from the inside and wings from the outside. This will leave the hood open and clean.

Once you you get home and are ready to prepare the squid cut the hood into two pieces down the middle, this will leave you with 2 x fillets. With the outer side of the fillet on the cutting board you can skin the fillet again, like skinning a fish fillet. Start in the middle cut the squid without going through the outer skin and then run the knife along the board towards the rear separating the outer skin from the fillet. Once the bottom half is done then turn the fillet around and do the same towards the top of the fillet, once again going from the middle, this time to the top. You can gently move the filleting knife back and forth while pulling the skin to help get it away from the fillet. Next is to score the calamari with cuts 5mm apart on the side of the fillet that you just took the skin from. Do this on a 45 degree angle one way, turn the fillet and do the same on the opposite angle. Try to score the fillet deeply but not right through.

Once this is done you have nice pieces of squid ready for the final step. If you want your calamari to curl nicely adding to the presentation, cut the pieces you have just scored into triangles this way when they cook they will curl giving you that lovely pineappled appearance.

Once you have prepared your squid this way it will never be tough. You can stir fry, deep fry, bbq, cook however you like without it being tough.

I’ve always used the legs and wings for bait, and they are great bait, but a mate recently grabbed the legs and wings from our catch and turned them into pickled squid. He grabbed a recipe from the internet and gave it a go. Left to sit in a jar for a a couple of weeks they turned out an absolute treat. So I’ve borrowed the recipe to share so that legs and wings are also on the menu and next to nothing goes to waste.

Salt and Pepper Squid

I’d like to share a secret delicious family recipes full of secret ingredients, but alas, the culinary critics in my family shoot me down every time I present a new recipe. They always prefer the good old Tandaco Salt and Pepper coating. I do vary the recipe a bit, but its basic and always turns out delicious. For quantities, one packet of Salt and Pepper mix will do about 300 to 350gms of prepped squid.

The packet instructions call for the squid to be placed in a bag and shake with the mix. Disregard and follow these instructions.

• Soak the prepped Calmari pieces in egg and milk, this can be done for up to 30 minutes prior to coating. • Drain the calamari in a colander, but don’t dry any further. • Place the packet mix in a large mixing bowl, drop the calamari in it, toss it and then massage the coating into the calamari, give the coating a vigorous rub into the calamari. • Deep fry until golden.

Pickled wings and legs

Reproduced from Gourmet Farmer Afloat, however with Squid substituting the Octopus in the original recipe.

Wings & legs from freshly caught squid. • 200 g cooking salt • 200 ml white wine or white wine vinegar • Celery stick • 1 small brown onion, coarsely chopped • 3-4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

Pickling mixture.

• 500 ml(2 cups) water • 500 ml(2 cups) white wine vinegar • 6 small dried chillies • 3 fresh bay leaves • 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns.

Clean the wings, removing any excess slime. Cut the tentacles away from the eyes and remainder of the head. Cut the tentacles open and remove the beak and any excess slimy tissue.

Place the squid in a large stainless steel bowl and firmly massage the salt into the tentacles and wings. Stand for 10 minutes, then rinse off the salt and use your hands to remove any slime. Place the tentacles and wings into a stockpot or large saucepan with the wine, celery, onion, parsley and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer very gently for 40-50 minutes or until tender. Remove the pan from the heat, cover and stand the octopus in the liquid until cool.

Once the squid is cooled, remove from the cooking liquid, discard the liquid and cut the tentacles & wings into 3-4 cm chunks and pack into several small sterilised jars.

To make the pickling mixture, place the water and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Divide the chillies, garlic cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns among the jars, then pour over enough hot vinegar mixture to cover. Seal, then store in a cool, dark place for at least 12 hours before serving. Once opened, store the pickled squid in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I hope these tricks and recipes add to the enjoyment of catching and eating one of squid. Our calamari fishery is a greatly underrated fishery as squid are easily accessible, fun to catch great to eat. Joe Riley