Eviscerating Squid: A super sensual experience (Step by step guide on how to clean a squid)

I'm pretty sure I am going to lose some readership on my blog after this post. This post is not for the faint of heart. In fact if you are vegetarian you may not want to read this post. But if you are super trooper then do carry on reading.
Anand Prahlad of the Spotted Dick fame has magic fingers. He bakes, cooks, draws, designs, is a perfectionist typographer and has great taste in movies and music. He is quite the man I must say. Anand had promised me a squid session. I wanted to learn how to eviscerate a squid which essentially means I wanted to stick my fingers in its mantle (the large white bulb like thing) and pull out its organs.
So last evening Anand invited Sangeeta and myself for a night of white russians, squid cooked two ways and home made lemon tarts. Yes he made dessert as well!
We bought the squid from the seafood section of Food Right in Mulund. Anand pointed out that the blacker the eyes are, the fresher the squid as opposed to cloudy eyes. I think that would be true for all seafood. The skin of the squid is speckled with chromatophores that allow the squid to change color. How cool. We bought two squids.
Anand started the first squid and I did the second under Anand's meticulous supervision. It was a really fun. The squid was very sweet and clean smelling.
What follows is a step by step process of cleaning and eviscerating the squid. I am posting most pictures of Anand prepping the squid and a few of me (afterall this is my blog). Let me tell you as Anand demonstrated his squid cleaning skills he also gave Sangeeta and me invaluable insight on the female erogenous zones.

Check out that skin

Separate the tentacles from the head

Separate the head

Readying to pull out the quill. 

Pulling out the quill which looked like plastic.

The quill/ the pen/ the gladius

The longer tentacles are cut off

Pulling the flat fin at the back and separating it from the mantle helps initializing the skinning process

The beautifully clean mantle. Now gently tug at inside organs.

The evisceration of the squid...

Here they come

Pulling the innards out in one go.

The mantle is empty and needs to be thoroughly washed

The tentacles.. very dramatic

The fin needs to be very carefully cut in two parts and from it this hard thick flesh needs to be sliced away as it will not cook well.

Clean all the skin from the edges

Slice the mantle into rings- this is for the Malabar curry

Add caption

The end tip- not sure but Anand was trying to explain something with this.

The mouth is still attached to the tentacles. This needs to be cut out as well. 

The suckers on the tentacles have to be cleaned out next.

scrapping the suckers. You can determine the size of the squid by the size of the suckers.

Anand the squidy genius

Sangeeta

My squid

Essentially the same steps. Pictures courtsey Sangeeta.

I deskinned! Look how happy I am

Instruction from Anand on how to eviscerate the squid

Oh!

OH! Oh! Amazing! Wow... that was something else.

The ink sacs- this squid did not put up too much of a fight.

Clearly I am enjoying cleaning up the squid mantle.

The beautiful mantle- so pure and white.

The tentacles 

Sangeeta cleaning the tentacles

Sangeeta's matrimonial pic- she can clean the tentacles!

For the appetizer, slice open the mantle and lay it flat.

Scoring

Pattern

Slicing

The beautiful pattern

The strips

The scoring helps the flavours to stick to the surface.

For the recipes of the squid and pie click here.
Also it was hard to write this post without being too vulgar.

Where do I get the Best Biryani here?

A trip to Hyderabad turned out to be in the cards. It was for work of course. But my ulterior motive was to chase the answer to the question- Where do I get the best Biryani here? Well I had only 5 hours post work to find the answer. Luckily my site visit got me to the fabulous Paradise Resturant. It was 2 in the afternoon, I was starving and Paradise beckoned me. My partner in crime Rinkoo was starving as well and wanted me to be done taking measurements. We had both heard from our friends that Paradise was a must try. In fact I had 'to go' orders from office folks. They apparently specially pack their biryani and mail it around the world. Wow! 

Paradise was huge- 5 storeyed restaurant with indoor, outdoor, terrace area for seating. The interiors were simple and clean. Not over the top. The moment you stepped in you were swept in with the smell of biryani.  Our waiter quickly pointed at the Mutton biryani with a smile on his face. Aha! mutton biryani it is. We ordered some chicken tikkas with the biryani. The tikkas were perfect- soft, melt in your mouth. Followed by our mutton biryani. I made Rinkoo suffer as I took endless pictures of the biryani. The smell was blissful and delicate. Every grain of rice was coated with gentle spices. The mutton pieces were tender and tantalizing. I heard music in my head as I ate the biryani. I was happy. The 3am wake up call, run to the airport and almost missing my flight was all worth it. In fact I am glad I did not miss my flight and got a chance to taste this incredible biryani.

Rinkoo- patiently waiting as I clicked photos

Fresh Pineapple juice- perfect

So good!

The waiter showing us how he places the orders on his cellphone and it wirelessly reaches the kitchen thus saving paper.

Clearly satisfied!

So the search did not end here. I was specially told to make sure that I try some real Hyderabadi biryani in the Char Minar area. To ask the important question- Where will I find good biryani here? My quest led me to the beautiful Char Minar of Hyderabad and the market place surrounding this monument. This place was alive and vibrant. I photographed a Falooda wala prepare a glass of sinful Falooda in a few seconds and got carried away buying 9 sets of bangles (who does that)!
I walked around the marketplace. I let it all sink in. The bright lights, the various shops, bangles, slippers, clothes, pearls, cyclewalas, rickshawwalas, some cars, vendors, ice cream and of course food. My quest finally led me to a place called Shahbad.So I ordered  chicken biryani. I had a bite. It was beautiful. It was subtle, different spice in every morsel. It was very very subtle. It was drier, lighter, easy to eat. It was also very good. It was surprisingly very different from the biryani at Paradise.

Below are some pictures of my quick tour of Hyderabad. A charming city. I loved this city of the Nawab- its Char Minar, the its colorful marketplace and the Hyderabadi biryani. A day well spent. For a day trip I think I did well.

The owner of the Farasha Falooda

 Finally at Shahbad-