Elizabeth Andoh

“Pine-Cone” Squid

Ika No Matsukasa Yaki

Preparation info
  • Serves

    6–8

    .
    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in
At Home with Japanese Cooking
At Home with Japanese Cooking

By Elizabeth Andoh

Published 1986

  • About

Golden squares of nubbly, tender squid look like pine cones and taste divine. They make an unusual and attractive hors d’oeuvre.

Ingredients

  • 2–3 fillets of squid (about 1½ pounds)
  • 1–2 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

Lay the triangular-like fillets flat on the board, inner surface down. (If you’re having trouble deciding which side is the inner one, look closely for ridges; these indicate where the cartilage used to be on the inside of the body.) With a very sharp knife score the outer surface of the squid with many shallow cuts in a crosshatch design.

Remove the skin from tail to head if this has n