It’s seafood week. We are supposed to abstain from meats and instead eat modestly and suffer with seafood. But the way the world works today, that means you pay through the nose for fish and other denizens of the sea and lakes so it costs you more and you aren’t really suffering in any way…think broiled lobster, a nice whole fish, some squid cooked in its own ink. Frankly, I have never cooked adobong pusit though I have eaten it hundreds of times. Turns out it is one of the easiest things to cook, though I am not KEEN on cleaning squid. So if you are inclined, just buy small to medium sized fresh squid, clean out its entrails and the plastic sword in its main body. then rinse and carefully preserve or keep the ink sacks intact. Heat up a pan and saute onions and a little garlic in some vegetable oil. Add the squid, a little patis, salt, pepper and green onions if you have it. Add chili peppers if you like zing. Simmer until the squid is tender and the sauce is nearly jet black (why is a jet black?). Actually, it really is a more murky brown black. Serve with lots of rice. Perfect lenten “suffering” dish. Yeah, right.
23 Responses
Hi MM, aren’t you forgetting the vinegar? I’m sure you did.
yup Mr.MM , i think you forgot the vinegar, rampau is right. Because it won’t be adobong pusit wihtout the vinegar, is it?
What exactly do you mean by “clean out its entrails and the plastic sword in its main body”? Can you give more details? Would like to do this myself one of these days. Thanks!
>(why is a jet black?)
so you can see it against the sky, silly.
actually, ‘jet’ in this case refers to a dense black coal that takes a high polish and is used for jewelry; the phrase usually refers to a glossy or shiny black.
Cooking pusit or squid is kind of tricky. One school of thought says that you quick cooking is the best for it to be not too rubbery. For others they say that you have to cook for long time so it is soft and chewable. What goes????
I love adobong pusit that our old cook does but she is NOT sharing her secret to any one of us.
Well, actually, the longer you keep pusit over high heat, the more it becomes rubbery. It’s best to stir-fry it (over high heat) or simmer it (over medium heat) for no more than 3 minutes. If the pusit is fresh off the market (and therefore unfrozen/in room temp.) cooking time is about a minute and a half.
It’s the rule of twos. When cooking squid, keep it on heat for no more than two minutes OR no less than two hours. Anything in between makes it rubbery.
tanong: ano ang tawag ng baby pusit?
sagot: pssst…
:) Corny, ano? I’m gonna buy some today before the shops close.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Hi Everyone, try giant squid and grill it….It is so good. Have it with tomatoes and onions…..and yes, don’t forget the vinegar. Also, I agree with bogchief in the general rule of cooking squid.
My lola says the ink is an indication of how fresh the squid is. The blacker the ink, the fresher the squid. She only buys live squid from Malabon market so she cooks adobong pusit with really black sauce. You can tell its still live with the way the skin “pulsates”, although it’s a bit tricky to tell how. To get rid of the “lansa” squid must be cleaned very well, with the hard “eye” popped out from the underside of the tentacles and the cavity flushed with water. The first time my lola asked me to clean a kilo of baby squid this way, it took me half an hour! Be careful too in removing the ink sac so it doesn’t burst in your hands.
I don’t think MM made a mistake in not including vinegar with adobong pusit. I too does not use vinegar in adobong pusit. It makes it hard and 2 minutes cooking time is not enough to cook the vinegar so it will taste sour too.
I cook my adobong pusit for around 4 to 5 minutes without the vinegar.
It’s up to you guys if you want to put vinegar or not it doesnt matter, the important is the ink is still there. strictly speaking kuya MM next time pls. include the vinegar. i put laurel leaf and siling panigang on my adobong pusit.
Hi everyone, as I said in the post, I haven’t cooked this so I have double checked with our cook…she only uses patis but yes, you can add vinegar if you like…also, bogchief and others are right…you only cook squid for a short time or a long time, nothing in between…
I “like” it when you use patis. Wala lang, kase we kapampangan cannot live yata without patis and vetsin. I know some people avoid using them in their cooking. I just had adobong pusit for lunch :)
You can add vinegar but cook it separately in a stainless pan. Boil until it reduces to get rid of much of the acid. Our cook says this is called “lutuin ang suka” (duh!). Add it in after adding the ink and a little water. Then you don’t have to boil the squid for a long time since the suka’s already “luto”. Did this make sense??
i agree with you mareng carina “mate tamu nung alang patis” but try to lessen gradually. too much use of patis and msg is bad, i know you are aware on that. that’s why i use sugar (pinch of it) to replace MSG (try it) manyaman naman.
Squid is my absolute favorite! Yummy. I cook adobo pusit with a little bit of minced ginger, and lots of black pepper. {hungry now}
I love pusit and i ‘lihi’ my first child w/pusit specially the black ink and it’s yummo. After reading all the comments i think i’ll cook the sauce first before putting the squid in as 2 hrs is just too long. So it’s gonna be 2 mins. Thanks all.
First time ko rin magluto ng adobong pusit the other day at parang may kulang sa lasa. (Kasi nasarapan ako sa adobong pusit ng friend kong Bicolana, so I started to compare. Hehe!) Nilagay ko na lahat ng ingredients except for the laurel leaf mentioned by kusinero. I will try that next time. Masarap din lalo pag may gata anoh! Pero pano yun? Siguro mauna muna i-reduce ang gata bago ilagay ang squid, just like the case of adding vinegar mentioned above.
Thanks sa post na ito! =)
Sure there should be vinegar in there somewhere. Oh, and jet is a type of precious stone found in South West England. It’s black.
This is one our favorite Filipino dishes. I have never tried to cook this myself, but I will need to since our Filipino-Japanese-Korean restaurant closed. I would prefer to use the small size pusit as they are not as chewy. Also, they added a small amount of crushed tomato.
first time ko rin magluto ng pusit but my nanay cook adobong pusit so good,i think you really have to put littli amount of vinegar on it,goodluck to me coz am going to cook it now.
Where are the quantity/amount of each ingredients ? ? ? Just asking… I’m just a beginner and I think I had clicked on the web of the beginner’s luck portion…