So I recently started cooking my boyfriend’s lunches again and he had a special request for me to start the week with — pajeon, Korean scallion pancakes, I had never made them before. And to top it off, he wanted octopus in it. I was happy to oblige, until I went to the market. Octopus is so expensive! So I settled on a box of frozen whole squid instead. And that’s where this adventure began.

It can’t be that hard, I reasoned. I’ve done this on cooking mama, I said. But as I dubiously looked down on the frozen chunk of eyes and tentacles I began to doubt myself.

I followed a tutorial that you can find here from About.com.

I thought about doing my own step by step tutorial here, however, squids aren’t particularly photogenic and I felt that I already had my hands full just breaking them down. It took me a little while to get the hang of it but by my fifth squid or so I was definitely picking up the pace. I opted to not only prepare the squid but also harvest the ink. I plan to make squid ink risotto later in the week. Hopefully that turns out well, my ink looks more grayish than black and I worry that I’ve done something wrong.

But through this I’ve really learned that some things seem really daunting, but with patience and practice you get there in the end.