Squid is one of those things that you might be tempted to try in a restaurant but would never think to cook at home and I get it, squid can be scary, but it doesn't need to be that way.
The first time I had squid at home we had the squid tubes that are already cleaned so most of the work has been done for you. I cut them in half and gently scored the flesh then cut each half into strips about an inch think. In a big frying pan went oil then once hot in went the first of the squid strips. I over cooked it, the squid was tough and rubbery and not nice, but I now knew how long it took to overcook squid. The next strip of squid went in and it was better but still not great, so I went again and by the fourth time I think I understood how little you have to cook squid. I learnt that as soon as the squid went from a translucent milky white to an opaque, brilliant white that it is cooked and time to get it out of the pan. It was trial and error but we got there and only ruined one squid tube.
The second time I cooked squid at home was in a curry. We had tried a squid curry when out one night and I thought I'd give it a go at home and this time tried the baby squid. I made my curry, cooked it all down until it was just about ready then added in the baby squid which I had chopped up and cooked it for all of two minutes in the sauce then served. It was delicious and squid curry is now our go to curry at home. I wouldn't have had the confidence to cook the squid like this for so little time if I hadn't had tried and failed the first time.
The third recipe I tried was slow cooking the squid that I'd stuffed with a chorizo, tomato rice, the squid was in the oven for about half an hour, 28 minutes longer than I had cooked it before. It was delicious, it had taken all the flavours from the stuffing mix and was still soft and not at all chewy and rubbery as it was when I overcooked it the first time despite being in the oven for so long.
Squid really is an amazing ingredient, it can be cooked really fast and hot or long and slow and it's delicious both times. There really is nothing to be scared about, give it a go and be prepared to get it wrong a few times but once you get it right and learn to spot the signs it's cooked, well, you won't look back. You will be like me, trying to find the next way to try cooking squid, it might be this braised squid in red wine.