There is one dish I will always try if a restaurant has it: octopus. I absolutely love it, and I am fortunate that there are several restaurants here that make it incredibly well. While I love trying other people’s dishes, I have never really thought to actually make it. It definitely is a daunting dish to cook.
A few months ago, we had another one of our Spanish dinner nights and our friends made pulpo gallego: or octopus served on a potato. It was delicious, and I was impressed that someone had the courage to cook up some octopus. I feel as if you have to have the right crowd to make this dish, as it doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone. It’s not like I am going to whip up some octopus on a Tuesday evening for my 2 little ones. I would end up having to eat it alone, and then order some pizzas for them.
When we had our most recent paella night, I figured this was just the time to get the courage to cook pulpo. For this particular dish, I went a little bit of the easy route and only bought the tentacles. One reason, they didn’t have a whole octopus when I went; second reason, it was just easier. While shopping, I stumbled upon some lovely little heirloom tomatoes that I thought would go great with the octopus. After looking up several different recipes, I decided to piece and part mine from several different recipes.
The most daunting task was cooking the octopus. It can definitely be cooked improperly, so I didn’t want to mess that up. Especially since it was going to be the focal point. I made a little stock that I brought water, onion, rosemary, garlic, lemon wedge, cup of champagne and a whole lot of salt (like as salty as the ocean) to a boil. I let it boil for about 30 minutes. Then I scooped everything out of the water and dropped in the octopus. The cooking of the octopus took about 1.5 hours. It was definitely not an exact science, but I took it out once the octopus felt nice and tender.
**One wives tale told me to put the cork from my wine bottle in the boiling pot, so I did that. No idea if it helped or not, but I felt it couldn’t hurt!
Once the octopus was tender, I removed and set on a plate. It does have a skin on it, which was easily removed by just running a paper towel along the tentacle; cautious to not remove the suckers. Lastly, I cut the tentacles into little 1/2 rings.
While the octopus was cooking, I went to work on a dressing and the remainder of the salad, which was really only 3 other ingredients. I cut up those lovely tomatoes and placed them on a platter. Then I had some lovely capers that I put over the tomatoes. The final ingredient was some fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley. This was scattered on top once the lovely rings of octopus were added to the salad.
Before I added the octopus, I did coat the tomatoes with a lovely vinaigrette that only took a few seconds to make. There are not really real measurements for this, as I just sort of made it on the fly. My neighbors have a bee farm that they sell fresh honeycomb and honey from their restaurant. I had some of this, and thought the fresh sweet honey would be a nice balance to the salty capers and the octopus. For this, I whisked some freshly squeezed lemon along with honey. I kept adding honey until it had a nice taste of fresh lemonade. I cut up some thai chili into very thin rings and whisked into the lemon-honey mix. Once this mix was nice and thick, I slowly drizzled in some fresh oil. It is important to do this slowly in order to get a nice thick texture to your vinaigrette. Once this all comes together, it is ready for your salad. Pour over your salad to finish it off.
This salad is fine to sit for a little bit with the tomatoes dressed, but wait to add the remainder of the dressing until closer to serving time. You could definitely serve the salad over a nice arugula for a fuller salad. This was the perfect side for a nice paella, or could be served over a lovely toasted baguette for an appetizer.
Octopus
1/2 white onion
4 garlic cloves
1 cup champagne or white wine
half a lemon
fresh herb (I used rosemary)
lots of salt
Octopus tentacles
Recipe: Boil together all ingredients except the octopus. Turn to a simmer for about 30 minutes until the flavors melt together. Once they have, strain out all of the items and put back in the pot. Place your octopus in and cook for about one and a half hours until nice and tender. Take out and wipe down the tentacles with a paper towel to remove the skin. Chop each tentacle into 1/2 rings.
Vinaigrette
juice from 1 lemon
honey
1 thai chili (or jalapeño, serrano, fresno)
neutral oil
salt/pepper
Recipe: squeeze the lemon into a bowl and whisk in the honey. Once it is nice and sweet, add in a chopped thai chili. Slowly incorporate your neutral oil until the vinaigrette emulsifies. Season with salt and pepper.
Salad
tomatoes
capers
flat leaf parsley
octopus
vinaigrette
Recipe: Place your tomatoes on the bottom of a platter and pour some of the vinaigrette over them. Add the octopus and the capers and top with fresh parsley. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad to finish it off.
a goose and a gangster 