Octopus: recipes and cooking features

This seafood is simply delicious, but only when it is cooked properly. Soft and supple, wonderful in summer seafood salads, cephalopods can become just rubber. Therefore, with recipes from octopus, cooks, especially beginners, should be extremely careful and strictly observe the indicated cooking time. And then we will succeed!

Traditions and Secrets

How to cook an octopus? Recipes can be very different. Today, this mollusk can be obtained in any self-respecting supermarket (most likely, you will get it frozen there). And if you are by the sea, for example in Italy, then you can buy live. Of course, the secrets of cooking and recipes for an octopus vary. Italians generally give odds to other Europeans on the use of this seafood. But other nations offer their own homegrown advice: for example, the Greeks in ancient times traditionally made several good blows of a clam carcass on stones, while the Spaniards insisted on using copper pots for cooking. Well, are you ready to learn? Then proceed.

Octopus: a recipe for cooking in the oven

This is probably the easiest way. We clean and wash the carcasses in running water, and then blanch for 30 seconds in boiling water. And then bake the octopuses, placing them in the oven, heated to 90-95 degrees Celsius (200 Fahrenheit), for several hours. This makes sense, because with this method of heat treatment, seafood will retain more of its taste, but if you do not have 3-4 hours to spend it on this method, then you can do the following.

1. Make cooking time in boiling water minimal - less than 5 minutes - to obtain a slightly boiled, but still tender texture.
2. Instead, use long, slow cooking (soft simmering over low heat) for maximum tenderness. Slow quenching in a liquid will take about 1-2 hours, depending on how many kilograms of octopus you cook.

"The secret of his tenderness"

By the way, anyone who has already cooked squids, it will be easier for him to understand this principle of the octopus recipe, since these seafood are similar and behave the same way when cooking. That is, at the very beginning (up to 5 minutes) a delicate, oily structure is obtained, then, with a longer processing time, the meat becomes “rubber”. And then, with even longer cooking - soft again!

Another secret of tenderness is that the frozen octopus is softer than fresh - in the already prepared form. This may seem counterintuitive, since freezing meat and foods usually negatively affects both texture and taste. But with octopuses (and squids) this is not so. However, you can use both fresh and frozen (in any case, the second will be much easier to find). When buying a fresh octopus, it should not have any fishy smells - if so, then it has already begun to go out.

Frozen Octopus: Cooking Recipe

All frozen mollusks, as a rule, have already been pre-cleaned, and if you buy a product on the market, you can ask the seller to do it for you. If the octopus has not been pre-processed, wash and clean the carcass by removing the ink bag and internal organs, making a circular incision around the beak and pulling it (the organs will stretch along with it).

Put the octopus in a large pot with enough water to cover the meat - it should boil. Now it remains either to cook seafood on low heat for less than 5 minutes, or to cook for a very long time a little lower than a light boil (about 90 degrees). The timing in this case varies depending on the weight of the octopus. For a kilogram (4 servings) it will usually be about 2 hours (readiness check: when a knife inserted where the head of the carcass meets the legs passes easily, without any efforts).

Once the flesh is tender, you can use it in salads or chop and cook an octopus with pasta (or risotto) according to the recipe. You can also after fry it very quickly over high heat in oil to get a rosy appearance.

Potato salad

August is the month when Italians go on vacation, most of them head to the sea. And in the noisy suburban restaurants during these summer months various seafood dishes are served, they are popular for light snack-meals: both on their own and accompanied by crisp bread. Of course, there are many variations on the subject of octopus recipes. But one of the most common, most popular and favorite is a potato salad, a simple, traditional version made with a cephalopod (plus: potatoes, parsley, celery as components).

The octopus salad recipe includes olive oil, as well as lemon juice, parsley, salt and black pepper, but you can also add garlic, fresh mint and / or red chili if you want a more savory dish.

Ingredients

So, we take a pound of peeled octopus (fresh or frozen, the second option is actually preferable, since it will be more tender when cooking). As many potatoes in tubers. And we also need: 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons), fine sea salt to taste, freshly ground black pepper, 4 tablespoons of finely chopped leaf parsley (plus whole branches for decoration) , 1 celery root, thinly sliced, lemon slices for side dishes, 1 clove of garlic. Optional: 1/4 teaspoon of red chili and as much mint dry.

How to cook

1. Place the octopus in a large container and fill it with cold water. Add 2 teaspoons of shallow sea salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let it simmer for only 3-5 minutes, and the octopus will be tender and slightly buttery. Remove from heat and set aside the pan to cool.
2. Put the potatoes in a large bowl, fill with cold water, add 1 teaspoon of shallow sea salt and bring to a boil at high temperature. Boil until cooked for about 30 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the still warm potato slices with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley and celery and mix again.
4. Cut the flesh of the octopus into small pieces (or strips), add to the potato mixture. Mix gently but thoroughly. If you use garlic, add extra (as well chili peppers and peppermint).
5. Can be served. Each serving should be accompanied by lemon slices and crisp bread. You can refrigerate the salad in the refrigerator for several hours before serving, but let it return to room temperature before eating to fully reveal its palatability. And it will go well with any well-chilled dry white wine.

Oven tentacles

How to cook octopus tentacles? Recipes for cooking can be very different if you purchased this delicious frozen "spare". The easiest way is to bake them in the oven. You can treat your family to this dish for a holiday. We will need the following ingredients: a kilogram of tentacles, 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, lemon juice, a bunch of parsley, dried oregano.

How to cook

1. The tentacles of the octopus (pre-clean!) Are placed in a pan, pouring them with water.
2. Bring to a boil, cook for one hour.
3. We take the tentacles from the container into a plate, pour olive oil, adding finely chopped garlic.
4. Leave to marinate for an hour under cling film.
5. Pickled seafood is placed in a baking dish and put in ^an oven preheated to 180 ° (20 minutes or until the octopus meat is ready).
6. In a separate bowl, mix olive oil with lemon juice and oregano.
7. Serve baked tentacles in portions (salt / pepper just before serving, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, pouring sauce).

The tentacles of the octopus in the recipe go well with slices of lemon: sourness perfectly sets off the taste of the pulp. Such a meal will not go unnoticed by guests and home. This dish, cooked in the oven, can also be served with a side dish or vegetables.