Galician octopus

How to prepare Galician octopus. It is a good start for this new octopus recipe , who has not tried the Galician octopus is missing one of the most representative dishes of our gastronomy.

Anyone visiting Galicia should not fail to taste it, in any tavern, restaurant or in one of the pulpeiras stands strategically distributed throughout the province.

You can find octopus feira at any party or feira, as they take turns from Sunday to Sunday throughout the year. One of the best is the one in Luintra where the pulpeiras come up with their copper caldeiro and a good pair of scissors. All you have to do is ask for all the portions you want.

The most important thing when preparing octopus is to get the perfect consistency, get the point. For this we can not stop reading how to cook the octopus so that it is not too soft or too hard. Just a little hard so that you do not have difficulties when it comes to driving your tooth.

That is why for this dish that I am sure you are going to cook at home I recommend that you buy it frozen, so we avoid having to break it and in this way it will not come out hard as a stone.

You can already prepare a lot of recipes with octopus, from this classic Galician octopus , an original  baked octopus , as they do in Mugardos, to Mugardesa (in the form of a stew), to Sochantre , candied (one of the recipes Picasso’s favorites), in tempura, accompanying a rice or risotto … or as in this case, grilled. Use the heads to make croquettes , lots of ideas to enjoy that delicacy.

“Put a little octopus in your life, yes, Á feira and with cachelos (Galician potatoes)”

Preparation of the octopus. How we cook it.

1. It is very important to soften the octopus before cooking it, I have seen how they did it by hitting it against the stone on the Isle of Ons. But luckily if we freeze it the result is practically the same. It helps the meat to be more tender. So all we have to do is freeze it if we have bought it fresh or buy it directly frozen.
2. We take the octopus out a day before the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost. It is important to do it in a saucepan or a large bowl because it will release a lot of liquid and it can overflow.
3. At the time of cooking we pass it a little through cold water to remove possible impurities.
4. We put a casserole (the largest we have) on the fire with water, we do not add salt because the octopus is salted at the end, in the presentation.
5. When it starts to boil we add the octopus, we take it by the head and “we scare it” , this technique consists of putting the octopus in and out 3 times from the pot to get the octopus to remain stiff and the skin does not fall off during the cooking.
6. We cook the octopus for about 35-40 over medium heat depending on the size (it is normal to cook an octopus of 1.8 kg – 2 kg, with 30-35 is enough). In this case, it was a 3-kilo octopus, so we had to cook it since it started to boil for about 40 minutes.
7. You have to click it from time to time to see how hard it is. The first time you cook it, it will cost you to take the point but then it will come out pearl-free.

Preparation of potatoes and plating of Galician octopus

1. While it is cooking, we peel, wash and chop the potatoes in half. We reserve.
2. When we finish cooking the octopus we let it rest for a few minutes and then we take it out to a source. In the same water we pour the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
3. If you do not want them to take the pink color you can make them in another casserole. That depends on each one, I like them with the octopus flavor.
4. We cut the octopus with kitchen scissors, the legs into pieces 1 cm thick and the head into small pieces.
5. We serve it on a wooden plate with a potato base.
6. We salt with coarse salt, sprinkle with the paprika (spicy or sweet) and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. I also like to season it with a little cooking water.

Well, you see, that octopus colored by paprika. With the pearls of salt and bathed in olive oil ¡Ñam¡

May Galicia and the mother who gave birth to her take advantage!

I encourage you to visit more  fish and seafood recipes