Mind if I start eating my Octopus without waiting for you to have your napkin on your lap? Are you an Octopus fan? Or are you an Octopus detractor?If you are a fan, then copy and paste this recipe instructions because you will just love it!!! You will need such a few ingredients and the result is so tasty and flavourful!
This Octopus is typical from Galicia. I even found a page in Wikipedia where it talks about this recipe. Galicia is the evergreen land, up in the northwest of Spain, just over Portugal. I've never been there but I positively know that I would fall in love with their people, their food and their landscapes!!! One of the most famous foods there is their Seafood, not to mention their cheese!. All good restaurants in Spain have Galician products in their Menus.See what Matt Gross from The New York Times thinks about Galicia in his article written 2 years ago.
Galicia has strong Celtic influences; the Bagpipes is their musical instrument and Meigas (Witches) live in the dark, humid and green forests... or that is what legends say! So, here is my opportunity to add my special dressing today: Van Morrison and Moondance. Yes, I know he is Irish but I LOVE him! He is one of my favourites ever!!!
Now, turn the player on and follow these easy instructions :DIngredients for 4 servings: 4 to 5 big potatoes, 4 black pepper balls, 1 bay leaf, 500 to 600 grs of octopus (legs), half a glass of Extra virgin olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, red sweet ground paprika, red hot ground paprika, thick sea salt and water.
Octopus is a bit tricky to cook, if you don't follow the boiling process properly it can be too chewy or too rubbery. Here you have a few tips: *If you buy it fresh at your fishmonger, what I do to get it softer is freeze it first: have two days in the freezer at least, and then one day before cooking it, have in the fridge and let defreeze little by little. Prepare a big pot with boiling water and one onion inside, put the octopus in the boiling water for 1 minute and take it out. Repeat the procedure for 5 times in a row (this is done to avoid the skin to fall). Leave it inside the pot and let it boil for 25 minutes at medium/high heat. Use a fork to see if it's completely done and reserve. *If you buy it frozen or canned and cooked (La Tienda has some canned octopus) then you can directly go to the next step.
Peel and wash the potatoes. Have another big pot ready with water, the black pepper balls and the bay leaf. Cut the potatoes in thick slices and put in the pot, make sure the water covers them. Boil until potatoes are done. Reserve.
Mince the garlics and add to the half glass of extra virgin olive oil. Also add two teaspoons of sweet red paprika and one teaspoon of red hot paprika. Stir and reserve.
Get a wooden plate or tray and set the potatoes on it, drop the thick sea salt on them, add the octopus cut in circles on top and pour the oil mixture over the octopus. Tachán!!! The 8th wonder is ready to be devoured!!!
PLEASE NOTICE: Pilar, a Galician foodie blogger has sent me this comment which I feel I should publish in the post. For those of you who want to know the REAL recipe please see her instructions. I'll translate it the better I can.
Nuria, he intentado varias veces dejarte mi comentario pero no sé qué pasa.Bueno quisiera puntualizar unas cuantas cositas. Espero que no te parezca mal. Como gallega, y residiendo actualmente en Galicia, te diré:1. El pulpo "a feira" no suele llevar ajos picados. En algunos lugares de Ourense se los ponen, pero son los menos.2. Las patatas quedan más sabrosas si las cueces en el mismo agua de cocer el pulpo. Toman un sabor y un color maravilloso.3. El orden en el que se pone el condimento es: primero la sal gruesa, luego el pimentón y finalmente el aceite de oliva virgen. No se suele mezclar el pimentón y el aceite, ya que de ésta forma lo que estás preparando es una "caldeirada".Espero no te molesten mis indicaciones pero me ví en la obligación de explicarte estos pequeños detallitos que para nosotros los gallegos, son tan importantes.Un bicoPilar
Nuria, I've been trying to leave you a comment but don't know what's going on. Well, I would like to emphasize some things. Hope you don't take it bad. As a Galician and living now in Galicia, I'll tell you that: 1. The Pulpo "a feira" normally doesn't have minced garlic. In some Ourense places they add it, but it's not a general habbit. 2. Potatoes are much more flavourful if you boil them in the octopus water. They absorb a wonderful taste and colour. 3. The order to follow when adding the rest of ingredients is the following: first the thick sea salt, the paprika, and after the olive oil. You shouldn't mix the paprika and the olive oil because then what you get is a "caldeirada". I hope that this small indications don't make you mad but I felt I should explain you these small details which are so important for us Galicians. A kiss, Pilar.
Thanks so much Pilar for showing me how to perform a Real Pulpo "a feira" :D. I really appreciate that!
In my defense ;-) I want to say that I went through different ways of cooking it and all of them claimed to be the real one. None of them mentioned the boiling of the potatoes should be done in the same water used for the octopus. I thought about it but didn't follow my instinc. The garlics addition is something I found in a couple of recipes, I saw it was not a majoritarian tendence but I liked it. And concerning the order of the ingredients in the dressing... my fault, I thought it would be better if I just mixed the ingredients and poured them on top of the octopus and potatoes... that was my cooking license!
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