Is Mediterranean diet the best choice for your health? Yes, without any doubt!!! Take this dish as an example: it has Octupus (some sea proteins), potatoe (some tubercle), calçot or green onion (healthy vegetables), romesco sauce ( extra virgin olive oil, garlic, nuts, peppers...); an amazing compendium!
Calçots are these early onions we Catalans cultivate and eat at the beggining of the year. Now, they are not in season anymore, but you can recreate the dish with green onions and they will maybe be as good as calçots ;D. If you are curious about what a Calçotada is, follow this link.
Ingredients for 4 servings: Half octopus ( you can buy one and let the other half in the freezer for the next time), 2 big potatoes, 16 calçots or green onions, romesco sauce and thick sea salt. Concerning the romesco, if you don't have the ingredients or feel lazy about preparing the sauce, nowadays you can find it canned in specialized shops.
- To soften the octopus meat, there's some tricks... but the ones I follow are: Freeze it first and when defrosted, get a big pot with boiling water - no salt in it - and dive the octopus in, let it boil for 1 minute and take back from the boiling water. Repeat the operation for 5 times and after that let it boil for 25/30 minutes or until it becomes tender. Reserve.
- Peel and cut the potatoes in thick slices and boil in the same water. When tender, reserve.
- Meanwhile, confit the calçots or onions in extra virgin olive oil. The oil shouldn't boil. Keep the calçots in until they become tender (it might take 45 minutes aprox).
- Have the romesco sauce ready and present the dish:
- Spread some romesco sauce on the plate, place the calçot/onion first, add the potatoe and more romesco sauce and place the octopus on top. Sprinkle with thick sea salt.
I feel really lucky to live nearby the Mediterranean :D
Happy Spring!
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