Octopus, Galician Style
Updated April 29, 2024
- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1octopus, about 3 pounds
- Coarse salt
- 4medium to large potatoes
- Smoked pimentón
- Olive oil
Preparation
- Step 1
Thaw octopus if necessary, either for 24 hours in refrigerator, or for a few hours in a couple of changes of cold water. With a scissors, remove skinny tips of tentacles and, cutting through webbing that connects them, separate the 8 tentacles and discard head. (Alternatively, you can cook the octopus whole and cut it up after cooking.)
- Step 2
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Put octopus in water and, when it returns to boil, cover and adjust heat so water simmers gently. Cook an hour or so, until octopus is tender. Meanwhile peel potatoes and cut into 2-inch slices. Lower them into water and cook until tender, about a half hour. Remove if they're done before octopus, and keep warm.
- Step 3
When octopus is tender, remove it and drain. Put potatoes on a platter and cut octopus into pieces (again, a scissors is easiest); top potatoes with it. Drizzle all liberally with pimentón, olive oil and coarse salt, and serve hot or warm.
Private Notes
Comments
Gave 1 star only, since recipe is missing the single most important thing: how to "scare" the octopus. You MUST do it so it does not end up chewy. Here's how you do it: when water is boiling, you slowly dip it into the water (holding it by the head) three times. You'll see how each time you dip it, the octopus' tentacles will curl. Only after the third dip you leave the octopus in the boiling water. That's how you scare an octopus.
When the water is boiling, the octopus should be placed into the water for a few seconds (holding it from its head) and pulled out (three or four times), before leaving it in the boiling water. In medium temperature, the octopus is cooked about 20 minutes per kilogram. If the octopus is fresh, it is recommended to freeze it first; this will make it much more tender.
I scared the octopus with a pressure cooker--15 minutes at 15 lbs. Tender and wonderful. Served with roasted red peppers and onions. Delicious.
It’s not necessary to put salt in the water, octopus is 50% salted water.
Discard the head???? No way! Cut it up in small squares instead
REALLY appreciate your notes ... I did the 3 dips to ‘scare’ the octopus, and we had the most tender octopus (I did a finish on a grill, 1 min on each side, which maybe could be extended)