When my fish seller sends a whatsapp… we’ll eat octopus
November 22nd, 2017 | starter
In Spain, Italy and Portugal we love to eat octopus salad as starter or octopus Galician style – the latter we often had in Barcelona’s taverns in the Barrio Gotico and liked it most in the Bar Celta Pulperia. A simple and authentic dish – wonderful! But how to cook it?
For a long time I did not try to prepare an octopus because of all those rumors and maybe fairy tales about how to cook an octopus: Some say it’s necessary to beat the octopus on rocks, others put wine corks (but it must be white wine ?!?) into the stock. Others assert that you have to deepfreeze before cooking, otherwise it won’t get soft. It seemed to be a science in its own.
Well, I did not follow any of those recommendations. And I developed my own way to prepare it. And this way it’s always a success and wonderful tender and soft.
Today, my fish seller writes me a whatsapp message when octopus is available. In his mobile phone I am saved as „Octopus“… And that’s how it works:
How to cook the octopus
Good to know:
You get around 750 g of cooked octopus out of a fresh weight of 1,6 kg. For an octopus salad you need 75 – 100 g per person. You can freeze cooked octopus – that’s perfect for having guests. Try for example Pulpo á la Gallega or octopus Galician style.
Octopus salad Mimmo style
(4 Portions)
We had this salad once as a starter in a very nice little restaurant in Venice called Trattoria Da Mimmo. Then my Captain took a little break from the ship. Cooked by myself, found to be good and added to our home menu…
And this is how the wife of the captain does it
I use an empty marmelade glass for preparing marinades: Fill all ingredients in, close the lid, mix – ready is the marinade! You can even store the salad sauce in this glass for some days in the fridge.
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