The main thing about cooking this octopus this way is not to cook it in boiling or simmering water. Octopi have juices of their own, and by cooking it in garlic and parsley and a few tbsp of olive oil in a heavy casserole dish, you’re able to have the octos cook in their own juices, enhancing the natural flavor of the octopus itself rather than letting the juices seep into simmering water.
Got it? It’s real tough…(joking…even a neanderthal such as myself can do it). Grab a handful of parsley, couple cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp of oil. Put a cloth over the octopus and pound it with a meat tenderizer, or as one of my friends does in Israel, put a bunch of them in the washing machine LOL. Or, if you buy frozen octopus, the freezing will break down the cell structure of the octopus so it will be more tender than if not frozen. I don’t season the octopus before braising, because it will toughen up the meat and the octopus will release its juices, which are also salty.
preparing the octopus: If you buy an octo, before you pound and braise it, remove the beak, cut out the inside of the head, take off as many suckers on the tentacles as you can, and rinse it in running water for 15 minutes to get excess salt out.
After you cook the octopus, you will have a delicious oil and octopus and garlic and parsley blend. mash all that together and use that as the dressing for the octopus. It is flavor, intensified.
braised octopus in its own juices, crispy jamón ibérico de bellota lomo, garlic confit, lemon zest + olive oil
Top down view w/ a nice white burgundy
Easy to make good food with right technique, lots of love and wine ; )