Sunday, December 22, 2013
Pulpo Gallego, Octopus in paprika
A classic Spanish way of preparing octopus.
Two pounds of octopus cleaned.
Dunk in a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes
Until they curl up like this
Pop them in a heavy dutch oven lined with some chopped up fennel, parsley, garlic and a splash of white wine, cover and put in to a 300 degree F oven for about 2 hours.
After 2 hours they will be tender enough to cut with a fork. Cut them up in bite size bits. Toss them in a bit of olive oil and set under the broiler or on a grill for about 3 or 4 minutes just to char them a little bit. Be careful don't over do it. Toss them in a bowl with some more olive oil, some chopped garlic, salt, pepper and teaspoon of paprika. I use the mild smoked kind.
Serve with some roasted fingerling potatoes, half a dozen steamed little neck clams and a side salad.
We get squid here and tend to just grill it and serve with salad, boiled potatoes and a dressing made of finely chopped onion and parsley in olive oil and vinegar. I reckon your recipe would make a nice change.
ReplyDeleteAnother way of doing it is to chop the squid into bite sized chunks and soak in milk over night to soften before breading and deep frying. With a variety of spicy dips it makes for good finger food at get togethers
Here in the North east of the US most folks cringe at the notion of Squid and Octopus. Not sure quite why. In some pubs you can get breaded deep fried squid, but no one touches octopus. With both you either cook them for 5 minutes or 2 hours. Anything in between and its like chewing on a rubber tire. Never had it just grilled but I may have to try it when we get back to grilling season some time in March. In Venezuela they make a similar sort of parsley dressing as you describe. But it is simply parsley, garlic olive oil and lemon juice + salt and pepper. Yummy stuff on grilled meats or fish. I usually make a good batch at the end of the year before the plants freeze outside as a means of preserving the parsley and then freeze it in plastic container for use through out the winter. As well as a topping on grilled meats it is good for pastas. Toss 2 dozen shrimp in a hot pan with some olive oil, for about a minute or two, add couple heaping spoonfuls of the green salsa and toss some pasta in it. Good stuff.
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