LAW 73: In the octopus' garden

Well, It has taken me a while to get around to this post, but, this is a fabulous dinner that we had over the weekend while we were hunkered down waiting for winter storm Jonas to blow himself off.

Yes, playing with your food is good!

Octopus is without a doubt right up there as a contender for the top mollusk in the taste category. I love it grilled, as sushi and after this past weekend, i especially like it braised in it's own juices. Do you mind if i say OMG!

Never too many onions or garlic!

As you may know from other posts we live on a boat on the upper end of the Chesapeake bay. Octopus is not commonly taken for people food out of the bay. So when Mungo and i want to eat octopus we need to special order it. Luckily we have cultivated a good working relationship with the manager of the sea food department at our local, independently owned grocery store. Justin will get us anything that we as for. He has gotten us  octopus more than once.

all curled up and ready to cook

So we had this 4 pound  sweetie sitting in the freezer. We decided that our snowed in weekend would be the perfect time to feast on said mr. octopus. So, our fave way to have has octopus is grill, not likely to happen with 2 + feet of snow looking to fall over the weekend.

After serious consultation with Dr. Google i determined that braising said octopus in it's own juices would be the way to go. Well, it isn't quite just in its own juices but…..

Yes, i added no liquids, this is the result of an hour's braising

Octopus laid over a generous bed of onion and garlic, topped with about a cup of green, pitted olives, braised for about two hours. Oh man, ocean in a bowl! After determining that the octopus was fork tender i pulled it out and let it cool enough to cut up into chunks. So at this point you want to reduce the liquid to about two cups than add waxy potatoes that are cut up to the same size of the octopus, cook until the potatoes are tender, garnish with fresh herbs of your choice, parsley, cilantro and hit it up with a little fresh lemon juice. Heaven in a bowl. Cooked this way octopus has the taste and texture of spiny lobster, another of my favorites. yum yum.

Fork tender and ready to cut up, once it's cool

FYI if you are buying whole octopus for this dish, just cut off and discard the head, you are really not losing anything. Serve this is a shallow bowl with really good crust bread, and a mineral rich greek wine.

Excellant recommendation from our good friends at Midway

ready to eat!

Oh so Bon Appetite.

more later,
Morgainne