The last time the ‘shrimp guy’ came by, he was also selling octopus, or as he called it ‘pulpo’. Although we have eaten octopus, and have seen lots of pictures of giant octopus from Daryl scuba diving trips, we have never had a raw one before. So do we buy it or not? Of course we do! At $3.50 a pound, not much to lose if all goes awry.
First we had to do a search of how to clean and cook those creatures. There is a ton of information on the internet with lots of differing suggestions. Luckily for us the head, ‘beak’ (whatever that is) and guts….oops I meant entrails, had been removed. Thankfully Daryl did the dirty work. Although if I am being truthful, Daryl did all the work and I took pictures.
We now had two beautifully cleaned octopus….except for the skin. We tried removing that but it did not come off very easily.
Pretty well everything we read said to dunk the cleaned octopus in a large pot of boiling water. I think the purpose of this is to curl up the tiny little ends. We did it, although it wasn’t clear if just the tips should be dunked or the entire thing…..so in it went.
After dunking the skins came off much easier and the tips were nicely curled. Then back into the pot of water the octopus went to simmer for another hour and a bit. The information said to simmer until a fork inserted into the thicker part went in easily. I had no difficulty sticking a fork into the flesh at any time so we weren’t sure just how long it would take. We also could not get the gas low enough to keep the water from furiously boiling, so it was a constant “turn it on, turn it off”.
They were now ready to eat or to use in a recipe. We cut the octopus into tentacles because it seemed to be the most common thing to do. Although it didn’t look as pretty as when whole.
Several website suggested to put the octopus on the BBQ to char. We tried that, but no charring happened, only drying out. This BBQ was blazing hot and Daryl used his bare hands and not the tongs, so the smaller pieces would not go through the grill!!
We obviously missed something in the preparation. Maybe the black skin should have stayed on so there would be something to char.
A quick saute in butter seemed to be just what was needed.
And Done! I am not altogether sure how to describe the taste. Maybe a cross between shrimp and squid. It was firm, but soft, and a little chewy but not at all rubbery, with a very mild flavour.
Another culinary adventure in the books!. If Daryl is up for future cleaning then we will certainly do it again.
Cheers, Saludos
Ruth
ruthkennedysretirementblog 