GALICIAN OCTOPUS RECIPE
Today we have one of the classic tapas par excellence of Spanish gastronomy. Galician octopus is a regular on bar terraces in summer and it doesn’t surprise me at all, because something so rich and easy to prepare, inevitably won’t be popular. In my house we do it a lot and on certain dates like Christmas, it is a fixture on the table. We really like it.
A common debate when talking about Galician octopus is whether it is the same as octopus a feira or not. The answer is no, because although they are similar dishes, there are small differences. The main one is that the Galician octopus has potatoes and the octopus does not. On the other hand, there is the issue of cooking. Galician octopus is prepared after the entrails have been separated from it and then cooked for several hours over low heat. For the octopus a feira, a normal cooking is enough. It is true that in this recipe I do not cook it in the traditional Galician way, but by bringing potatoes, we can speak of Galician octopus.
GALICIAN OCTOPUS, INGREDIENTS
- 1 beautiful octopus, about 2.5 kg
- 3 potatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 bay leaves
- Paprika to taste
- Olive oil
- Salt
HOW TO MAKE GALICIAN OCTOPUS
1) Bring water to boil in a saucepan
We start by putting a large saucepan on the fire with plenty of water. We wait for it to boil and put the potatoes, the whole and peeled onion and the laruel leaves.
2) Scare the octopus
Next, we put the octopus in the casserole with the help of some tongs. When putting it in the casserole, we are not going to release it, because you have to scare the octopus. This consists of putting it in and taking it out 3 times, holding it in the water for a few seconds before taking it out. We do this so that the octopus skin stays where it is and does not come off when cooked.
3) Cook the octopus
Once scared, we cook the octopus for approximately 35 minutes. This does not mean that it will be cooked in that time, but we have to check if it is done. Most likely, it will take a little more. The way to check it is by pricking it with a fork in the thickest part of the tentacles. If you see that the fork sticks in quite easily, it is time to remove it.
4) Assemble the Galician octopus dish
Now we peel the potatoes, taking care not to burn ourselves, and cut them into slices of a size that we like. Then we place them covering the bottom of a large flat plate.
5) Cut the tentacles of the octopus
Next, we cut the tentacles of the octopus and divide them into slices of about 2 cm thick (or as you want) and place them on top of the potato.
6) Put paprika and olive oil
To finish off the Galician octopus, we put the classic fix with paprika and a good extra virgin olive oil.
We have already finished the Galician octopus
And that’s it friends. We have finished our Galician octopus. We hope you enjoy it with your loved ones!
