Guest Post: Octopus

Greeting Food Lovers. Once again, our intrepid blogatrix has handed me the keys. Unlike last time, she did so with a good reason: I bought an octopus over the weekend. I got a nice little fella for only 5 bucks at Chicago's World Famous Hagen's Fish Market. I picked him up on Sunday, and he sat in the fridge overnight to defrost. While he thawed, I named him "Vovik" (if you're wondering, Vovik is a diminutive for "Vladimir" -- Billy for Russians).

To begin, I cut off his legs.
I am not a marine biologist, but I know what I do not know. Primarily, I do not know how to clean out the entrails of an octopus, whether ink sacs contain any toxins, or if an octopus head is even remotely tasty. I do know that people usually eat the legs of these things.

Contrary to popular opinion, the animal order of Octopada is not filled with the children of Cthulhu. Certainly, they are intelligent; biologists presume they are the most intelligent invertebrates besides Anthony Kennedy. What this means for the typical amateur chef is simply that I didn't want him to swim away while I was preparing the meal. Fortunately, my kitchen is above water, Vovik was already dead, and I quickly took care of his legs.

Despite their cozy appearance, your average Octopus has a rather tough texture. Therefore, you'll need to use a pressure cooker or be prepared for a long simmer. I don't have a pressure cooker, so Vovik needed time on the stove. I used a smaller pot and added:


1/2 cup white wine
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp thyme
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic

This is Vovik just before I turned on the heat.

The last time I cooked an octopus, an hour simmer was not enough. I left Vovik on the stove for an hour and a half because that is how long I could wait before eating.


After about an hour of simmering, I realized that -- while Vovik knew what he was doing --I had no plan for the rest of the meal. So I whipped up a quick salad, started boiling some pasta, and tried to finagle some kind of ragu sauce. Mostacholli and summer salad are straight-forward. Unfortunately, I was a little late to the game for the pasta sauce; I had to start with sauce-from-a-jar and just spruce it up. While the sauce heated, I chopped up Vovik and quickly cooked some calamari that was in the freezer.


Here, you can see the cooked octopus leg (note the size difference), calamari, and a few to-do notes on the back of my hand.

The pasta, calamari, and octopus were all ready at the same time; I tossed everything together to keep warm while the wife was on her way home.

The ninety minute simmer seemed to be enough. Vovik was tender -- as far as octopus goes. Unfortunately, the flavor got overwhelmed by the rest of the sauce. I liked the extra texture that Vovik gave to the sauce, but he had a nice subtle flavor from the wine and spices that was lost after everything came together. In any event, everything came together nicely.