Octopuses are regarded as some of the most intelligent creatures of the sea along with the bottle-nosed dolphin. They’ve been taught how to open jars and slip themselves into bottles. Some even live in the abyssal zone of the ocean among bacteria and heat-sensing shrimp while others camouflage themselves along the coral reefs. These poor unfortunate souls however, are going to be our dinner. Don’t worry, they’re not on the endangered list. The New England Aquarium in Boston highly recommends browsing their sister website HERE for information about eco-positive projects in the works to help protect sea creatures from being over-farmed without losing the healthy benefits of protein, Omega-3, vitamin B, iodine, zinc, potassium and phosphorus that we gain from eating seafood.
Essentially, we used the same low heat and long cook-time method of cooking these suckers as we did with our second calamari, drawing from the Polipo in Umido (braised octopus) written in “Lidia’s Italian Table”. Typically, fast and high is best reserved for salads as opposed to an entrée where the flavors need to marinate and harmonize together. Hawaiians and Italians alike know that octopuses can be farmed well and are seriously under appreciated in terms of cooking. It’s such an easy squid substitute.
In our mise en place, we did a ribbon-like chiffonade on our bock-choy, halved some cherry tomatoes and seasoned with red pepper flakes, sage and a generous sprinkle of pink salt and pepper. These things don’t come pre-flavored other than “seafood”.
I loved getting my hands wet playing around with these creatures. We put down some plastic bags so we didn’t get goop to They feel so cool, smooth and not at all sticky, but covered in bumps and holes. You may consider these a brother or sister to squid. Of course, we’ve bought our 4 from the frozen section at less than $10. Large and fresh may be the best qualities of land meat, but on the contrary, smaller frozen octopus tends to be meatier than freshly caught. Then again, the bigger the polipo, the more you get to beat it with a trusty meat mallet.
They shriveled up in only a matter of 45 minutes in our bubbling cast iron cauldron. More or less, they became palm-sized. Including resting time to let it all, this dish took us only 50 minutes. The cleaned out head piece was the sweetest seafood I’ve ever tasted. I’d akin it to lobster meat. The tentacles however were simply a thicker form of calamari.
We were very surprised at how salty the dish turned out after plating. We only added a pinch, considering as how octopus is a sea creature and may have had some saltiness to it. Actually, the octopus wasn’t salty intrinsically, so we’re stumped as to why we were chugging water afterwards. Overall, it was meaty but not chewy with that special seafood flavor that hits you just right with a flavorful brine. We give this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Sea stars that is. Personally, I say my inamorata is a perfect 10. 