This traditional Portuguese-baked octopus is full of flavours and surprisingly easy to achieve: the trick is to use frozen octopus (thawed overnight) as this ensures you get a tender result. Freezing octopus helps to break down its tougher muscle fibres, resulting in a more tender texture when cooked. If you buy your octopus fresh, it's worth freezing it before cooking it.
Ingredients for 4:
- 1 octopus (about 1.5 kg), thawed in the fridge overnight
- 1 large onion, chopped in 4 pieces to boil the octopus with
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed and sliced
- Bunch of coriander (or parsley works too), chopped
- 500g potatoes
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Black olives, optional garnish
- 1 large
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Method:
1. Rinse the thawed octopus thoroughly, place in a large pot of boiling salted water with a whole peeled onion, then reduce to simmer and cover to cook until it is tender, about 40-50minutes. Remove, drain, and cut into large pieces
2. Wash the potatoes well, cut them in half and boil them briefly skin-on in salted water, about 10 minutes
3. In a small frying pan, slightly brown the sliced garlic, chopped onion, and coriander in olive oil, letting simmering a bit before setting aside
4. In a large slightly oiled baking tray, spread the potatoes and octopus pieces, then pour the garlic and onion mixture from the frying pan
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven at 200C for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the octopus absorbs the flavour of the fragrant olive oil mixture
6. Serve with some green veg such as green beans or a green salad, and black olives and onion slices as garnish.
7. Enjoy!