Octopus Meze

evelyn/athens's Note:

A traditional octopus meze to have with ouzo or wine.

• Total Time: 41 mins
• Prep Time: 1 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 3 -4 lbs octopus
• 3 ounces red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon oregano (mediterranean)
• olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove , crushed (optional)

Directions:

1. Rinse the octopus under cold, running water and place in pot dripping wet (you don't want to dry it off- this is the moisture it will cook in).
2. Add the vinegar and garlic and cover the pot.
3. Bring to the boil over low heat.
4. It is tender when pierced easily with a fork (this can vary from octopus to octopus, so time is not a good indicator of doneness in this case).
5. When cool enough to handle, strip off suckers and reddish-purple membrane on flesh (these are delicious, but the octopus is more presentable without them- enjoy them by yourself!).
6. Cut the octopus into small tidbits.
7. And arrange on a platter, drizzled with olive oil and vinegar and sprinkled with oregano.
8. If you are going to serve the octopus another day, pack it in a jar or small tupperware bowl, cover with olive oil, top with 3-4 tblsps of vinegar and 1 tblsp oregano.
9. Give a stir.
10. Cover and refrigerate.

Reviews

[Lizzie-Babette]

This was superb! I could only get frozen baby octopus, and found that once it got boiling, it was done pretty quickly (in fact, I think I overcooked it just a tad). Removing the membrane was easy, and so was removing the tentacles from the larger ones, but the little ones, I just gave up on stripping the tentacles and we ate 'em as is. I made this exactly as directed, and while I toyed with the idea of adding some garlic, I think that would've been gilding the lily. The taste was sumptuously mediterranean, summery, and perfect as it was. We enjoyed this with some Italian bread and a nice zinfandel...it was supposed to be the appetizer, but ended up being the entire meal! I'll make this again, with whatever octopus I can find. Delicious recipe, evelyn!

[Chef Navidad]

Excellent recipe! The octopus turned out very tender. I served it with rice.

[Rita~]

I`ve eaten octopus before but never made it.This is a very easy recipe. I couldn`t buy it fresh so I purchased it frozen. Since it was $11.99 a pound so I only bought a small 1-1/2 pound octopus. I really do wish I went for the 4 pounds. I rinsed it put it into the pot partly frozen. Added the vinegar and cooked till tender. And it`s tender! Not chewy at all! I can actually taste the sweet ocean. Thanks for turning me on to this!