Bill Wishon’s News and Views

Trying to find two articles or recipes online that agree on how to cook octopus is difficult.  Why am I looking for this you ask?  Well it all started the other night at Gabriella’s Cafe in Santa Cruz.  They had an appetizer dish that was grilled octopus over some collard greens or bok choy or like green leafy vegetable.  It was so good and unique to me that I decided it would be fun to try and recreate. 

So off I went to acquire an octopus.  I went to The Fish Lady in Soquel, only to be surprised that they didn’t have any octopus, they were very helpful with suggestions about where to find some and that they could order some, but it made me think that finding the main ingredient might not be so easy.  The next day I was running some errands around town and stopped by Stagnaro’s down on the wharf.  Luckily they had an octopus for me, nicely frozen in a small ball, so I was set (or so I thought).

It wasn’t until tonight when I had planned on preparing the beastie that I found out about the mysteries surrounding it’s preparation.  After various searches and reading through some threads on the eGullet Forums, did I find these relatively interesting preparations.  Some people recommeded just barely cooking it then thinly sliced (sometimes referred to as the japanese method).  Others refered to very long boiling times.  Some insisted on “scaring” the octopus by dipping it in the hot water and then removing it a few times before the long boil.  Some talked about beating the octopus on rocks, some with a meat tenderizer.  Some maintained that freezing and thawing did the work of tenderizing.  All the while there was one comment about if you don’t get it right that the octopus would turn out like a steel belted radial… Yuck!

This was turning out to be way to complicated and the stakes too high, delicious appetizer or steel belted radial.

Finally based on some thought and a few key comments, I decided that if there was some merit to the “scaring” concept that the octopus had to get dunked, then cooled in between dunks in the boiling water.   So I “scared” the octopus through a series of three boiling water dips for a 30-60 seconds followed by a quick cool down in ice water as my preferred method.  I followed that up by poaching (cooking in a very slight boil) in a liquid that was some of the reserved boiling liquid, some rose wine, some sechuan pepper and coriander.  I did that for about 50 minutes.

I took a sampling bite to ensure it’s doneness before taking it out and it was really good.  Then I put the pieces in a collander and rubbed the rest of the dark red skin off.  I then placed it in a baggie with some vinegrette in the fridge.  Next step I’ll toss it on the grill (weather permitting) for a few minutes to give it a bit of smokey char flavor and then place it on some leafy greens (also wilted on the grill).  While definitely adding my own twist to it I hope that it will turn out just as good or better than the dish at Gabriella’s that inspired it.  If nothing else it makes me realize that cooking is definitely part science, part art and all in all just plain fun.