Octopus Meze
"A traditional octopus meze to have with ouzo or wine."
photo by Chef floWer
- Ready In:
- 41mins
- Ingredients:
- 6
- Serves:
-
8-10
ingredients
- 3 -4 lbs octopus
- 3 ounces red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon oregano (mediterranean)
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
directions
- 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).
- Add the vinegar and garlic and cover the pot.
- Bring to the boil over low heat.
- 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).
- 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!).
- Cut the octopus into small tidbits.
- And arrange on a platter, drizzled with olive oil and vinegar and sprinkled with oregano.
- 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.
- Give a stir.
- Cover and refrigerate.
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Reviews
-
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! -
Excellent recipe! The octopus turned out very tender. I served it with rice. -
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! -
Best octopus marinade I've tryed, simple with great results!
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When I just arrived as a member of this site, I simply posted a number of stars, without comment. I found this recipe very useful for cooking my (baby) octopus, and with the review from Chef FloWer, I knew how long to cook the baby octopus. I turned it into a salad after, with a Greek touch: roasted red pepper, oregano, a little garlic, dried hot red pepper, artichoke hearts, grape tomatos. There was unfortunately no feta cheese in the house which would have completed the mix. If I could change the review rating to 4 stars, I would, because you gave me a jumping-off point.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.
