Sous Vide Octopus Spanish Tapas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What temperature should you sous vide an octopus? ›

To develop this recipe, we tested a range of temperatures, from 140°F (60°C) all the way up to 185°F (85°C), and times from 5 hours up to 24. Our favorite by far was 175°F (79°C) for five hours. Once cooked, this octopus is ready to be eaten warm or cold, or can be seared or grilled to crisp and brown the exterior.

For large octopus (around 5 pounds), boil for a good 8 to 10 minutes. Add a tablespoon of vinegar into the simmering liquid as the acetic acid can help break down the connective tissue in the tentacles. Marinate the octopus overnight in whole milk to help tenderize the meat.

It is simply cooked octopus served with boiled potatoes, olive oil, and sweet Spanish paprika. Be sure to use good quality paprika and olive oil since they are the main flavorings. While it's a simple preparation, just plan ahead since the octopus will need to boil for at least an hour and chill for another hour.

The internal temperature of cooked octopus should measure between 150f (65c) and 160f (71c) when ready to be removed from grill. Don't under cook it! The connective tissue won't start breaking down until 130f (54c).

All you really need is time; you need to cook the octopus just long enough so that the tough and chewy collagen in its flesh converts into silky and tender gelatin.

This collagen makes octopus flesh rubbery, at least initially. With enough heat and time that collagen breaks down into silky and tender gelatin, and the octopus grows tender with it. It's really no different than stewing gristly chunks of beef in a stew; eventually they become soft and tender.

Salting is essential to tenderness, or fatal; brief dips in boiling water tenderize, or long slow cooling, or a rubbing with grated daikon, or the addition of a wine cork to the cooking liquid.

Freeze the octopus (or squid) solid for at least a week. This will wreck a lot of the proteins that make their muscles so chewy. Thaw it out completely, and then simmer the octopus in water, stock or broth on low for 45 min-1 hr, until you can pierce the thickest par t of the arm easily with a toothpick.

Countries that eat the most octopus are Korea, Japan and Mediterranean countries where they are considered a delicacy.

Octopus is a very common food in Spanish culture. In the Spanish region of Galicia, polbo á feira (market fair-style octopus) is a local delicacy. Restaurants which specialize or serve this dish are known as pulperías.

What is an octopus called in Spain? ›

Also called pulpo á feira due to its popularity at parties and festivals, pulpo gallego is a small, tapas-style dish of octopus dressed with olive oil and a sprinkling of pimentón de La Vera (Spanish smoked paprika) on top.

Boiling is the most common way to soften the meat, and that's the step I've found most successful. Some folks say you need to add a cork to the water to tenderize it, but by all accounts that's one of those old kitchen myths. My friend Hank Shaw swears by a second step of dry dutch oven roasting over herbs.

Bring water back to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until octopus is fork-tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.

They are exposed to a wide variety of temperatures in their environments, but their preferred temperature ranges from about 15 to 16 °C (59 to 61 °F). In especially warm seasons, the octopus can often be found deeper than usual to escape the warmer layers of water.

But for most preparations, long, slow cooking, which yields a tender texture, is best. (If you cook it too long, it becomes dry and tasteless.)

This grilling step is really just a surface treatment: When both sides look done, the octopus is ready. There's no need to worry about synching up outer browning and inner doneness, because you've taken care of each separately. The results: octopus that is tender, not rubbery, and lightly singed on the surface.

Tenderising the octopus:

The best thing you can do is to take a rounded wooden stick (or a meat pounder) and to beat it hard, for about 10 minutes, on its the head (the area around the eyes) and on the tentacles all their way long. This operation will stretch the fibres and make the meat tender.