HOW TO MAKE OCTOPUS TENDER RECIPES

Steps:

• First, we explain a brilliant trick that will help you a lot when you cook the octopus and make your job easier, it is because of freezing fresh octopus or buying it frozen. Thus, the meat fibres of the meat will break and it won't go hard after boiling. If you buy fresh octopus, you need to know how to clean the octopus to store it clean.
• Freezing octopus two days before preparing it will be enough, and one day before boiling it you must take it out of the freezer so it's completely thawed. To do this, put it in a large bowl to collect all the water that will come out of the octopus and leave it in the refrigerator.
• If you don't have time to freeze the octopus before cooking or not you want to, you should mash the octopus, i.e. hit it so the fibrous tissue breaks.
• Before cooking the octopus, it will be important to wash it well with cold water to remove any dirt or impurities and, if not already done, gut it. To take out all the viscera, you should turn it over and completely empty its head.
• Put a large pot of water on to heat without adding salt, and once it's boiling, take the octopus head and scare it :put it in and take it out 3 times to get the octopus to stay stiff so it doesn't lose its skin during cooking.
• Once the octopus scared, leave to cook in the water, with the cover on the pan. Octopus cooking time will depend on its size and other factors such as the type of water, the pan... so you will have to pinch the octopus to see if it's still hard.
• To get an idea, a 1 kilo octopus can be cooked in about 25-30 minutes and the time will increase the weight increases, but not necessarily proportionally.
• It's good to know that you can also freeze octopus once cooked and keep it in optimal conditions to prepare quickly the next time.
• Once we have the boiled octopus we can prepare however we need to in our recipes. One of the most famous Spanish recipes is Galician octopus, a rich recipe that you will surely love. Combine with another typical dish: Galician soup! For more seafood recipes, learn how to cook fresh salmon and how to make Spanish prawn croquettes or prawn tagliatelle.

Steps:

• Combine octopus, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt, garlic and 1 lemon, cut in half, in saucepan along with water to cover. Turn heat to medium, cover, and bring to boil. Adjust heat so that liquid simmers slowly, and cook until octopus is tender, for 30 to 90 minutes, depending on whether you're using two smaller octopuses or 1 larger one (check for doneness with point of sharp knife). Drain, discarding everything but octopus. (You can prepare this 24 hours in advance up to this point; cover, and refrigerate octopus.) Set aside.
• Start charcoal or wood fire, or preheat gas grill; fire should be quite hot. Grill rack about 4 inches from heat source. Cut octopus into large serving pieces, brush it with half the olive oil, and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Grill it quickly until outside browns but inside is not dried out. Cut remaining lemon into wedges.
• Brush octopus with remaining olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges, hot or at room temperature, garnished with parsley.