HOW TO PREPARE: OCTOPUS
This is really quite simple and the best thing to do is to try and get your fish monger to do as much work as possible for you.
Ask them to clean, gut and remove the eyes and beak from the octopus.
Once you are at home you can then get to work on the more fiddly bits.
These following steps are generally not needed for the smaller varieties of octopus.
First up is peeling off the skin. This is a little tricky and you may need a good set of nails to get this done but it make the meat so much more tender when you do. Get in there and pull off as much as you possibly can, the skin is quite tough, so dont hold back, get right in there, you wont hurt the flesh.
Next you want to tenderise the flesh. To tenderise the meat you need to give it a good whacking. I used the back of a large heavy metal spoon. You want to use the flat of an object so that you dont pulverise the meat. Do this for about 5 mins all over.
Give the octopus a good wash in fresh water.
Heat a large pot on hight heat filled half with water. Add a good and decent pinch of salt and cook at a steady simmer for 45mins – 1hr.
Allow to cool and you are ready to get into your Octopus Pasta Salad