Everyone knows about the benefits of seafood, because they are rich in unique micro and macro elements that are not found in the so-called "earthly" products. They contain 18 unique and essential amino acids, almost all B vitamins and calcium, potassium, magnesium, iodine and many other minerals that are useful for our body.
Previously, octopus dishes were something exotic for me, and even in restaurants I rarely allowed myself to try them because of the crazy cost. But recently I noticed them in a fish store - a kilogram of frozen mini-octopuses cost half the price of the same shrimp. And considering that no one in my family is fond of seafood except me, I decided to take a few pieces for testing.
After the first successful attempts, I became a regular customer. And now I have debunked the myth of high cost, because from one kilogram I get four full servings.
Like any other seafood, octopus can be cooked different ways- boil, stew, fry. But remember that time heat treatment should be kept to a minimum, otherwise the meat will be tough, rubbery and tasteless.
So, to cook fried octopus we need:
mini octopuses
Difficulty level: very simple
Cooking time: a few minutes (plus defrost time)
First you need to defrost the octopuses. Ideally, of course, you need to leave them for ten hours to thaw at room temperature. But nothing terrible will happen if we resort to the help of warm (but not hot) water.
We gently wash the carcasses, there is no need to clean them - usually frozen ones are sold already gutted. Some chefs advise removing the film from octopuses before cooking, but this is more true for large carcasses, and for baby octopuses, it is barely noticeable and does not affect the taste at all.
I tried to marinate the dish in advance, but nothing good came of it. Salt and soy sauce should never be used before and during cooking, otherwise the meat will resemble a sole. Salt should be at the very end. Even if you boil octopus, never do it in salt water.
Before frying, octopuses can be cut into small pieces This further reduces the cooking time. I prefer to cut the carcass into two parts - the head and tentacles, and you can cut them (for example, for a salad) already ready.
For frying, you can use both olive oil and butter (or a mixture of both). Start by frying in oil. large pieces garlic, then remove them so that the garlic does not burn.
After that, put the octopuses in the pan and (attention!) fry them for no more than one minute! This is quite enough for small carcasses. For more contact with the oil, you can lightly press them down with a spatula while frying.
That's all, fried octopuses with a slight garlic flavor are ready.
Before serving, they need to be slightly salted and / or sprinkled with soy sauce. Like any other seafood, octopus goes great with parsley.
It is completely independent and hearty meal, but you can supplement it with a side dish (rice, pasta, vegetables).
As you can see, everything is as simple as two and two: a few minutes, and exotic dish ready! Bon appetit!
To receive the best articles, subscribe to Alimero's pages at .
Octopus meat is considered a delicacy and is widely used for cooking. variety of dishes. The mollusk is almost the only representative of the order of cephalopods, in which tentacles go along with the head as food. Boiled octopus tastes a bit like squid, but it has a more delicate taste, and its meat has a pleasant pinkish tint.
Preparation
Before you start cutting the mollusk, it should be properly thawed. Frozen octopus is taken out of freezer and put in a deep bowl. Defrosting should occur naturally at room temperature; the use of a microwave oven for this purpose is unacceptable. After the carcass becomes soft, it will need to be gutted.
Some mollusks are sold with an ink bag located on the inside of the head, so the first stage of cutting is to clean the head and remove the ink cavity. After that, the eye part is cut off and the “beak” of the mollusk is removed. Next, the carcass is thoroughly washed under running water. cold water while washing off all the accumulated mucus.
If the octopus is large enough, then in order to reduce the cooking time and more evenly cook the mollusk, it is recommended to gently beat it with a wooden mallet. In addition, large octopuses are recommended to be cleaned before cooking. To do this, hook the film with the tip of a knife and remove it.
Small clams do not need to be cleaned before cooking. The film leaves very badly from such instances, therefore cleaning can be performed only after heat treatment.
Cooking rules
Experienced chefs shellfish are cooked almost without water. At the beginning of cooking, only 200 ml of liquid is added to the bottom of the pan, waiting for it to boil, then the meat is placed and cooked with the lid tightly closed. In this case, the fire should be so small that the liquid barely boils. In the process of cooking, liquid is released from the octopus, due to which the carcass begins to boil in own juice.
In order for the octopus meat not to become tough as a result of cooking, the carcass should only be placed in boiling water. The amount of liquid in the pan should be minimal. This requirement is due to the fact that the mollusk, in fact, must be boiled in its own juice. Otherwise, the meat will simply boil out and lose some of its palatability. It is a small amount of liquid that makes it necessary to cook the mollusk on a very small fire. If the flame is strong, then the liquid will begin to evaporate quickly, the octopus runs the risk of not having time to cook in it, and the liquid will need to be constantly topped up.
The lid of the pot should be tightly closed when cooking the mollusk. This will eliminate excessive evaporation, ensure better cooking of the meat and preserve its natural rich flavor. You can cool the cooked octopus in the same pan without removing it from the broth. From being in hot water meat will not lose its taste and will not become “rubber”, as, for example, in squid. It is recommended to salt the octopus at the end of cooking, a few minutes before the carcass is ready.
However, when using this method, it is necessary to constantly be nearby and control the level of liquid at the bottom of the pan. With her not enough water will have to be added. Moreover, it is necessary to add only boiling water, adding cold water Not recommended.
To give the meat a richer flavor, it is recommended to add dill, celery, tomato, red pepper and onion to the pan. You can put cumin or cloves to taste.
The above method assumes classic brew in a saucepan, while cooking in a pressure cooker looks a little different. In order to cook the octopus in a pressure cooker, a little less than half the volume of water is poured into it, salt is added and brought to a boil. Then, using tongs, the octopus carcass is completely immersed in boiling water three times in a row. Moreover, each immersion of the mollusk in boiling water should last no more than 3 seconds.
After the third dipping, the whole meat is immersed in water, a finely chopped onion is added and the lid is tightly closed. Triple bathing the carcass in boiling water will eliminate the appearance of a "rubber" effect and make the product softer. Professionals recommend putting in a pressure cooker wine cork. The cork tree gives the meat unusual taste and makes it softer.
A very unusual taste is obtained from octopuses cooked in wine sauce. To do this, you need to take a carcass weighing 2-3 kg, cut it into several parts, put them in a saucepan and add half a glass of red wine and water. It is necessary to cook the mollusk for at least 40 minutes, after which you should turn off the fire, add a little salt, close the lid and let it brew for 5 minutes.
Another interesting recipe involves boiling the carcass in tomato sauce. For this, the octopus is cut into smaller pieces than in the previous recipe, olive oil, cut into rings, is added to the pan onion, green, black ground and hot pepper, a little cumin, a clove of garlic and 200 ml of water. Then crush 1 kilogram of tomatoes in a blender, add the resulting puree to the pan and put on moderate heat. In the absence of a grinder, you can use coarse grater. The meat will be fully cooked after 30 minutes, after which it is served to the table either as a first course or as a dressing for boiled white rice. Top the dish with plenty of water delicious sauce in which the clam was boiled.
Cooking time
Boiling a frozen octopus at home is quite simple, however, in order for the meat to be juicy and soft, it is necessary to observe the cooking time. So, the tentacles of a large mollusk should be boiled for at least 7 minutes, after which the film is removed from them and used to make salads. It is enough to boil the limbs of small young individuals for 3 to 5 minutes. Small individuals are boiled for 7 to 10 minutes, medium - about 20, and large - at the rate of 35 minutes per kilogram of weight.
In order for the process of cooking octopuses to go smoothly, it is recommended to follow a number of simple rules.
- It is necessary to dip the carcasses in boiling water gradually. First, the tentacles descend into the boiling water. Only after they acquire a pinkish color, the whole mollusk is immersed in the pan.
- In order for the film to lag behind more easily after heat treatment, the carcass should be placed in ice water for a couple of minutes.
- When buying a large and adult fresh mollusk, it is recommended to freeze it before cooking. After thawing, the meat will become much softer and juicier.
- Boil octopuses in unsalted water with seasonings. You can salt either a couple of minutes before cooking, or after cooking as part of other dishes.
- Octopus meat goes well with any cream and soy sauce, and it is recommended to serve it with side dishes of vegetables, rice and pasta.
Strict observance of cooking time and proper preparation octopus makes an excellent base for salads and second courses.
See the video below for how to cook octopus.
The octopus is a mollusk with a small body and 8 long tentacles with suction cups. He is a predator who prefers to live alone. On average, the size of an individual can be up to 50 cm, and the weight at the same time reaches up to 3 kg. The octopus is included in the list of primitive animals that have already existed on earth. a large number of time. The mollusk lives mainly in tropical and subtropical oceans.
Octopus meat is tender and soft, and it tastes slightly sweet. Get from one individual to 75% of the meat, of the total mass. In general, there are 4 categories of octopus, which differ in weight:
- Individuals weighing no more than 2 kg.
- Individuals weighing from 2 to 5 kg.
- Individuals with a mass of 5 to 10 kg.
- Individuals weighing more than 10 kg.
The best are considered octopuses, which are included in categories 3 and 4.
How to choose and store?
The taste and quality of the dish is directly related to which octopus you choose. There are a few tips to help you accomplish this task:
Beneficial features
The benefit of the octopus is the presence of easily digestible protein, which is necessary for work. internal organs. It contains a large amount of polyunsaturated fatty acid that reduce the risk of disease of cardio-vascular system. There is also a large amount of zinc in the composition of the mollusk, which resists the aging process of the skin and improves immunity. At regular use the body is saturated with vitamin B12, which is a natural antioxidant that is important for saturating cells with oxygen.
Use in cooking
Octopus is a fairly popular food product that is used in many countries for cooking. original dishes, although for our country it is still exotic. The mollusk is especially popular in Asian countries, where it is even eaten alive. In Italy, the octopus is used to prepare first courses, as well as sandwiches, snacks and salads. Many people prefer baked octopus in dough. Clams can be cooked whole or in parts. In general, for its preparation, you can use any of existing ways: fry, boil, stew, marinate, dry, etc.
Some restaurants serve clams stuffed various products, for example, vegetables, mushrooms, dried fruits or cereals. To diversify the taste of the octopus, for example, in a boiled form, you can use olive oil, herbs and spices, wine and soy sauce.
How to cook an octopus with your own hands?
If you managed to get an octopus, then to cook it, you should follow these recommendations:
Harm of the octopus and contraindications
An octopus can bring harm if an individual intolerance to the product is detected. It is important to consider that if the mollusk lived in a polluted environment, then its meat may contain substances that are toxic to the body. Incorrectly cooked octopus meat can lead to serious poisoning.
Octopus is one of the most popular mollusks used in various delicacy dishes. The most popular, from a culinary point of view, are small octopuses - weighing up to 2 kg. The process of cooking octopus requires certain rules to be followed, otherwise, the meat will be tough like rubber and unpleasant in taste.
In modern Russian supermarkets, octopus is usually sold frozen, although you can also find a fresh chilled product. However, it is believed that frozen meat is more tender. How to cook frozen octopus? To begin with, it will need to be thawed and cleaned - remove the beak, eye and entrails, if this has not been done before. The tentacles of a large individual can be scraped with knives to cut off dense scales, in small octopuses it can be left.
Cook octopuses in boiling water. The cooking time depends on the size of the mollusk - it is enough to boil small octopuses for 3-5 minutes, large individuals should be thermally processed for at least 1 hour. During cooking, the octopus does not need to be salted, any spices must be added after cooking. How to cook octopus in a marinade? The cooled meat should be cut into pieces and marinated in lemon juice with seasoning for seafood.
Also, boiled octopus can be cooled in the refrigerator. To do this, the tentacles are cut off from the carcass, and the head is cut into strips. The resulting segments are added to plastic bag and tightly rolled into a tight roll. Shellfish meat contains a large amount of gluten, as in pork tails, for example. This property allows the dish to freeze quickly. The chilled product is cut into plates and consumed as an independent snack.
When answering the question - how to cook an octopus, you can offer others popular recipes. For example, a thawed clam can be cut into pieces, dipped in salted dough batter and fried in a hot frying pan. It is important that the octopus is small - in this case, the meat is tender and cooks quickly. It only takes a few minutes to fry the pieces until they appear. golden brown. Boiled octopus can be stewed in tomato, cream, mustard sauce and also used for cooking various salads, combine with vegetables or other types of seafood.
There are other ways to cook octopus. For example, many housewives cook shellfish in a slow cooker. In this case, the cooking technology is somewhat different - the whole processed carcass is placed in the multicooker bowl, a wine cork is put there and cooked for 2 hours without adding water in the “Extinguishing” mode. During heating, enough liquid is released from the mollusk so that the product cooks in its own juice. The finished delicacy is cut into pieces, sprinkled with lemon juice, soy sauce, sprinkled with spices.
The octopus has long ceased to be a mysterious exotic and outlandish delicacy for us. This inhabitant of the deep sea can often be found in supermarkets and cooked at home is no worse than in a restaurant. We offer a closer look at this amazing mollusk. And the trademark "Maguro" will help us with this.
Right clams
Most often, frozen octopuses are sold in stores. If you manage to find a fresh clam, carefully inspect it from head to tentacle tips. The flesh should be firm and smooth, with a slight fishy aroma. When pressed, it easily restores its shape - this is a sign of a fresh product. This is also indicated by bright, unclouded eyes.
If you are cooking octopus for the first time, it is better to play it safe and take a high-quality frozen product. Such as the octopus "Maguro". By the way, this brand supplies large whole octopuses from Indonesia, and mini-octopuses from China. In addition to them, the brand line includes Far Eastern squid tentacles, which will also appeal to seafood connoisseurs. In any case, the quality and freshness are beyond doubt. All these products are subjected to shock freezing, so that they retain their taste and nutritional properties.
The reveal session
Frozen octopus, to the delight of the hostesses, is already gutted. But over a fresh carcass will have to work hard. First, it is thoroughly washed under running cold water, paying special attention to the tentacles with suction cups. Then the head sac is cut off and all the contents are cleaned out. After that, the “beak” is removed, located in the very center of the base, from which the tentacles diverge. IN last turn eyes are cut out with scissors and, if necessary, the head sac is cut into fragments.
There is another one in the octopus section important nuance. The skin from a fresh mollusk is not removed. It is extremely difficult to separate with the risk of damaging the carcass itself. To do this, it is dipped in boiling water for about 5-10 minutes and immediately doused ice water. After that, the skin is pulled together easily, like a stocking.
The art of cooking
Like all seafood, octopus requires delicate heat treatment. If you overexpose it on fire, the flesh will become rubbery and tasteless. Cooking almost always starts with boiling.
The shellfish is placed in boiling water. Moreover, the tentacles are first lowered, and when they begin to curl up and change color, they submerge their heads. In the process of cooking, salt is not put in any case - it will make the pulp tough. But additives like peppercorns, dill, laurel or lemon juice are only welcome.
Mini octopuses are enough for 5 minutes, while large individuals cook for half an hour or longer. Please note that they are cooked on the lowest heat. Boiling water will hopelessly spoil the taste. And connoisseurs also advise throwing a cork made of cork into the pan. This will give the product tenderness and softness.
Octopus with a spark
Fried octopus in spicy sauce- one of the most harmonious variations. Defrost the carcass of the Maguro octopus, wash, cut and cook under a closed lid over low heat. Readiness to check is simple - pierce the densest part with a fork. It should freely enter the pulp. When the carcass has cooled, we cut the tentacles into circles, and the base into strips.
In a frying pan with hot olive oil sauté 2 cloves of garlic and a red onion. Add 2 tbsp. l. rice vinegar, 4 tbsp. l. soy sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger, ½ tsp chili flakes and salt to taste. Having slightly darkened the sauce, lay the octopus and fry for a couple of minutes. Then remove it from the heat and let it brew under the lid for 10 minutes. Octopus can be served without a side dish as a hot appetizer.
Tired of wine
Octopus stewed in wine with the addition of fragrant herbs, - a dish for connoisseurs of seafood. We prepare the carcass of the octopus "Maguro", as in the previous recipe, sprinkle with a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice, leave for 20 minutes.
At this time, brown in butter chopped red onion until golden.
Pour the octopus slices, put a pinch of basil, thyme and anise. If you want to add bright burning notes, add ground chili. Pour in 100 ml of dry white wine and evaporate. Then pour in water so that it barely covers the octopus. Next, enter 2 tbsp. l. tomato paste, mix, cover with a lid and simmer until tender. You can complement this dish with pasta or wild rice.
Made for each other
Now we offer to bake the octopus in the oven. Boil 1 kg of potatoes in advance and cut into circles. We wash the defrosted carcass of the Maguro octopus, dry it, wrap it cling film and lightly beat with a hammer. This will make it softer and more tender.
We cut the carcass into its component parts, chop coarsely, put it in a deep form with foil and send it to the oven at 200 ° C for 10 minutes. We drain the released liquid, grease the octopus with oyster sauce, sprinkle with chopped garlic, and put potato slices on top. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary and salt. In this form, again put the form in the oven, this time for 10 minutes at 250 ° C. Garnish with cherry tomatoes and parsley before serving.
As you can see, cooking octopus at home is easier than it seems at first glance. Main culinary secret- delicious and fresh shellfish of impeccable quality. The Maguro trademark has made sure that such a product is on your table. And you, in turn, were able to please the whole family gourmet dishes from an octopus.
