Methods 1: Before starting: treat octopus first.
1. Thaw the octopus. Put the frozen octopus in the refrigerator for 24 hours to thaw naturally. Compared with fresh octopus, one advantage of moving octopus is that the meat will become tender. If you want to use fresh octopus, you should first treat it with tender meat powder to make the meat tender.
But frozen octopus must be completely melted and softened before it can be made.
2. cut off the antenna. Cut off the octopus's tentacles from the root with a sharp kitchen knife. However, it should be noted that some recipes need to keep the octopus intact, so you should study the whole recipe before cutting the octopus.
Spread the octopus on the chopping board, pick up a tentacle and cut it from the root, then cut off all the tentacles in turn.
If only you had kitchen scissors. It is much easier to cut octopus tentacles with scissors than with a knife (even if it is sharp).
3. Cut off the middle part and head. Separate the head from the middle part, then cut the head in half. Generally, the middle part between the connector and the tentacle is hard and unpalatable, so it can be thrown away directly. Of course, if you don't want to throw it away, you can do it with other parts.
4. If necessary, remove the hard shell and the ink sac inside. If you use frozen octopus, this step is unnecessary, because the frozen octopus sold will generally remove these. Even if you buy fresh octopus to cook, you can usually ask the fishmonger to handle it for you and then wrap it up and take it home.
When you cut the octopus's head or body in half, you can see the ink sac and internal structure. In this way, it is easy to clean up.
Usually the hard shell will stick to the hard part in the middle that you throw away. If you decide to throw this piece away, that's all right. However, sometimes the hard shell will attach to the octopus body parts you need. In this case, just gently squeeze the octopus and the hard shell inside will be squeezed out. Once exposed, cut it out and throw it away.
Method 2: Cook octopus.
1. Fill the soup pot with water and add spices. Add enough water to the pot, generally at least 2/3 of the height of the pot. In addition, add vegetables and spices. If you have something to do, you can use vegetable stock instead of water and spices. The vegetables and spices in this recipe are mainly for octopus to taste.
The vegetables and spices listed in the recipe are: onion, leek, carrot, fragrant leaves, thyme, parsley and pepper, but you can adjust the ingredients according to your own situation.
2. Boil the pot. Before cooking on high fire, add water and boil it for about 5 minutes. Cooking vegetables and spices before adding octopus is to make the taste of vegetables and spices enter the water and turn the water into vegetable soup.
3. Add octopus. Pour all tentacles and chopped octopus carcasses into boiling water. After adding octopus, the water will stop boiling for a while. Don't reduce the fire, let the water boil again. This method is most suitable for cooking octopus, just cut off the tentacles and cut the head into large pieces. Don't use finely cut octopus pieces to do this. Although there is no technical problem, it is not recommended for aesthetic reasons.
4. Cover and cook until soft. This will take about 20-45 minutes. After 5 minutes, fork the meat with a fork and feel the state of the meat. It is definitely not ripe at this time, but then you will know what it feels like to cross it when it is still hard, and then cross it again after 15 minutes to feel the difference in softness between the two times.
Cooked octopus should be soft, even when you fork it out of the soup, it will fall off.
5. Eat away from the fire. Cut the cooked octopus into pieces, and you can make rice or salad. Of course, it is not impossible to eat directly. If you like, you can control the soup and use it as seafood stock.
Method 3: Barbecue octopus
1. Preheat the oven to 130℃. Prepare a large rimmed baking tray with a layer of aluminum foil inside. The grill of the oven should be placed in the lower middle position, so as to leave enough space for roasting octopus.
The main cooking process of this method is carried out in the oven. Barbecue is a cooking method that can make octopus have a unique flavor. But this method is cooked too fast, so the octopus made by using it alone will be hard and chewy.
2. Put the octopus on the baking tray, sprinkle with salt and cover with aluminum foil. Gently press the aluminum foil on the edge of the baking tray with your hand to loosen the seal.
3. Bake until the octopus is soft. This may take 2 hours and then cool naturally. When you stab the meat with a knife or fork, you will find that the meat is very soft.
When cooling, remove the aluminum foil, so that the temperature will drop faster.
You can also refrigerate the octopus for about two days without removing the aluminum foil at this step. Pour out all the liquid oozing out during baking.
4. Preheat the grill. Brush a tablespoon (15ml) of olive oil on the grill, and then preheat it with high fire for about10min. If you use gas stoves, turn all the stoves to high fire and preheat them for 10 minutes.
If it is a carbon oven, lay a thick layer of charcoal under the grill and let them burn until the surface turns white ash.
5. Oil the octopus. Spread a layer of olive oil on the octopus pieces, then sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste. Oiling will make the roasted octopus brown and crisp, and it will also make salt and pepper better hung on the meat.
6. Roast octopus on the grill. Bake the octopus pieces on the grill for about 4-5 minutes until the skin is golden yellow. After putting the octopus pieces on the grill, close the grill and cover it for barbecue. In the process of roasting, you only need to turn the octopus pieces over once.
7. Add some olive oil, lemon juice and parsley, and then eat. After baking, you can eat it or slice it into other dishes. If you plan to do this, be sure to try adding some extra oil, fresh lemon juice and parsley, which will make it more delicious.
Method 4: Stew octopus.
1, heat water and vinegar. Mix water and vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. You can add spices before vinegar and water boil, but this will make water boil earlier, because adding these spices will lower the boiling point of water.
2. Add other ingredients. Cut the lemon and squeeze it into the lemon juice, then throw the squeezed lemon in and add pepper, fragrant leaves and salt. Change to medium heat and let the spices simmer for 10 minutes. This will make the spices boil in water and turn them into delicious seasoning soup.
3. lick the octopus. Soak the whole uncut octopus in the seasoning soup three times with a clip for 5 seconds each time. You can also pull the octopus's head with thick rubber gloves.
This method is most suitable for making complete octopus. Those octopus cut into small pieces don't need to be blanched, because the purpose of blanching is to make the octopus's tentacles shrink and roll up when they suddenly meet hot water (for molding).
4. stew octopus. Then throw the octopus back into the water, continue to medium heat or keep the water slightly boiling, and cook for about 30 minutes until it is soft and rotten. You can use a fork to see if it is cooked. If you can make a hole with a fork, it means it's almost cooked.
5. You can enjoy it with a little coolness. Let the octopus dry for a few minutes until it doesn't burn your mouth. If you don't want to eat or can't finish eating at that time, you can cover it and put it in the refrigerator for about 8 hours.
You need to prepare
source
Boiled octopus
Do it for four people.
3 pounds (1350g) of frozen octopus, thawed and cut before use.
6 liters of water
1 onion, cut into teeth.
1 carrot, cut into large pieces
1 leek, cut into pieces.
Two fragrant leaves
2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh parsley.
2 tablespoons (30ml) chopped fresh thyme.
2 teaspoons (10 ml) of black pepper.
Barbecue octopus
Do it for four people.
3 pounds (1350g) of frozen octopus, thawed and cut before use.
Proper amount of salt
Crushed black pepper
3 tbsp (45 ml) olive oil, repackaged.
1 half lemon, cut into teeth.
2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh parsley.
Stewed octopus
Do it for four people.
3 pounds (1350g) of frozen octopus, thawed and cut before use.
1 cup of 250ml white wine vinegar
1 gallon (4 liters) of water
8 whole peppers
4 fragrant leaves
8 teaspoons (40 ml) of salt.