Octopus Tapas

AKA: Pulpo Gallego

Hardware

• Small Roasting pan or large frying pan
  • Or deep-fryer
• Oven Heated to 350F/175C
• A sharp knife 🙂

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds sashimi-grade octopus sliced in ½” rounds. (it will be pre-cooked)
• 4 large potatoes, cleaned and sliced in ½” rounds
• 1/4 cup olive oil for drizzle
  • Spanish Picual, Entimio Distinto Medium-Robust, or peppery varietal, to drizzle)
• Paprika
  • Sweet Spanish, but Smoked also works
• Sea salt

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a shallow roasting pan and dress with olive oil.
   • Pan-fry or deep-fry optional
2. Roast/Fry potatoes until crispy and brown.
3. Place octopus on top. Drizzle with olive oil.
4. Sprinkle sweet paprika (and cracked black peppercorn if you aren’t able to get a peppery varietal of olive oil) over top
5. Return to oven with heat turned off, allowing octopus to warm (about 5min)
6. Serve warm on broad platter. Some toasted, buttered baguette couldn’t hurt.

Confession: I feel guilty eating something this intelligent. But I also know that if these bizarre bastards were social and lived a few decades instead of a few years, they would have taken over the planet… and we’d make great pets.

Love, Jimi

Notes

• This is another page from Chef John at Fodowishes; but I really wanted a bit more crisp potato texture to play off the firm bite and soft mouthfeel of the octopus.
• Most asian stores sell sashimi-grade octopus.
• Most Japanese fishermen are perfectly happy to eat octopus with crushed black pepper, and that’s it. For a reason. Keep it simple.