Passport & Plate - Octopus salad
Croatia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Octopus (mine was approximately 300 grams)
Potatoes (depends on the size of octopus and people your feeding- I boiled four- but ended up using three, because my octopus was tiny)
Red onions (to taste, I used one medium sized onion)
Olive oil (to taste)
Red wine vinegar(to taste)
Salt (maybe a quarter of a teaspoon, the octopus has a sea taste that in itself is quite salty tasting)
Mixed pepper(to taste, preferably freshly ground)
Chopped Parsley
How to prepare this recipe1. Clean the octopus (cut out the eyes with a knife and remove the contents from the head- you do this by making a small incision on it' head and flipping it inside out) and peel the potatoes (I left the peel on mine, because they were young potatoes and more prone to falling apart when cooked, which is not what I wanted)
2. Place the octopus in a pot and fill generously with water, the octopus should be completely submerged in water)
3. When the water starts to boil, place the potatoes in together with the octopus.
4. Cook for about 30 minutes (the octopus and potatoes are done when a fork can easily be put through them). If the octopus is still chewy and hard, remove the potatoes and cook the octopus for another 15-20 minutes.
5. When the octopus is done cut it up into small pieces (when cutting be careful-there is a hard white ball in the center- that is the octopus mouth, which we throw away) and the potatoes (if you peeled the potatoes they should be beautifully pinkish on the outside and white on the inside). Place into bowl.
6.Peel the onion and cut it in half than thinly into semicircles and add to bowl.
7.Add a tiny bit of salt, pepper, olive oil and parsley (I didn't add it this time because the person I cooked the salad for, does not eat it, personally I recommend adding it) and toss together like a salad.
8. Leave it to cool a bit (10 minutes should be enough and add the vinegar) I've found that if you add the vinegar too soon, the vinegar looses on acidity.
9. Enjoy :)
The story behind this recipeThe dish I chose to prepare is octopus salad. It is a very simple dish to make and if you're not afraid of dealing with a slimy octopus you're pretty much ready to go.
The way I'm preparing it is the way my grandma prepared it for me, my mom prepares it for me and the way I prepare it for me (and my friends).
My family is from the island of Murter in Croatia and it in over 95% of the households there have at least one fisherman or a fishing enthusiast in their family. Nowadays, more people fish to put a meal on the table or to add to there income by catching something that's sold well (squid, octopus, certain types of fish). When I was little, I used to catch them, too.
Despite my grandfather being a fisherman, octopuses were hard to come by, usually sold very fast for previous stated reasons. So, we didn't have the dish that often. Usually, we would have it when important guests came over or more commonly for Good Friday and Christmas Eve. My family is mostly Catholic and even those who are not uphold the tradition of not eating meat, only fish on these two days. So, as a treat we'd usually have octopus salad as a first dish. Being the only grandchild on my mother's side that eats octopus, I was spoiled rotten and given the biggest portion of the salad. My grandparents and parents saw that I enjoyed it so much, that as I grew older and somewhat wiser, I started to see they would not take seconds until I had had as much as I wanted, because they were content with making me happy.
Even now, when I cook this dish, I love the taste and smell of preparing and eating this dish. The octopus with the potatoes and homemade olive oil and red wine vinegar (the best version is when I have our homemade olive oil).
The smell and taste are best described by my roomate who told me simply, that when I cook seafood she feels like it's summer and she's on the sea, but to me it's the smell and taste of home.
