Pickled, Marinated Octopus Recipe (Pulpo A La Vinagreta)

Many people are put off trying an octopus recipe due to its appearance, but it is delicious and not at all fishy - give it a try. Octopus keeps very well and will taste better the longer it is in the marinade. This Spanish style octopus recipe uses frozen pulpo.

INGREDIENTS TO GET READY

500g x Frozen octopus tentacles (fresh is better but hard to find and messy, freezing is also a good way to tenderise octopus.)

40ml x Extra virgin olive oil

20ml x Jerez vinegar

4x Cloves of garlic (smashed and finely chopped)

20g x Curly parsley (finely chopped)

20g x Coriander (finely chopped)

1 x Teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

1x Pinch chilli flakes

Juice and zest of 1 Lemon

1 x Red chilli (finely diced)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 x Large banana shallot (finely sliced)

PUT IT TOGETHER

1. Once the octopus has defrosted place in a pan of cold salted water and bring to a simmer, drain and refresh repeat this process 5 times. Return to the pan and again in salted water bring to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes.

2. The octopus should now be very tender if not cook for a further 20 minutes. Remove from heat cool and drain. Cut the tentacles into 2cm bite-sized pieces.

3. Heat the oil in a saucepan add the garlic and shallot and deglaze with the vinegar, add the paprika, chilli flakes, diced chilli, add the drained octopus and gently simmer for 5 minutes, remove from the heat and add the capers, lemon juice, and zest, and the chopped parsley, transfer to a ceramic dish and allow to marinate overnight.