In Galicia there is no summer fair in which the traditional Galician-style octopus, or octopus á feira, is not served, “two ways of calling a traditional dish of boiled octopus seasoned with oil, paprika and salt, which may or may not be accompanied of potatoes,” explains Gorka Rodríguez, owner and chef of the important Melide grocery store in A Coruña. Although it sounds very simple to make, it is not at all easy to give it the exact cooking point that the experts achieve, whether they are from the coast or inland. Because although it may sound strange, the northwest of the province of Ourense is the birthplace of high-altitude pulpeiros and pulpeiras. “Since the Middle Ages, the monastery of Oseira, which is 20 km from Ourense, collected rents from the lands of the Marín priory, in Pontevedra, in dry octopus. They received cartloads full, with which they became specialists in the preparation of octopus, which they cooked a little tighter than on the coast. The capital of the region, O Carballiño, has "the largest octopus festival in the middle of August," explains journalist and gastronome Jorge Guitián.
To avoid any doubts, we also spoke with Fran Domínguez, owner and chef at Café Pacífico in the center of Ourense: “When cooking the simplest things we can encounter the greatest difficulty: you have to be very aware of the weight, the temperature, the time...", he tells us about a dish that is now no longer as humble as in other times, "when the stallholders ate it when they went to sell at the markets because it was cheap and convenient. That's why it became popular,” says Guitián.
With these two renowned Galician chefs we discovered what the ideal cooking point is, if you have to scare the cephalopod or give it 'the octopus' (maze it), why it is important to freeze it before cooking it and a thousand and one other details. These are the 10 mistakes you should never make.
The gender of the octopus is relevant if we talk about clarity, and curiously, it works. “It is more likely that the females are not of such quality because they have chewier meat, not as muscular, which shrinks more when cooked and during the ovation season they eat little,” says Gorka Rodríguez, from the Melide grocery store, in A Coruña. .
The male usually has more guarantees of turning out well because he is larger and more robust, with a less gelatinous texture. ”The size of the octopus has no direct relationship with the quality, it is like shrimp, a small one can be just as delicious as a large one,” he says, although as an average measure he advises cooking one between 2.5 and 3.5 kilos. . “The bigger it is, the cooking is more complicated and the smaller it is, the slice won't be as pretty.”
Does it have a season? For octopus, there is fishing in summer and winter, which is when it is best, but it is found all year round. Pulpeiras like Gorka's work with frozen octopuses that have all the guarantees. “Whether it is fresh or frozen, the quality does not vary. Unlike seafood, octopus has a global market, I buy the same ones that the Japanese buy,” explains the chef and adds that the octopus that is caught 7 miles from the Moroccan coast, for example, is one that has a lot of regularity. . In the market we can also find fresh octopuses caught nearby.
“Octopus can be purchased frozen or fresh, but if you buy it fresh you will have to freeze it before cooking to break down the fibers and thus prevent it from being too hard,” says Gorka Rodríguez, who advises leaving it for up to a week. This technique replaces the traditional mashing of the octopus, which served the same function before freezers became widespread, “but the same homogeneity was not achieved.”
“It is a very laborious process, it is not about just hitting it, you have to do it tentacle by tentacle with a mallet.” Fran Domínguez, from Café Pacífico in Ourense, remembers how her grandmother did it. “It was spectacular, in some places like Ons Island, where the rock octopus is captured by hand, they hammered it against the rocks,” she adds. That's where the famous phrase "they're going to give you the octopus" comes from.
“Imagine if we who work with 35,000 kilos a year had to hit everyone,” laughs Gorka, and points out: “Nowadays it is less dramatic and more effective to freeze it.” If we buy it fresh and they tell us in the market that it is not necessary to freeze it, it may be because they have already thawed it previously.
“It is very important to clean the octopus well so that we do not have sand or dirt that appears when we eat it because it is very unpleasant,” says Fran Domínguez. To achieve it thoroughly in the pulpeiras they use a machine that is like a stainless steel concrete mixer (in Gorka's they designed it themselves), but at home "it is enough to rub it well like a T-shirt under the tap, tentacle against tentacle", The chef from A Coruña tells us, who knows very well what he is talking about because octopus is the specialty of this house that is now 93 years old. The chef is the fourth generation. His great-grandmother, a baker from Melide (A Coruña), married a wine broker in O Carballiño, the nerve center of octopus in the province of Ourense, and they decided to set up a pulpeira in Melide that worked very well for years.
You don't have to go crazy cleaning the suction cups one by one, but you do have to clean the ones that look dirty and the inside of the mouth. We defrost it by going through the refrigerator and there is no need to fear that bacterial problems will appear "because it will have a long cooking time and it is also a fairly safe product, it is very rare that there is octopus poisoning," says the A Coruña chef.
Well no. It's not a mistake but it's good advice. What is scaring the octopus? Put it in and out of the boiling water in the pot 2 to 4 times before cooking. "By scaring it, you curl the octopus's tails and that helps you place it tightly in the container so that it cooks evenly and when the water moves with the boiling it does not rub against the sides of the pot all the time and it does not peel off." so much,” explains Gorka, adding that it is very common to do so when many octopuses are cooked at the same time.
If we cook it at home, it doesn't make as much sense although it never hurts to do so. “In Galicia, we all scare the octopus by tradition, although if you don't do it, it may not peel and the tails will curl anyway,” reflects Fran, who adds a new reason for applying this technique: “It's a way to get the octopus to go away.” getting used to boiling water, so that it becomes tempered.”
It is essential that the water where we are going to cook the octopus is boiling. If you scare it, it is important to use the same water to boil it, so that it does not lose flavor, says Fran Domínguez. The chef from Orense uses mineral water and tells us that it is necessary to cover the cephalopod evenly, because if we overdo it “we could end up with octopus soup.”
As for the pot, it is important that the animal fits well and is adjusted so that it does not move around inside and collide,” says Gorka. It is a tradition in Galicia to use copper ones, “which is an excellent conductor of heat,” explains Fran. In addition, this metal is antibacterial and has great durability. It is not a recommended material because if it is not cleaned correctly it can have toxic effects. “If it is done thoroughly, meticulously, toxic mold does not appear, but it is expensive to clean and it is not cheap either,” says Gorka, who uses it in his pulpeira to achieve uniform cooking.
Fran Domínguez has the copper pots tinned inside “and that way there is no problem.” Her Café Pacífico, in the center of Ourense, is a personal cuisine restaurant and one of the places in the city with the most media coverage.
It can also be done with a stainless steel pot and it does not change the flavor or texture.
Boiling octopus seems very simple, but it is not that easy. In order for it to be cooked just right (which is ideal if we want to achieve the maximum level of perfection in texture and flavor) “we have to control the time, temperature and weight of the cephalopod very well,” says Fran. It cannot be overcooked, chewy or too hard. “The idea is that, without being hard, when you bite into it there is a minimum of resistance,” explains Gorka.
At this point, which in the pasta would be al dente, our Galician experts call it “make you sad”. And how is it achieved? Fran chooses an octopus of 2-3 kilos in size for about 20-25 minutes, or even 30, always in boiling water. “When you add it, it is at a high boil, then, when it boils again, you let it simmer with a low bubbling,” Gorka points out.
Interestingly, the more octopuses there are in the pot, the less time they will take to cook. “As there is more, a tapa effect is created and the temperature rises,” says the chef from A Coruña, and the man from Orense adds that when there are many they are even tastier. Fran also warns us that, in all cases, it is important to leave the pot uncovered.
To check that it has reached its point, we will stick a fork or skewer into the part of the tentacle that touches the head. It has to offer the type of resistance of a potato cooked with its skin,” says the chef of Café Pacífico. You can also cut a small piece with scissors and try it. “You should never let it become mushy because if it goes too far there is no turning back,” concludes Gorka.
Fran Domínguez explains that this “triscón” octopus texture was what was formerly sought in the northwest area of Ourense, in the interior of Galicia, where the octopuses caught in Marín (Pontevedra) arrived to pay tithes to the Oseira monastery. "On the coast then they liked the octopus more cooked than here, but for a decade there has been uniformity of criteria, and, in general, in Galicia the Triscón octopus has prevailed."
Once we have boiled the octopus, it is essential to let it rest for a while “so that it finishes cooking.” Gorka turns off the heat and, if the octopus is 3 kilos, she keeps it in the pot for 30 minutes. Fran prefers to lower the heat, not turn it off, and leave it for about 10 minutes. “Once finished, you have the cooked octopus ready, which is the base of the octopus á feira but also allows you to prepare it in many other ways, grilled, grilled, making a cold cut like in Peru…”, says the chef at the pulpeira de Melide.
Once ready, we will cut it with scissors or a knife into slices. The head, which has a different texture, “can be eaten, but we don't serve it,” says Gorka. It's more of a second division. If you decide to eat it, you must first make sure that it is very clean, “remove the gelatin that is inside.” Fran Dominguez, who has worked in the kitchens of renowned Galicians Pepe Vieira, Pepe Solla and Marcelo Tejedor, advises us to take advantage of it to make a good seafood salpicón, for example. It can also be used in empanadas.
In Galicia it is traditional to serve octopus on a wooden plate, although currently this material is not recommended for use in kitchens. “At fairs it is very common for them to put the wooden plate in the pot to drink the octopus juice, which is delicious and people love to dip their bread in it,” says Fran, adding that in Ourense the octopus á feira is almost a street food dish. “On every corner there is a pulpeiro that serves it to take away or on the terraces, and on wooden plates.”
As for the garnish, it is common to serve Galician-style octopus with a base of cachelos (peeled cooked potatoes) or with the potatoes on the side, but it is also common to eat it without it. “When you order octopus in a pulpeira in Galicia, the normal thing is that they ask you if you want the portion with potatoes on the side or not, it's like if you want fries with the fillet or not,” explains Gorka.
The journalist and gastronome Jorge Guitián points out: “If it has potatoes underneath, in Galicia we consider that they are selling you potatoes at the price of octopus. You can order a portion of potatoes separately, but if you buy a portion of octopus you assume that you are paying for the tentacles.”
The traditional octopus is seasoned with paprika, oil and salt. The cook at Melide's pulpeira says that they use a mixture of peppers that does not steal the flavor and an extra virgin olive oil that is not too powerful for the same reason.
“Octopus is a dish that is best eaten freshly cooked,” says Gorka Rodríguez, who has worked in renowned kitchens such as Celler de Can Roca, Noma and Mugaritz. Today he takes care of the family pulpeira, which has a high volume of work, although now with Covid among us, “everything is much more relaxed.”
Just because it is richer after cooking doesn't mean it can't be stored. “It can happen that of the 8 cooked tails we only want to serve 4, therefore we can keep the rest in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days covered with a film,” explains Fran Domínguez, who in his restaurant prepares careful tasting menus.
Another good option is freezing. “It is advisable to place the octopus in a taper and the cooking water in another separately so that it is easier for us to handle it when we take it out and want to regenerate it,” says Gorka. “It won't be exactly the same as the first one but it will be good.”
Although the traditional one is octopus á feira, with that base of cooked octopus, different dishes can be prepared. Make it braised, for example. Before putting it on the grill, the octopus needs to cool for a while, “so that it doesn't peel so much when you move it and because it can be handled better if it is left at room temperature,” says Gorka, who also likes to cut very finely into slice a thick tentacle like a carpaccio and season it with olive oil, salt and a few drops of lemon.
The journalist Jorge Guitián reminds us that in Galicia there are many other traditional dishes with octopus, “such as octopus a illa (Arousa), a la mugardesa in the Ferrol estuary, the octopus caldeiradas throughout the coast (da morte, barbanza peninsula …), to name some of the most common forms.” They were very seafood stews that are now a higher class dish.
Fran at Café Pacífico makes a very personal dish, curing the octopus in salt, sugar and paprika and then cooking it sous vide, a system that, although laborious, prevents the loss of the animal.
The chef from Ourense reminds us that in this area of Galicia it was traditional to dry the octopus in the sun and in the air with the tails wide open for several days "so that they could air well" as a preservation method before industrial freezers appeared. "Although its flavor is very intense, today, it is an abandoned practice (the smell of octopus tendals is very strong) that, curiously, is recovered by some avant-garde chefs like Quique Dacosta."
The chef from Denia posted on Twitter the tentacles of some octopuses hanging on a clothesline to make a “flame-dried octopus,” which he salts with sterilized water and braises “leg by leg by direct flame for 5 minutes” creating a charred film. which allows it to remain juicy in the center.
