How to cook frozen octopus. Soft and juicy fried octopus. Recipe. Octopus dishes

The recipe for a "lazy" octopus was recently suggested to me by a Russian-speaking resident of Cyprus. It is incredibly simple and ingenious at the same time!

You just need to wrap the octopus in foil, season with spices and bake in the oven. All! During baking, the octopus will release the juice in which it is destined to cook for the next hour and a half, and the result of such cooking will be simply magnificent.

The octopus prepared in this way is incredibly fragrant and tender, its meat literally melts in your mouth! There is no "rubberness", for which some condemn and do not like this representative of the cephalopod detachment, at all. And most importantly, the "lazy" octopus has no chance to disappoint the afflicted. Neither in the process of preparing for baking (even a child can handle it), nor after. I wholeheartedly recommend!

You will need:

- 1 octopus (800-1000)
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 50 ml. dry red wine
- freshly ground black pepper
- aluminium foil

1. Rinse and dry the octopus well. Sprinkle it with freshly ground black pepper and DO NOT add salt! (trust me, the octopus has enough of its own salt).

2. Lay several sheets of foil overlapping each other on a baking sheet, which will allow you to form a dense cocoon around the octopus that does not let a drop of juice out, in which the octopus will cook.

3. Put the octopus in the center of the foil blank, add the onion cut into 4 parts, 2 cloves of garlic (you can whole, or you can chop if you want a more pronounced garlic flavor), bay leaf and 50 ml. red dry wine.

4. Wrap sheets of foil around the octopus, forming a kind of "onion" out of them (see photo). It is very important that there are no leaks in this "onion", otherwise our octopus, instead of slowly cooking in its own juice, will simply slowly dry out.

5. Preheat the oven to 200 C and put our foil-wrapped octopus in there. Bake for 30 minutes at 200C, and then reduce the temperature to 180C and cook for another 60-70 minutes (the larger the octopus, the longer it will take to cook).

6. Check the readiness of the octopus after the specified time with a regular toothpick. It should enter the octopus easily and without obstacles, like butter. If you can “prick” an octopus with one easy movement of your hand, then the octopus is ready!

7. Remove the octopus from the oven and let it cool down a bit (this item is the most difficult, because there is no strength to wait, the kitchen is full of mouth-watering smells and you really want to eat!).

After that, the octopus can be served with a light salad of vegetables and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice, grilled octopus tentacles, make an octopus salad with potatoes. There are a huge number of options!

Enjoy your meal!

Do you think that exotic octopus meat has a fabulous taste only in the dishes of chefs of elite restaurants? Don't underestimate your abilities! Believe me, everyone can cook delicious octopus at home. All you need is a little patience, skills and knowledge of a few secrets. We will tell about them further.

Only fresh!

If you are offered chilled or fresh shellfish, look for these quality indicators:

• transparent eyes (no matter how creepy it may sound);
• shiny brown skin;
• when touched, the skin remains intact;
• light fishy aroma (intense indicates staleness).

The taste of an octopus dish depends on the initial size of the clam. Large individuals (body size over 60 cm, weight over 1.5 kg) can only be handled by experienced chefs, so for home cooking it is better to take medium-sized and small mollusks. They are sold as a whole, so it's easier to choose them.

How to properly prepare frozen octopuses

Experienced chefs know how to cook frozen octopus. Without proper skills, it is better to defrost it first. After clearing the packaging, the meat is placed in a saucepan or deep bowl and thawed at room temperature.

Do not fill it with cold water to speed up the process - a lot of useful substances will slip out of the meat. It is strictly forbidden to use hot water - it loses its delicate taste.

When the meat is soft, it is thrown into a colander, allowed to drain, then butchered and cooked according to any fresh shellfish recipe.

How to butcher an octopus

The mollusk is a solid muscle, which is eaten. But he also has inedible organs. They must be carefully removed according to the following algorithm:

• Under running water, thoroughly rinse each tentacle, removing dirt, sand, mucus. The latter is problematic to remove from young individuals, but if it remains, the meat will become salty or bitter in taste. The mucus is scraped off with a knife or removed with a rough cloth while washing, and then each tentacle is rubbed well with salt.
• With a knife, separate the tentacles from the head just below the eyes, then remove the eyes themselves, the ink bag, and the beak. Rinse the meat again.
• It is almost impossible to immediately remove the skin, it is recommended to scald the meat with boiling water and then clean it. You can blanched in boiling acidified or salted water and peel the clam hot.
• Rinse again thoroughly, beat off and cut into small pieces.

We take parts

On sale you can also find individual octopus tentacles TM NUCHAR. Chilled or frozen - the rules for their choice remain the same. Outwardly, their skin should be shiny, brownish, without damage. If black spots, tears are visible on it, it is separated from the meat, most likely, the tentacles were stored incorrectly.

Press the tentacle and see how quickly the surface is restored - the fresh one always returns to its original state. A sharp fishy smell indicates stale meat.

Cleaning and cooking the tentacles is carried out according to the same rules as for a whole octopus. It is important to carefully beat the meat before cooking, since the large tentacles are taken from large individuals, whose meat is not as tender as that of young ones.

If you do not have time for processing, buy octopus TM NUCHAR, which is marinated in its own juice and is almost ready to eat. For cooking, the limbs are crushed: cut into circles, cubes, slices.

Grilling Octopus

Immediately after cleaning, the meat can be baked in the oven or on the grill. Small octopuses are used for this quick and easy recipe, but sliced ​​pieces of adults are also suitable. You will need olive oil, garlic and lemon.

Grilled octopus takes about 10 minutes to cook. Coat the meat with oil, put it on a heated grill. When it's browned, flip over to the other side. After the appearance of a gentle blush - remove.

Grilled octopus is served with a sauce of grated garlic, olive oil, squeezed lemon juice.

We cook quickly, but carefully!

Almost all recipes suggest using boiled meat. But first you need to remember: we cook the octopus only in fresh water! It actively absorbs salt, which makes it hard, almost "rubber".

Another important point in the question of how to cook the tentacles of an octopus or a whole clam: the method and time of cooking. It is only necessary to lower them into boiling water with the tentacles forward: as soon as the submerged tentacles twist, lower the mollusk completely. Depending on the size, you need to cook it for 7-10 minutes, otherwise the meat will become tough. If you miss this moment, you will have to leave it to cook for at least an hour. Ready meat is taken out and allowed to cool.

The same rule gives an answer to the question of how to cook small octopuses. The only difference is that their cooking time is minimal. Often, baby octopuses are used for salads. How to cook an octopus in this case? 800 g of cooked meat is mixed with 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, a third glass of olive oil and left in a cold place for a couple of hours. Then lettuce leaves, chopped sweet peppers, greens are laid out in a salad bowl, and pickled octopuses are covered on top. The final touch is to sprinkle the salad with lemon juice.

For cooking, you can use medium-sized clams. But then you need to cut the tentacles so that each piece has a suction cup. This makes the salad look better.

How to fry octopuses

For a fried dish, a medium-sized clam is usually taken: pre-boiled (about 5 minutes), and then cut into cubes. Separately, prepare a mixture of several cloves of garlic, lemon juice (to taste), olive oil.

This octopus recipe calls for frying chunks of meat in a hot skillet over high heat, draining off the water it releases. After that, the prepared mixture is added and fried again until all the water has evaporated (about 10–15 minutes). Before removing the meat from the heat, pepper, oregano, or any greens of your choice are added to it. The finished dish is laid out on plates and served hot.

Octopus can be stewed!

When searching for octopus dishes with photos, you must have come across incredibly mouth-watering images of amazing dishes. One of the best combinations is clam meat and beans. To prepare the dish, first soak, and then boil a glass of beans in clean water (about an hour). During this time, clam meat (2 kg) is prepared: cleaned and boiled with the addition of 1 onion and a tablespoon of vegetable oil (6 minutes).

While the beans are cooking, prepare the vegetable base in a saucepan or saucepan. In oil or lard, fry the onion (1 onion), carrots (3 medium), garlic (half of the head), chopped into circles. When they are sufficiently browned, pour in half a glass of dry white wine, olive oil (6 tablespoons) and bring to a boil. Cut the finished meat into slices and, together with the beans, put in a boiling mixture. Pepper to taste (you can use a mixture of peppers), salt, mix well and cook over low heat for another 15 minutes. Putting the dish on a plate, decorate with herbs.

Cooking young octopuses is not limited to these recipes. It is only important to properly wash, clean and boil the meat. Everything else is up to your imagination.

Octopuses in the cuisines of the world

Clam meat is familiar to the cuisines of Asia and Europe. It is used in seafood cocktails for soups, salads. The ideal companion in such mixes will be squid. Greens, vegetables, legumes, as well as wine vinegar, olive oil and soy sauce go well with octopus.

More often, the octopus is simply boiled. The Portuguese like to cook meat in batter, the Chinese pour it with all sorts of sauces, the Japanese combine it with seaweed, rice and wasabi. Italians prefer roasting and stewing, preferably with wine. Ready meat is usually served with vegetables. The most extravagant way of consumption is adopted by the Koreans - they eat shellfish alive!

If until recently we saw exotic inhabitants of the deep sea only on TV screens, today they can be found on store shelves. And some of them make very tasty dishes! And how to cook an octopus so that it is tasty and healthy?

How to make the right choice?

First of all, you should choose an octopus.

• Frozen or fresh? If you want to get the maximum benefit and enjoy a delicate taste, then it is advisable to choose fresh. But you will probably have to cut it, although you can ask the seller about it (he will probably have to pay). And if you want to save time and effort, you can also buy frozen octopus, in this form the carcasses are usually sold already completely cut and cooked even faster, and this is very convenient.
• Pay attention to the size. Small octopuses have more tender flesh, medium ones are more nutritious, but a large adult octopus weighing about two to three kilograms can be “rubber”.
• Rate the look. But such a criterion will be relevant only if you buy a fresh octopus. The surface of the carcass should be shiny, the color should be burgundy-brownish and uniform. No damage is allowed.
• Study the smell. It is specific, but quite pleasant. He definitely shouldn't give away "rotten stuff".

Proper cooking preparation

Preparation consists of several stages:

1. First, the carcass must be thawed if it is frozen. But this should be done only at room temperature, that is, in a natural way, and not in a microwave oven.
2. Next, rinse the octopus thoroughly under running cold water to remove all the mucus.
3. It is not worth cleaning the carcasses before cooking, the skin is removed very, very difficult, so it is better to get rid of it after heat treatment (then it will peel off quickly). But if the octopus is adult and large, then its shell will be quite dense, so that it can be scraped off with a knife already at this stage.
4. Now you need to cut the carcass (the frozen one will probably already be cut). To do this, it is more convenient to first cut off the tentacles, but this is not necessary. Next, cut off the lower part of the head, that is, the support on which the tentacles are held. In it you will find a mouth opening that looks like a tooth or a beak. It needs to be removed. To do this, first, as it were, squeeze it out, and then cut it out with a knife. Also cut out the eyes.
5. Now wash the inside of the head well to remove all offal, as well as ink, if any. Then you can turn it out and rinse again.
6. If the octopus is large, then it is advisable to beat it off before cooking.

How to cook?

If you decide to cook octopus for the first time, then the easiest way for you will be boiling. But how long to cook it to make it tasty? Processing should be short, otherwise the meat will become stringy and tough, like rubber (this is a very common problem).

Your task is simply to exterminate all pathogenic organisms. Small octopuses only need to be cooked for about five to seven minutes, larger ones - about 20. But a large octopus can cook for about an hour.

You can check readiness with a toothpick. Pierce it with the largest part of the carcass, that is, the head. If the toothpick comes in easily and quickly, then the octopus is ready. If not, cook it some more. And after cooking, you can remove the skin.

How to cook?

How to cook octopus if you want to make a more interesting dish? Below are some interesting options.

Option number 1

You can bake octopus with potatoes. Here's what you'll need:

• 1 kg of octopuses (or a whole carcass);
• 1 kg of potatoes;
• parsley;
• five cloves of garlic;
• three tablespoons of lemon juice;
• olive oil;
• salt to taste.

Cooking:

1. Potatoes need to be peeled, cut into slices and boiled.
2. Boil the octopus and cut it (small octopuses can not be chopped).
3. Grease the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil.
4. Put the potatoes mixed with the octopus in a dish, sprinkle everything with lemon juice and olive oil, and sprinkle with minced garlic and chopped parsley. Don't forget to salt the dish.

Option number 2

Try stewing octopus at home using sour cream and milk. Prepare:

• 500 grams of octopus;
• 2 glasses of milk;
• half a glass of sour cream;
• five tablespoons of flour;
• three tablespoons of white wine;
• a tablespoon of lemon juice;
• three cloves of garlic;
• two tablespoons of olive oil;
• salt and pepper to taste.

How to cook?

1. Octopuses need to be boiled for about 10 minutes, adding lemon juice and wine to the water.
2. Now clean the carcasses and cut into portions if they are large.
3. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, fry the garlic.
4. Add milk, and when it is hot, dissolve the flour in it.
5. Boil the sauce until boiling, then add sour cream.
6. Now lay out the octopuses.
7. Put pepper and salt in the pan, simmer the dish for five minutes and remove from heat.

Option number 3

You can make a delicious salad. Here's what you need for this:

• 500 grams of octopus;
• 4 potatoes;
• head of red onion;
• 10 cherry tomatoes;
• lettuce leaves;
• 60 grams of pitted olives;
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil;
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice;
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar;
• a teaspoon of liquid honey.

Cooking:

1. Boil the octopus, peel and cut.
2. Potatoes need to be boiled in their skins, peeled and cut into cubes.
3. Cherry cut into halves.
4. Onion cut into half rings.
5. Just tear lettuce leaves.
6. To make the sauce, combine vinegar, oil, lemon juice and honey.
7. Mix the ingredients, salt and season with sauce.
8. Salad ready!

1. You need to lower the octopus only in boiling water. Moreover, real experts advise doing this gradually: first, immerse the tentacles, and when they slightly change color and begin to curl, you can lower the whole carcass.
2. During cooking, in no case do not add salt, it will harden the pulp. For taste, you can use some fragrant seasoning.
3. If you do not want to beat the octopus, then you can freeze it, this technique will also allow you to soften the meat.
4. It is desirable to reduce the fire to a minimum, the carcasses should literally languish in barely boiling water, and not boil in a bubbling broth (then the taste will go bad).
5. To make the pulp more tender, you can add a cork from a bottle of wine (of course, not plastic) during cooking.
6. Octopuses go well with a variety of sauces, especially cream and soy sauces.
7. You can serve dishes with any side dishes, for example, with vegetables, spaghetti, rice.
8. To quickly remove the skin, after heat treatment, you can pour cold water over the octopus.

Choose the best recipe and be sure to surprise your family and guests with an unusual and delicious dish!

In Asian countries, octopuses, as a rule, are only boiled, since boiled octopus tentacles are an indispensable component of many salads and snacks, and in Europe they are often fried with vegetables and wine.

Before boiling, the octopus tentacles must be washed, poured with cold water and boiled after boiling for 5-10 minutes, depending on their size. It is very important to let the octopus cool naturally and in the same water in which it was boiled. After cooling, the skin should be peeled off the octopus. Then it can be cooked according to the selected recipe.

In Mediterranean and European countries, the ink bag is first removed from the octopus, the beak and eyes are removed, then the carcass is washed in running water, beaten with a wooden mallet, cut into small pieces and then cooked. In this case, the ink bag is saved, since octopus ink is used in many dishes.

Young octopuses with white wine

Very tasty are young octopuses cooked according to the Maltese recipe.

Necessary:

500 g of young octopuses,

2 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil

100 ml white wine

3 garlic cloves,

fresh parsley,

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper - to taste.

How to cook:

Rinse young octopuses thoroughly in cold running water.

Washed octopuses should be put in a bag and beaten off with a meat mallet.


If desired, carcasses can be cut into large pieces, but you can cook them whole.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and place the octopuses in it.


Fry them over high heat for no more than two minutes.


After that, you need to pour white wine into them, reduce the heat to moderate and simmer the dish until cooked.


The average cooking time is about 40 minutes.

During this time, finely chop the garlic and parsley, season them with olive oil and lemon juice and stir.


At the very end of cooking the octopuses, you need to add greens and garlic to them, hold on the fire for a minute, and then serve the dish hot on the table.

Recipe for feijoada from young octopuses

This hot dish belongs to Portuguese cuisine and is octopus with a side dish of beans.

Necessary:

1.5 kg of young octopuses,

1 cup beans

5 cloves of young garlic

5 st. spoons of olive oil,

2 tbsp. spoons of melted pork fat,

4 small onions,

3 carrots

100 ml dry white wine

finely chopped parsley,

salt and black ground pepper - to taste.

How to cook:

Beans must first be soaked for a day, and then, pouring cold water, cook over moderate heat until half cooked.

Young octopuses should be washed, beaten a little, boiled with onions, and then cut into small pieces.

In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat olive oil and lard, simmer chopped garlic in this mixture.


Salt and pepper the vegetable mixture and simmer for another 15 minutes.


Then white wine should be poured into it, bring it to a boil and add octopus and beans.

Feijoada should be simmered over low heat until fully cooked, periodically adding water.

It is customary to serve feijoada on the table, sprinkled with fresh parsley.

And another warm octopus salad from an Italian chef from the capital Carlos Romani.

Watch the video recipe!

Seafood is very tasty and the most useful, but too troublesome. Seafood lovers find different ways to eat: in a restaurant, at a resort or on major holidays. But there is a special category of culinary experts who, by all means, strive to reproduce the chef's culinary masterpiece at home. They know special markets where you can buy the freshest mussels and lobsters, they are personally acquainted with sellers and even fishermen who regularly supply them with raw materials for the next exotic recipe.

Unfortunately, if the distance from your home to the nearest body of salt water exceeds 500 km, then most of these delicacies are sold frozen. You can complain for a long time about their loss of taste and other inherent qualities, but this will not change the circumstances. Therefore, if you cannot imagine your diet without seafood, you will either have to move closer to the coast, or learn how to handle such semi-finished products. Most likely, mussels and squid carcasses in ice glaze and without it are already up to you, so we suggest you learn how to properly cook frozen octopuses so that they turn out tasty and not tough.

Features of cooking octopuses
Octopuses are included in the cookbooks of many maritime peoples, from Asia to the Mediterranean and Hawaii. Cooking methods depend on the traditions of national cuisines. The Japanese eat fresh and even live octopuses, boil them in soup and add them to rice and, of course, in the form of sushi. Greeks are baked in the oven and on the grill, fried and served with olive oil and aromatic herbs. With any recipe, the meat of these cephalopods remains tender and rich in vitamins and microelements.

The only exception is recipes from the Far Eastern regions of Russia, where octopuses are used to drying and soaking in salty brine. But as an appetizer for light beers, this product also has many fans. The only drawback that can spoil all the pleasure of this delicacy is the careless processing of the carcass, after which ink and mucus remain. By buying prepared and frozen octopus, you are protected from these troubles.

Frozen Octopus Recipes
From frozen octopuses, you can cook almost all the same dishes as from freshly caught clams. You can try to preserve their natural taste as much as possible by minimizing heat treatment, or you can cook in batter, grind into minced meat or fry octopus cutlets. Octopus meat is an almost universal raw material. The only difference is that you have to tinker with the correct defrosting.

Take a suitable bowl or basin, put the frozen octopus without packaging on the bottom and leave at room temperature. Do not try to speed up the process by pouring warm water into the dishes or substituting an icy carcass under the tap. You can meet the advice to send the octopus to boiling water without first defrosting - then it thaws right during the cooking process. But this method is more suitable for experienced cooks who know the exact cooking time by heart.

Once the ice has turned to water and the octopuses are soft, drain the liquid through a colander, pat them dry with paper towels, and start cooking one of these recipes:

1. Boiled octopus. The easiest way to cook octopus as a meaty part of a meal or for later use as part of more complex dishes. However, even here it is necessary to observe many nuances. Firstly, in no case should you salt the water so that the mollusk does not acquire a “rubber” density. Secondly, you need to dip the carcass only in already boiling water, and immerse the octopus completely in it, tentacles forward. Hold it by the head, and when you see that the legs are twisted from the heat, lower the octopus into boiling water completely. Thirdly, stock up on a timer so as not to overcook the mollusk: after 7-10 minutes, the meat becomes too tough, so take it out a little earlier (the cooking time should be 5-6 minutes in the end). True, if the moment is nevertheless missed, there is a way to correct the situation: leave the octopus to cook now for much longer, and after about an hour it will soften again and become chewable.
   
2. Octopus in tomato sauce. Take 1 kg of frozen octopus, 4 ripe tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 large cloves of garlic, half a chili pepper, a bunch of fresh parsley, a quarter of a lemon, salt and ground black pepper. Fry finely chopped garlic and pepper without seeds in oil in a thick-walled duckling or cauldron. Add tomato paste, chopped tomatoes without skins and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat. Stir the sauce regularly. Place thawed octopuses in thickened sauce and mix, add ground pepper and a little salt. Keep an eye on the condition of the tentacles - they will signal the readiness of the dish by twisting into tight lumps. Now put out the fire, put finely grated zest and parsley leaves into the pan. After 5-10 minutes, when the dish reaches under the lid, it can be served with a side dish of rice or baked vegetables.
   
3. Octopus with beans. To prepare this completely independent dish, you will need a 2-kilogram octopus, a glass of dry beans, 2 large onions, 3 medium carrots, half a head of garlic, half a glass of dry white wine, a little lard or butter, 7 tablespoons of olive oil, a bunch of fresh herbs , salt and ground pepper (can be white or a mixture of peppers). Soak clean beans in cold water first. While it swells, lower the defrosted octopus carcass into a pot of boiling water, putting a whole peeled onion and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil there. Boil the soaked beans in a second pan. Octopus is cooked for 6 minutes, beans - about an hour. Prepare a third pot or stewpan, fry chopped garlic, carrot slices and onion rings in it in oil or lard. When the onion is reddened, pour in the wine and the remaining olive oil to the vegetables, bring to a boil. Cut the boiled octopus into equal pieces and at the same time put the beans in a saucepan with the sauce. Salt, add a pinch of pepper, mix and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley when serving.
   

In addition to these detailed recipes, you can experiment by adding boiled clams to salads and cereals, cook in a simple pot or pressure cooker. If you do not salt the octopus during cooking and do not exceed the cooking time, then the meat will be tasty in any combination and type of serving.