Early cookbook recipes call for it to be pounded against rocks to tenderise it prior to cooking, I am not sure how the food police would react if they saw me beating food against a stony surface so I use the deep freeze method. This calls for the octopus to be frozen for up to three months to aid tenderisation, it may work but I cannot whole-heartedly say that it does. What I have found is that the method of blanching the tentacles three times prior to slow cooking seems to work best, I would like to point out that this does not mean the end result is akin to meltingly tender fillet steak, it isn’t. What it does seem to do is shock the flesh and prepare it for the slow braise process ahead. What is important is cooking time, heat and flavour. I find octopus reacts bests to three to four hours of gentle simmering in a well-flavoured stock or sauce. You can be quite daring and robust with your choice of seasonings, it can certainly handle it.

I nearly always end up cooking it in a Spanish/Portuguese style, some olive oil, wine, garlic, strong herbs, a splash of diluted saffron and some fresh chopped tomatoes. Some leftover chorizo sausage would not go amiss-octopus is wonderful with paprika.

Octopus needs cleaning prior to cooking; to do this turn the body inside out and remove its entrails. Remove the stomach sac and wash well. Turn the octopus out again (to its true state) and cut out the beak near to the centre of the tentacles. Wash again and then shock in boiling salted water for twenty seconds, plunge into ice- cold water and then back into boiling water. Repeat. The octopus is now ready for slow cooking.

Recipes

Octopus with Red Wine and Chorizo