Cooking little octopuses: secrets of the best chefs. Cooking baby octopuses: secrets of the best chefs Do you need to clean baby octopuses?

Small octopuses: how to cook Moscardini meat

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Cleaning little octopuses

In our country, it is quite difficult to find fresh octopus in stores; they are usually sold frozen, but experienced chefs say that excellent dishes can be prepared from them. Before you start cooking baby octopuses, defrost them at room temperature. Then clean, remove the eyes, and turn the carcass inside out (like a mitten or glove). Locate and remove the beak, cartilage and all entrails. Rinse the moscardini under running water.

Raw octopus has an unpleasant gray color, but when cooked it will take on a beautiful pink hue.

Small octopus salad

To prepare this dish you will need: - 800 g of small octopuses; - 0.3 cups olive oil; - 2–3 cloves of garlic; - 1 PC. sweet red pepper; - 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice; - greenery.

Chop the garlic. Boil the cleaned octopuses. To do this, boil water and carefully lower the carcasses into boiling water. Do this slowly so that the tentacles curl nicely. Cook for a few minutes until the octopuses change color. Remove from water and cool.

Mix boiled octopus with chopped garlic and olive oil. Leave to marinate for 1-2 hours in a cool place. Slice Bell pepper. Place it in a salad bowl, add herbs and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Place marinated octopuses on this mixture and mix everything.

Stuffed Moscardini

To prepare this delicacy you will need: - 800 g of small octopuses; - 100 g peeled shrimp; - 60 g butter; - greens (oregano, parsley, basil); - ground black pepper; - 1–2 cloves of garlic; - 50 ml table red wine; - 2 tomatoes; - 1 shallot; - 1 lemon.

Clean the octopuses and rinse thoroughly. Heat a frying pan and lightly fry them in butter. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and let marinate for about 15 minutes. While they are marinating, prepare the shrimp and vegetable mince.

Boil and peel the shrimp. Finely chop the herbs and vegetables, add spices and mix everything. Place the octopuses on a baking sheet with the tentacles facing up and carefully stuff them. Pour some water onto a baking sheet and place a small piece of butter on each octopus. Heat the oven to a temperature of 175–180°C and place the baking sheet with stuffed octopuses to bake for 15 minutes. Garnish the finished dish with lemon slices and herbs.

Octopus. I still can’t sit down and talk about my recent acquaintance with him.

Below is a photo of how to cut octopus and two ways to cook octopus.
I’ve never held it alive in my hands, but there was a recent post in my bookmarks (yep. In the month of August) trio_mia about this beauty and I decided not to look for something new, but to use exactly what was already in my favorites.

So. First you need to remove the eyes - it's simple.




The sharp knife and the eyes were gone. Next is the “beak”. Simple too. Two cuts and it is already available for review. So funny!






I should also remove the ink sac, but I couldn’t find it. Well, I looked through everything and couldn’t find it. He was clearly hiding somewhere, because then the broth turned coloured!
But nevertheless, I prepared everything for cooking.


I cut carrots, onions, and lemon coarsely, filled them with water and put them on the fire. I read “take a big saucepan.” Well, I took the big one... But not as big as it should be. Let me explain. You need a HIGH, not a wide pan, because... all this jelly-like octopus with high temperature comes into tone, the tentacles curl beautifully, the head (which I did not cut off) acquires a strong roundness and rises vertically. So in the water he simply “Standed up” to me and stood with his head above the water among the floating carrots and yellow lemon barrels. This is where I cut off his head)))




When the water boiled, I lowered the octopus into it.
Well, in this way it was safely boiled over low heat for an hour, after which it was left to float in the same water until the next evening.
The next evening, when I saw his color, I began to think that there was his ink somewhere that I couldn’t find. Well, it’s okay, I washed it of this color. Started to look a little more decent. I cut off a piece. I tried it. I expected it to be quite rubbery, but no. Soft, in a pleasant tone, without a sharp taste or smell. Neutral, but at the same time recognizable taste.




I cut it into two parts and started making two recipes.
So. I had half of the octopus already cooked.
I peeled and cut 4 potatoes.


I cut them into medium cubes and fried them until crisp.


Meanwhile, I cut up the octopus,


onion, garlic clove,


a few sprigs of parsley and chopped into two pieces of toasted white bread.


When the potatoes were ready, I added all the ingredients and heated them in a frying pan for literally half a minute, salt, a mixture of 5 freshly ground peppers and a little lemon juice.


This was more than interesting. Firstly, potatoes with bread crumbs - already interesting, lightly fried parsley (this technique is somehow little used and quite recently I read in one book of the late 18th century about French cuisine that fried parsley was very much used in the cuisine of that time, but now with using a microwave and cling film to make chips from leaves), the sourness of lemon and among this the taste of octopus was not lost.


The dish was a great success, especially taking into account the more than picky taste of my sister, who does not eat half of my dishes)))
Repeat and repeat - just give me the octopus)))
The other half of the octopus was left for dinner on the second day.
I marinated it.


I chopped parsley, crushed 1 clove of garlic, squeezed half a lemon, added olive oil, salt, pepper and pieces of octopus. In the container until the evening of the next day.
It clearly needed white wine. So cold, dry and toasted pieces of bread.

My conclusion is logical - everything is simpler than it seems and there are so many interesting things around that I have enough for a couple more lives and a dozen stomachs. And the octopus for me is impeccably modest and pleasantly caresses the palate with its tenderness, without bothering my jaws with long chewing.
Do you want octopus? Come and visit me with him. I already have 4 recipes starring him in my bookmarks))))

The octopus is one huge muscle. The larger the octopus, the tougher the meat. In order for the meat of this cephalopod to be soft, juicy and tender, it must be properly cleaned and prepared.

Instructions

1. A fresh octopus should have dense flesh, have a sea fishy smell, the skin color should be chestnut, and the whites of the eyes should be transparent and white. It is recommended to purchase octopuses weighing up to a kilogram; they have more tender and soft meat.

2. Rinse octopus under running water, sort out each tentacle, remove every sand and remaining dirt.

3. Cut off the head a little below the eyes, remove the tentacles, and set them aside. Cut off the eyes and, using a knife, clean out the cavity of the carcass. Squeeze the beak with force, cut it out and throw it away. Rinse your head thoroughly, cleaned of entrails, inside and out.

4. Skin from fresh octopus very difficult to remove. Therefore, cooks often leave it until they heat it. If you still want to remove the skin, cook octopus in water for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and then remove the skin from the cold carcass.

5. Now octopus You can cook or freeze for storage. Experienced chefs always recommend freezing the carcass. octopus before cooking, this significantly softens the tough muscle meat. Put the peeled octopus into the freezer and leave for at least a day, but preferably 2-3 days. Water contained in the muscle structure octopus, turning into ice, will expand, tearing nerves and harsh fibers. To defrost octopus, it is enough to place it in the refrigerator for 6-10 hours.

6. From octopus You can cook a large number of dishes. This meat is in delightful harmony with onions, garlic, tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, rice, wine and soy sauce. Octopus is not only great in salads, it's amazing as a main dish. Let's say, try making shish kebab from octopus or stew it in red wine.

In large supermarkets you can find products on sale that cannot be called familiar. But you still want to try them, just as you want new adventures, brilliant events and new tastes. And here the questions creep in: how to cook it? Which side should you approach from? Including the octopus.

You will need

• one octopus weighing about 1 kg.

Instructions

1. First, understand the theoretical part: the octopus is a cephalopod; it is eaten in many cultures. The Japanese, for example, prepare sushi with raw octopuses . The octopus's body has no bones; it consists entirely of muscles. The muscles have a complex multi-layer structure; When cooked, the protein coagulates and the meat can become tough.

2. Take the octopus; choose a younger one, weighing up to 1 kg. The flesh should be firm, the skin should be shiny and chestnut brown, and the white part of the eye should be large and transparent. The smell of octopus is similar to that of an ordinary fish, but not very strong.

3. Wash the octopus in running cold water, going through each tentacle and removing dirt, mucus and other “surprises”. After this, you need to gut it: cut the part of the head above the eyes of the octopus. Turn over the body and remove the entrails, eyes and ink sac. After this, remove the beak: to do this, you need to squeeze up part of the body between the tentacles and cut out the organ. The skin from the tentacles can be pulled off a boiled octopus like a stocking.

4. To ensure that the octopus meat remains soft, there are two methods to choose from for preparing the octopus. The first method is freezing. The water contained in the tissues will turn into ice and break the natural intramuscular connections. Place the octopus in the freezer for at least 24 hours, and then leave it to thaw on the top shelf of the refrigerator. You can do the same with purchased frozen octopus. The second method is suitable when there is no time to freeze. This method is called “scare the octopus.” Prepare two pans: fill the first with ice water, and fill the second with water and boil it. Take the octopus by the head and lower it alternately, first into a pan of boiling water, then into cold water. Five or six times will be enough. As a result of abrupt temperature changes, the connective tissue will be partially destroyed. After this, place the octopus in boiling water and cook until done.

Note!
An octopus weighing about 1 kg needs to be cooked for an average of 40 minutes. If the weight increases by 1 kg, it is necessary to increase the cooking time by another 15 minutes.

Helpful advice
You can add spices, garlic and a little dry wine to the water in order to fight off the fishy smell. If you have a wine cork on hand, you can also throw it into the broth. She is great at absorbing foreign odors.

Octopuses are the oldest inhabitants of the deep, believed to have outstanding mental abilities and amazing body structure. The eyes of an octopus have a strange structure and sensitivity to light for marine inhabitants, which allows the mollusk to be the most wide-eyed inhabitant of the ocean.

Octopuses - intellectuals of the deep sea

Octopuses are amazing creatures that are still a mystery to scientists. These creatures unwaveringly attract the attention of ocean scientists with their amazing body structure and strange mental abilities. It is believed that octopuses, along with cuttlefish and dolphins, are the wisest representatives of marine fauna. However, these creatures are significant not only for their mental abilities. Scientists have long noticed that octopuses are the owners of eyes that are unique not only in structure, but also in size, body length and visual capabilities. A huge brain and huge eyes allow the octopus to receive much more information about the world around it than any other animal on the planet. The eyes of the octopus are still a subject of debate in the scientific community, and not all the details of how these animals see the world are clear and studied by humans, but scientists still have some amazing data.

Unique probabilities of octopus eyes

First of all, it is worth mentioning that the eyes of octopuses are very large and make up approximately 10% of the total body weight of the animal. In terms of eye size relative to body weight, octopuses are real record holders in the animal world. For example, in an adult giant octopus, the size of the eyeball is 35-40 cm. The anatomical structure of the octopus's eye is very similar to the structure of the human eye. An octopus's eyes consist of a retina, iris, lens, and cornea. The pupil is mobile and can expand and contract, but the octopus focuses its gaze not due to the curvature of the lens, but due to its approach and distance in relation to the retina. It is believed that these mollusks are able to focus their gaze on objects that excite them, which others are not able to do. Marine life. The emotional retina and lens of the octopus's eye distinguishes colors well, even in muddy water. The large size of the octopus's eyes also helps it survive in the ocean, because due to this structure of the organ of vision, this mollusk is able to see objects even in pitch darkness. The unique structure of the octopus's eyes allows it to perceive a three-dimensional picture, therefore these animals beautifully distinguish the shape of objects. Some fans of these cephalopods It is assumed that the visual organs of the octopus allow it to see even in the ultraviolet spectrum of light, but this data has not yet been scientifically confirmed.

Note!
Octopuses are very good. Well-cooked octopus meat is a source of calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium and a huge number of vitamins.

If you don’t yet know how to clean and cook octopus, then this is the place for you.

The Romans and ancient Greeks were very fond of octopuses and constantly hunted them. Love has passed through the centuries and now the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, despite all the wealth of choice, happily eat octopuses in any form. Salted, dried, fresh and boiled shellfish are healthy, especially with olive oil. Octopus has a lot of protein, and in addition, it strengthens the cardiovascular system well.

Small and medium sized octopuses are usually sold whole and are easier to select. No matter how strange it may sound, an octopus is chosen by its eyes. They are, so to speak, a mirror of his quality. A good and edible mollusk should have transparent eyes. A large specimen is cut up and on the shelves you can only see tentacles, which, naturally, have no eyes. Here you should focus on skin color. It should be shiny and have a beautiful brown color. You can take this product without hesitation. But it is better not to buy an octopus that has black spots at the ends of the tentacles and those whose skin is torn. They are either not fresh or were not stored correctly.

Octopuses like to cook in Asian and European countries. In Asian cuisine, shellfish are often simply boiled. Boiled tentacles are the basis of most salads and appetizers.

Before cooking, the tentacles are washed in water, preferably running water, then poured cold water and only after the water boils, cook for 5 to 10 minutes. The time depends on the size of the octopus. It is very important that the clam cools in the same water in which it was boiled. The cooled octopus is taken out of the container, the skin is peeled and prepared according to the recipe you like.

In Mediterranean cuisine, the octopus' ink sac is first removed. However, it is not thrown away. The ink can also be used in many recipes. They even remove the beak and eyes. And after that, the carcass is washed in water, even beaten with an ordinary meat mallet, and cut into small pieces. More often in this cuisine, octopuses are simply fried in olive oil and then stewed with vegetables and wine.

How to properly cook octopus

The octopus's tentacles are valuable. The main thing is that they are not rubber. To do this, they can be beaten with a meat mallet. But there is another, peaceful way. It is necessary to strictly monitor the cooking time of the food and not allow the shellfish to become hard in boiling water. However, if time is lost, then you need to be patient and cook the octopus until it is edible. During cooking, the shellfish goes through several stages.

How to cook octopus

You need to catch the moment and catch the octopus at the moment when it has not yet become stiff, or wait out this moment. There is a little trick to make the dish turn out great: during cooking, throw wine corks into the pan.

What is octopus cooked with?

Octopus is included in almost all soups that contain several types of seafood. The product goes well with squid. And now many chefs make cutlets from these shellfish. By the way, this dish is readily eaten by kids. Here it is important to remove the beaks of the squid and octopus, gut them and pass through a meat grinder. Add garlic, herbs and onions to the minced meat, then roll in breadcrumbs and fry.

Cooking young octopuses

It is enough to keep the cutlets in the frying pan for two to three minutes. By the way, such dishes are very useful for artists. Octopus and squid are protein in pure form, and it is useful for the cords and allows you to preserve your voice for a long time. It’s no wonder that the best singers are Italians, who eat seafood almost every day.

What else goes well with an octopus dish?

Any legumes, for example, beans, vegetables, herbs and, of course, soy sauce or olive oil, wine vinegar.

The Japanese serve octopus with rice, seaweed and wasabi. The Chinese are clever and disguise the shellfish with sauces. The Portuguese prefer octopus in batter, while the Italians prefer to put it in soup for richness.

You can eat octopus alive. At least that's what Koreans like to do. But in Russia they recommend making salads with octopus. They are light and nutritious at the same time. You can safely put lettuce leaves in the salad, add olive oil or wine vinegar, lemon. But the main thing is not to overdo it. Always important for salad and sashimi appearance. Therefore, you need to try to cut the tentacles beautifully. Make sure that there is a suction cup on each belt or circle.

Popular octopus recipes

Octopus feijoada (Portuguese cuisine)

For this dish you will need 1.5 kg of octopus, 1 cup of beans, 5 cloves of garlic, 5 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tbsp. lard, 4 onions, salt, parsley and ground black pepper, 3 medium carrots and half a glass of dry white wine.

The beans need to be soaked for a day or two, dried and simmered over low heat. Cut the boiled octopus (with onions and olive oil). Saute chopped garlic in olive oil and lard in a saucepan. Next add chopped onions and carrots cut into slices. Season all this with salt and pepper and continue to simmer. Add white wine and bring the dish to a boil.

And then add chopped octopus and beans. Add water, add salt and pepper. Cook over low heat. Afterwards, take out a few spoons of beans, crush them with a fork and put them back. Stir and simmer until thickened. Before serving, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Fried octopus (Maltese cuisine)

For the dish you will need 0.5 kg of octopus, 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, 4 things. onions, 2 tbsp. tomato paste, 8 pcs. olives, 1 tbsp. capers, 1 tbsp. chopped mint, 1 tsp. spice mixture and 1 glass of red wine.

First of all, you need to remove the octopus's eyes and ink sac. Rinse the carcass under running water. Beat and cut into pieces. Fry the onion in oil, add the octopus and fry for a few minutes. Then add all the other ingredients and simmer for two hours. Stir occasionally. It is necessary to ensure that the meat does not dry out and add hot water. This octopus can be served with potatoes or spaghetti. The side dish should be added at the end of cooking.

Octopus salad (Cypriot cuisine)

Take 300 gr. Octopus, 1.5 liters of water, 1 tsp. salt, 1-2 onions, 2-3 tomatoes, 2 tbsp. chopped parsley, 2 leaves of green onions, 90 g. Green olives, 2 tbsp. capers, 4 tbsp. lemon juice, half tbsp. sugar and 2 tbsp olive oil.

Cut the octopus, remove its beak and cook for 40-50 minutes in salted water. After this, dry the clam. At this time, peel the tomatoes and cut them. At the same time, chop the onion and add green onions and parsley. Mix well. In a separate container, mix oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Season the salad with the resulting mixture. It can be served with bread and butter.

Fried baby octopuses

Yesterday, while visiting Jaffa on business, I looked into a fish shop. And imagine my surprise when on the counter I saw small octopuses, albeit slightly frozen. I never thought that I could meet this in Israel. It’s not a problem to buy squid here, but octopuses! I decided to buy them, since such luck was coming into my hands. Let me make some fried octopuses!

What I will need:
500 g small octopuses
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp multi-colored peppercorns
2-4 small red chili peppers, finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce.

1. First of all, the octopuses need to be cleaned. To do this, I took a small sharp knife and removed the insides.

The entrails are located in the head area, to remove them you need to either cut off the head or make a cut and thoroughly clean out all the contents.
Next, remove the beak. I took the carcass, spread the beak with my index finger and removed it.

Then she threw it away; they won’t need it anymore. I thoroughly wash the carcasses and make cuts on the head in 2 or 3 places. That's it, processing is complete. I place the cleaned carcasses in a shallow dish.

2. Preparing the octopuses for frying. To do this, I put the octopus, oil, garlic, peppercorns and chili in a bowl and marinate for 30 minutes. I heat up a very flat barbecue pan or you can use a cast iron one if you have one.

Fry 3 octopuses at a time, turning often, for 3 minutes or until they turn white.

Be careful not to overcook! The first batch is ready, I sprinkle it with fish sauce and squeezed lime juice. I serve it right away. If desired, you can decorate the dish with sprigs of cilantro (coriander) or several cloves of pepper.

This recipe can also be used to prepare squid. To do this, you need to wash the carcasses, dry them and cut them into squares or strips. Cook them the same way as octopus, just don’t overcook them, otherwise they will be tough.

Whole body octopus is one large muscle. It is for this reason that the meat turns out soft and tender, octopus preparation requires a special procedure.

So we have fresh octopus. It should have firm flesh and a slight fishy odor, its skin should be brown and shiny, and the white part of the eye should certainly be large and transparent (usually better cook octopus about a kilogram in weight, they have more tender meat). Octopus Wash well under running water, going through each tentacle to remove all residues that might remain in them and remove the entrails. Thoroughly cleanse your hair and wash well inside and out.

Preparing the octopus

Under the skin octopus there is a complex muscular layer consisting of five layers muscle fibers, which overlap with each other. The strength of the tissues is ensured by the tight fit and complex interweaving of the structural elements of the muscles, and when boiled, these muscles contract. There are two ways to avoid this.

First way is freezing octopus before cooking (to soften the octopus, you can pound it, but freezing is more effective). Put a clean one octopus Place in the freezer and leave for at least 24 hours (preferably 2-3 days). Octopus contains enough water and it turns into ice, tending to expand, tearing the nerves and fibers. To defrost you just need to leave it octopus in the refrigerator (in the same way defrost octopus, if you bought it already frozen, so it is advisable to buy it a day earlier at least).

Second way probably the most famous is " scare the octopus". How to scare an octopus? You need to quickly, holding the octopus by the head, about five or six times, lower it into boiling water and only then finally lower it into the water and cook. Due to the sharp temperature change, collagen (the basis connective tissue body) is destroyed and the result is softer and more tender meat (when heated, collagen has the property of denaturation, the triple helix unwinds, the chains separate, then when the denatured mass of tangled chains cools, it absorbs all the surrounding water, forming gelatin).

Cooked octopus

Always cook octopus in a large wide saucepan so that it is completely covered with water, without salt, with the addition of bay leaf, onion, garlic clove (do not peel, just crush with a knife), cloves and peppercorns, which will provide a rich taste octopus(although this is not required).

As soon as the water boils, “scare” the octopus and cook along with the potatoes (put a medium potato per 1.5 kg of octopus).

When the potatoes are cooked, turn off the heat and leave the octopus in the water for about 25 minutes. To check for doneness, you can pierce the top of the tentacle with a fork, and if the fork goes in easily, the octopus is ready. Remove it from the water.

Final preparation of the octopus

Now you need to finish cleaning. Cut off part of the body with the head between the bag and the tentacles and throw it away. Squeeze out and cut out the chewing organ of the octopus, located between the tentacles.