Galician Style Octopus Recipe

Hello chefs and welcome to Spain from the cuisine !!! Do you know Galician Style Octopus recipe? Do you know that it is also called Pulpo a la Gallega or Pulpo a Feira in Galician?

To know the origin of this recipe, we must go back many centuries.

The octopus was one of the few shellfish that was transported from the coasts to the inland towns and in fact it was much more appreciated in these towns than near the sea, since these had other products such as lobster, king crab and a large variety of fish.

When America was discovered many products appeared in the Spanish markets, among them a false spice obtained from crushed red chili peppers, paprika.

Paprika not only gives color, but is also excellent for preserving food in those times.

But it was not until a few years later that Galician octopus became a real dish. Some 125 years ago, when muleteers went to cattle fairs, they bought large quantities of octopus and then prepared it with olive oil and paprika.

The Galician name for Galician style octopus is “octopus a feira” for a very simple reason. During cattle fairs, ranchers bought or sold cattle, sold their agricultural products, etc. and they bought provisions such as salt, sugar and other products to which they did not have daily access.

The recipe is very simple, although I have to admit that there are some tricks that you should know so that you have a perfect Galician octopus. The ingredients for 4 people are as follows:

Recipe Elaboration

Even if you think that a 2 kilos octopus is a lot for 4 people, keep in mind that the octopus has a lot of water, so it tends to shrink a lot.

Here I leave you the first of the tricks to make this Galician Style Octopus recipe perfect. If the octopus is fresh, that is, it has just been caught, it is necessary to break the fibers of the octopus. This is so that it is much more tender and not rubbery. To break the fibers we have two methods, and you must choose one of them. The first is a great anti-stress method, since it involves hitting the octopus several times to break those fibers. It should be done for a few minutes and without fear.

The second method is to put the octopus in the freezer for at least a day and then let it thaw at room temperature. This will also break the fibers of the octopus, just like if you used the beating method.

Step 1: Scare the Octopus

Well yes, you read correctly. The first step to make a Galician style octopus is to scare the octopus. Now I will explain to you what it consists of.

The first thing we must do is take a large and deep pot, where the octopus fits completely covered with water, without any problem that the water can come out when it starts to boil.

When you have the pot, we must fill it with water to the extent that it covers the octopus and put on the high heat until it begins to boil.

When we see that the water is boiling, it is time to scare the octopus. This trick consists of taking the octopus by the head and putting it in the boiling water for 5 seconds or so. After these seconds, we take it out for another 5 seconds, to later put it back in the boiling water for another 5 seconds. We must do this process three times, being very careful not to put our hands in the boiling water since we can cause very serious burns.

When we have done the process three times, we will put the octopus in the boiling water completely.

This process is carried out so that the skin of the octopus does not break and separate during the cooking process and of course this Galician style octopus recipe will be better for us.

Step 2: Wait for a while

Although it seems that this step is not important, it is one of the most important of the entire recipe.

During this step we can only wait for the octopus to finish cooking correctly. We must control very well the time that we will let the octopus cook. If we spend too much time on it, it will be very soft and can be unpleasant when eating it. If we do not reach the cooking time, it will be too hard, even becoming inedible.

To give you an idea, an octopus weighing about 2 kilos should remain cooking for approximately 65-70 minutes.

During the cooking time, we must prick the octopus with a fork or long stick to check if it is already cooked. It is important that the fork or toothpick enter and exit without difficulty when you do the test. If this is not possible, we must let the octopus cook a few more minutes.

When we do the test and the fork or toothpick goes in and out of the octopus without difficulty, it is time to remove it from the pot, to a bowl where we can leave it for a few minutes until it cools down a bit.

Step 3: Cook the potatoes

When we have removed the octopus from the pot, it is time to introduce the potatoes.

The potatoes should be cut into flat pieces with a thickness of 1-1.5 cm wide, more or less. Once cut, we put them in the water where we have cooked the octopus. In this way, the potatoes will take on the flavor that the octopus has left in the water and the potatoes will integrate more into the dish. The only problem that we can find in cooking the potatoes in this water is that they will be dyed the reddish color that the octopus has left in the water.

If you don’t like the potatoes to be stained, you can cook them in clean water, although they won’t have the same flavor.

The potatoes will be cooked in about 12-15 minutes or so. We can do the test, pricking a potato with a fork, to check if they are well cooked and to our liking.

When that time has passed, we can take out the potatoes and start with the next step.

Step 4: Assemble the dish

Now we need to start assembling the plate. My recommendation is to use a traditional wooden plate. It is what has been traditionally used for many years in Galicia to serve this wonderful dish or tapa.

First, we must put the cooked potatoes.

Then, with large scissors, we must cut each of the legs (tentacles) of the octopus. When we have the legs cut, we must cut each one of them into smaller pieces. The size depends on how we like it, whether bigger or smaller. As we cut the legs, we put the pieces distributed throughout the plate and on top of the cooked potatoes.

Once all the legs have been cut, it is time to add the salt, preferably coarse salt. Remember that at no time have we added salt to the recipe, so you must add salt to taste.

Then, we will pour olive oil on all the pieces of octopus, so that the whole dish is integrated.

Finally, we will add paprika to taste. You can add sweet or hot paprika, or even a mixture of both. You decide that.

And that’s all. Now she plays the best, eat it.

Bon Appetite !!!

Galician Style Octopus Video Recipe

If it has not been clear to you how to make the Galician Style Octopus with the explanations and the previous steps, here is a video included in our YouTube channel. There you can see all these steps graphically. I take this opportunity to tell you that you do not forget to subscribe to the channel and thus you will not miss any of the new recipes that we are uploading.

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