That means you have a very good refrigerator; very cold freezer and not too warm well insulated refrigerator.

For thawing large items, I use the microwave lowest power setting and keep an eye on what you are doing.

dcarch

Cold water works well. Whatcha' makin"?

dcarch - I keep my fridge colder than I probably should. Always makes thawing an issue. I don't have much luck thawing in the microwave either, without partially cooking that which is being thawed. Since there seems to be more badly cooked octopus than good, I don't want to risk it. Not the first time, anyway.

Peppi - Thanks, I'll see what the day brings and will use water if necessary. Not sure what I'm making. I've never had octopus before. But from what I'm reading it sounds like a short boil followed with a long slow braise is a good starting point. At that point I'll taste it and see where I'm inspired to go from there. Hopefully not straight to the garbage can!

Yum, FOAS, I like octopus. I treat it much like calamari/squid, you either have to cook it fast or else cook it a long time or it gets tough.

Like you, I have trouble thawing in the microwave without partially cooking things, so I thaw food in cold water like Peppi does.

Annie

If it is something that you don't want to get wet, like a steak, and you have a FoodSaver or other vacuum bagger, you can bag it and then thaw in water. (Although with octopus, it does not seem like a problem to get it wet.)

Microwave heats as deeply as an inch from the inside out, all the other thawing heat the surface only. With microwave, you do have to keep turning/flipping to avoid uneven heating.

Good luck with the octopus. It is not easy to make it tender.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 21:12

Well it's thawed, but I didn't get to cook it. I just ran it under cold water periodically throughout the day and returned it to the fridge. It started thawing quickly as soon as the cube started to pull apart. Anyway, it's in the bottom drawer of my fridge which is probably somewhere between 32 and 35 so I'm sure it'll be fine to cook tomorrow.

Dcarch, yes, from the myriad tips I see all over the internet I gather it's not the easiest thing to cook well. But I'll try!

I'm sorry, but octopus? Gag.

Oh Pam, you know you want some!

Ha!

So what did you make? Or was it just a puppet?

Eileen

"Oh Pam, you know you want some! " LOL!

------------------------

Forget about wine corks can tenderize octopodes, it's a myth.

dcarch

No, no I am pretty sure I don't, and I can't understand why anyone would. Eeewwwww!

Well in it's initial boil it smelled like lobster cooking but better. It shrank WAY down, which I somewhat expected but not to that extent. If I end up liking it I'll definitely need to find a cheaper source if I ever make it again. Shrunken down, it looks like this bait fish is costing more than a nice halibut!

Sorry FOAS, you were cheated. That's not an octopus.

I counted only seven arms.

dcarch :-)

LOL must be the angle of the photo; I assure you there are eight!

Ok, so after five hours in a 200 deg oven, they're pretty tender. Don't taste like much, and there's definitely not more than one serving's worth. For twenty-something dollars it's definitely not a repeat. Right now I'm thinking I'll bump up the flavor with some seasoned flour, fry them cripsy and serve them fra diavolo.

FOAS, that sounds really good. I just cut the tentacles up and tossed them into cioppino at the very end, so they didn't toughen. It's my theory, I take a little bit of an expensive ingredient and mix it with other, less expensive ingredients and "stretch" it that way.

Pam, I'm laughing right now, thinking of the look on your face. I guess you won't be cooking us any octopus in the near future? (grin)

Annie

Yikes!

I am with Pam on this one....doesn't appeal to me in the least!

Linda

I have been eager to see how this turned out for you. Like Annie, I have only used octopus it in cioppino and it was fresh so I didn't have to thaw.

I love calamari so I'll stick with that but I applaud you for expanding your range of foods. I wish I was more venturous with food.

I have had it grilled and in a seafood salad, both with the addition of a good squeeze of lemon, garlic and EVOO. Heaven!

I bet that's one angry octopus.

I detest octopus! Hubs is allergic to it, thank God! I've got flounder this evening and it smells devine!

Octopus, the other white meat, snow-white white meat, my favorite meat, boneless, fatless, delicious!

Highly priced gourmet food world-wide. Here in the US, not that popular, still expensive.

dcarch

Thanks for asking, Cathy. I kind of forgot about it (read: lost interest in it) but your post prompted me to finish cooking it and not waste all that money. Here's today's breakfast:

Seasoned and fried octopus on spaghetti with a garlic/lemon sauce. I guess I was successful at some level because it definitely was not tough. It tasted quite good, but I think I'll wait for an opportunity to eat it somewhere that's known for having an awesome octopus dish before I pass final judgment. For all the noise about "octopus is NOT squid" I found it tasted pretty similar.

I bought an octopus today because they had them at Whole Foods for cheap, and I really liked what I had in Brazil - more than once.

I don't have any idea how to prepare it, however. Do you have to boil it first before you grill or fry it?

Never had a big octopus...but has baby octopus several times perched on top of one dish or another.

I foundthis Martha Stewart video, which has some good info.

If I use this method, I won't have much time to marinate it. I found other recipes (Italian) that say you should add wine corks to the octopus when you boil it, but I appears that the Japanese use green tea instead.

Octopus: My brother's method, which I have tried:

Pre heat oven to 325 F.

Take octopus and marinate (coat thouroghly, and do add a little oil if the marinate doesn't call for it), and wrap in heavy foil. You don't need to wait before cooking as below:

Place octopus and all in oven pan (to avoid foil leakage issues). DO NOT add water, the octopus will generate and cook in its own.

Roast for 1.5 hours, and remove from oven.

My brother's recipe is Greek, so we've been using Greek seasonings (lemon juice, olive oil, capers, chopped olives, oregano, ground pepper...). When you remove, the octopus can be eaten as is, or chopped into cold salads, and further dressed. YUM. You can probably find uses for the broth generated, too - cook into rice etc.