For the love of Pulpo or why the kitchen is no place for fear.
Darlings,There is nothing that I love more than a rainy Sunday by myself.Well that's a lie, a boldfaced lie.There is nothing that I love more than a sunny day when the only responsibility I have is to get tan and catch up on the Conde Nast canon.But, I will say that a rainy sunday by myself holds a dear place in my heart. I kind of have a schedule that I stick to for these days.
Wake up.
Kimono ON.
Coffee with too much cream and sweetener (it's SUNDAY darlings).
Immerse myself in a few episodes of whatever ridiculous show I happen to be engulfed in (lately it's "Bored to Death," an HBO show starring Jason Schwartzman (swwwwooooon) from a few years back) and open a few cookbooks to get the brain waves moving. Lately I've regressed back to "How to Cook Everything" by the world's smartest man, Mark Bittman. I've pretty much been cover to covering it. There is so much wonderful information in this tome and I recommend that anyone that has any interest in cooking read it. And I mean read it. I don't mean look up recipes. Read it as you would a book, soak in the information. Comprehend what Bittman wants you to know and then figure out how you can use it in your life.
Anyway, once I'm done pumping my brain full of content and tactics, I hit the kitchen.I'll throw an apron on and get going - darlings, the apron is an incredibly important part of this. It protects even the most dire of "home clothes" from getting floured, greasy, etc. Call me traditional, but I love an apron.And then I start cooking.I usually am unsure of what the entire Sunday will hold until 8 hours later when we are sitting at the dinner table. That's the beauty of it. Sometimes it's important to just let the ingredients you have on hand guide you through the day. Eventually you will figure out where it is you need to be.In fact, so many people are so wary of the kitchen..."I'm afraid it won't be good," they say."I don't know how to make that," they say."Oh no, I won't cook fish in my kitchen," they say.All of the above are valid in their own way, but darlings, I ask you to think about the other things you do in your life. Most of which you have no real training in, nor are you fearful that you'll screw it up. Decorating your house, gardening, dating, giving presentations (that 100 level mandated class in college doesn't count), sex, pretending to know about wine, laundry, cleaning your house...you just figure it out.And cooking should be the same.It's not life or death.It's fun.It's like art. And if you can view the ingredients as your paints or clay or whatever, you will realize that if you mess it up, it doesn't matter - in fact, there is no artist who one day just decided to paint and painted a masterpiece. You just have to want to do it.Darlings, it's all about enjoying the process.Anyway, this Sunday. My process yielded the following:1 French Boule 1 Cranberry Lemon LoafBroiled Octopus & Patatas Bravas Skate Cheek nuggets & Blackened Zuchinni Ginger & Lemon Frozen Yoghurt That's a significant day's work.Anyway, I thought I might guide you through the cooking of the illusive octopus, since so many people are so frightened of this beast in the kitchen. Darlings, I'm more frightened of this beast in Disney movies than I will ever be in the kitchen.
First of all, as usual, find your zen. Grab a glass of something to cure all that ails you, put some music on (I've been really into the live Paul Simon albums lately and this band called First Aid Kit) , give your partner a kiss, and let's begin.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKL4X0PZz7MIngredients1 3ish pound octopus (fresh or frozen)20 peppercorns3 bay leaves3 pounds red potatoes, quartered6 cloves garlic, sliced paper thin1 sweet onion, sliced paper thinUnlimited resource of smoked paprikaOlive oil for cookingMethod:Fill a pot with salted water, peppercorn and bay leaves and add your octopus. Simmer the octopus for about 2 hours until tender.
Fill a second pot with salted water, add potatoes and cook until fork tender.In the meantime, find yourself a nice cast iron skillet, grease it thoroughly with olive oil, get it hot and throw the onion and garlic on. Now, this shouldn't be too hot, you don't want this to blacken, you want to cook over medium heat until they are dark brown and carmelized.Once the potatoes are fork tender, dry them off and transfer them to the cast iron skillet where the garlic and onions had been cooking. This is where we get each side of the potatoe pieces nice and brown and crispy. This may take a bit of time, but it's worth it, DO NOT CROWD THE POTATOES or you will end up with a soggy mess on your hands!Once your potatoes are done, and your octopus is simmered, turn your broiler on.Chop up your octopus into significant pieces.Line a cookie tray with the potatoes on the bottom, your onions/garlic in the middle and your octopus on top. Drizzle with a bit of Olive oil and stick under the broiler for about 4 minutes. Pull out, maybe juice a half of a lemon on top and you are golden!
We eat this will aioli (here's a great article on easy homemade mayo) and this weekend, we garnished with pea shoots from the farmers market.
The gentleman who sold me the shoots was so passionate about them, it was such an amazing thing to listen to this man talk to me about all of the possibilities of these rare beauties. They have a very small window of being in season, and they are just so beautiful, tender and delicious. With three parts, the tendril, the leaf, and (le sigh) the blossom, you can do a lot with them, but I prefer to eat them raw-ish.
xoxo lcf