When you cook a steak everything falls neatly into your hands. The beef is sold in a neat little package. All your steak needs is a little unwrapping, a little seasoning and some easy work in the broiler, grill and frying pan.
Octopus? Not so much.
First you have to pick up the cephalopod with you bare hands. It’s not like a chicken which has bones that can be easily separated before the cooking starts. An octopus is an amorphous blob - the stuff of horror films with strange suction cups and tentacles that look like they came from a from an H.R. Giger painting.
You have to have a plan when you grab an octopus. If not, it will spill over itself and possibly fall on the floor. If you plan properly, you can fit the entire ‘pus in a small bowl but, even then, it could also spill all over your cutting board.
In Portugal, there’s very little fear of the octopus. Most local tascas feature octopus on their menus at least once a week. Years ago, during our honeymoon in the Algarve, it wasn’t an uncommon site to see octopus pots on ropes laying behind the fishing boats on Praia Salema.
Octo is often on the menu here in various forms. Our favorites include arroz (a rice based stew), açorda (a bread based stew) and two more intricate dishes: galego and lagareiro. In galego, the octopus is seasoned, grilled and spiced in the style of Northwestern Iberia (now Galicia in Spain). In lagareiro (which means to soak or douse), the octopus is cooked and served over small smashed potatoes and then doused in olive oil. Lagareiro is purely Portuguese with roots that trace back to the non-seafaring province of Trás-os-Montes deep inside Northeastern Portugal in the Douro Valley.
Lagareiro is the version we see the most and it rarely disappoints. Some restaurants put a unique spin on the dish. While many brown the octo in the oven, Lisbon’s O Velho Eurico browns the octopus on a flat top grill until the cephalopod is super crispy.
As you can tell, we’ve thought about octopus a lot since we moved to Lisbon. It’s something we’ve been wanting to cook for a while but we weren’t sure how to proceed. After all, we don’t have a restaurant kitchen nor do we have a family recipe that’s been passed through the generations to us. We even had a bag of corks at the ready for when the time was right.
Finally, after five years in Portugal, it was time to conquer our fear of the ‘pus. We started by literally cutting off the beak (the most difficult part) and then we cooked it in the oven for 90 minutes. That’s it. And to our surprise, no corks were necessary. (If you have any ideas what we can do with our bag of corks - we’re all ears.) And then we did it again.
We didn’t just cook two delicious meals - we also discovered some things about our tentacled friends. They’re full of collagen so, when we roasted them in olive oil, we ended up a with a magnificent sauce that tasted of the sea. Also, octopuses (or is it octopi?) don’t need to be salted.
We learned that it’s possible to cook an octopus to the point where it’s a little too tender, if there’s such a thing. That’s what we did twice (the first time by accident and the second time on purpose) and yet we still loved the melty texture and rich sauce that we achieved. We also loved the salted smashed potatoes in the dish.
Our octopus journey isn’t over nor is our deep dive into Portuguese food. We’ve been curious about cooking choco so maybe cuttlefish show up on our menu next.
Dish of the Week
We didn’t just conquer our fear of cooking octopus. We also published a tasty Polvo à Lagareiro recipe that you can cook at home whether you live in Portugal, the USA or elsewhere.
Drink of the Week
There’s no denying that it’s autumn now that it’s October. And, while we’re sad to put our shorts away for the next six months or so, we’re happy to say hello to autumn cocktails. The Maple Bourbon Smash is one of those cocktails.
The Maple Bourbon Smash will look familiar if you've imbibed an Old Fashioned or Manhattan in the past. However, the Maple Bourbon Smash distinguishes itself from those classic bourbon cocktails thanks to two key ingredients - grade A maple syrup and orange juice.
If you’re wondering if this cocktail is good with brunch, the answer is yes. And, if you’re looking for brunch inspiration, we have tasty recipes for Brioche French Toast and Maple Bacon on the website.
New on the Website
We recently teased that we’d be sharing our favorite Lisbon ramen shops. There are eight. Maybe we’ll share our favorite Lisbon hamburger joints next. Stay tuned and stay hungry.
Links We’re Liking
Whole Foods made a major misstep when the grocery chain changed its berry chantilly cake recipe. Although they’ve corrected this mistake, the better option may be to eat a slice of chantilly cake at Bywater Bakery in New Orleans. | New York Times (gifted)
Time Out has released its annual list of the world’s coolest neighborhoods. And, as usual, the entries are debatable. That being said, we’re pleased to see that our two cities, Philly and Lisbon, made the list. | Time Out
We’ve been doing this travel hack for years - and not just when we travel. | Washington Post (gifted)
Until next week,
Daryl & Mindi