Yen Can Cook ~ Polvo à Lagareiro (Portuguese Roasted Octopus and Potatoes)
A taste of Portuguese food ~~
This was my first attempt at cooking Portuguese food, and the result was exceptionally promising!
This Portuguese roasted octopus and potatoes is one of the most appreciated traditional dishes in Portugal, especially in the summer. It’s a very simple recipe to prepare and involves only a few ingredients. I used frozen octopus tentacles which I got from my usual FB live shopping page, of course you can use fresh whole octopus/tentacles if you can get one.
Ingredients (Serve:3-4)
1kg octopus
500-700g small potatoes
1 yellow onion, cut into wedges
A bunch of parsley, separate the stems and leaves
8 cloves garlic, crushed
200ml olive oil
2 bay leaves
salt to taste
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Step 1: Clean and wash the octopus. Put it on a saucepan with water, onion wedges and parsley stems, cook over medium-high heat until the octopus is cooked. Remove and cut to separate the tentacles and head (if you’re using a whole octopus).
Step 2: Cook the potatoes in a saucepan with water seasoned with salt. When the potatoes are cooked, put them on a plate and let them cool slightly. Slightly smash the potatoes.
Step 3: Preheat the oven at 200 °C. Put the octopus (Step 1) and the potatoes (Step 2) on a baking dish. Add in olive oil, crushed garlic, chopped parsley leaves and bay leaves. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are slightly golden brown.
Step 4: Serve.
HAPPY COOKING! #dudukrumah #stayhealthy
The process of boiling the octopus in water….is that to tenderise it? Otherwise, I think octopus (much like squid) cooks very quickly, so I think you can roast them directly with the potatoes so get more charring on the octopus. What was the texture like? I’ve never cooked octopus and yours certainly look promising like you said.
Kris, the boiling process is to remove the “fishy” taste and also tenderise it, I guess, as I just follow the recipe video that I watched, LOL
My octopus was tender and soft which was out of my expectation because I thought its texture would be hard or rubbery after cooked for so long (boiled & roasted).