Do I need to clean frozen octopuses. Two dinners of impeccably humble octopus. First experience. Octopuses - intellectuals of the deep sea

At the word “octopus”, and simply “seafood”, many housewives clutch their heads and shrug their hands - they say, I don’t know how to cook and I don’t even know how to do it! That is why we invite you to read our article and make sure that the octopus is not the end of the world at all, but just a representative of the deep sea, which is a very tasty component of many dishes.

Octopus has become popular in the cuisines of the world not so long ago. It is still difficult enough to catch and almost as problematic to cook. That is why only a true professional, or at least a person who has already dealt with him, agrees to deal with his cutting. But having gone through the entire stage of cooking the octopus once, you will gain valuable experience and will never be afraid of these marine representatives.

In fact, the octopus is one big muscle. All of its tentacles are connected to the head through numerous ligaments and weaves. They represent a huge problem for most cooks, because if you clean them incorrectly, you can spoil the whole dish. Since the taste of the cooked octopus directly depends on its size, it is necessary to choose only medium-sized individuals. Beginners can also handle them, because the meat has not yet become tough enough, which means that the cooking process will be quick and successful.

So, we begin to cut the cephalopod in the following way:

1. To begin with, it is recommended to carefully examine the purchased product. It should have brown meat and a slight fishy smell. All these signs indicate that the octopus was caught recently and is really fresh.
2. Next, rinse it under running water. Carefully inspect each tentacle to make sure there is no dirt or sand between them. In addition, make sure that the tentacles are free of mucus. It is sometimes present in young individuals. Experienced cooks recommend removing it during the cleaning process, otherwise the dish may get a bitter or salty aftertaste.
3. Separate the head from the tentacles with a knife. The incision should be made just below the eyes. When the head is cut off, we remove the eyes and beak themselves. They can be thrown away immediately (they are not used for dishes). The remaining parts are again washed with running water.
4. Skinning a raw octopus is an almost impossible task. Therefore, we recommend that you first scald or scald it in boiling water, and then remove the skin. But do not leave the meat in hot water for a long time, as it will immediately lose its taste and absorb all the water like a sponge.
5. Now the meat is ready for the further cooking process, however, experienced chefs recommend first keeping the octopus in the refrigerator for several days. This will greatly soften its meat.

Prepared octopus meat will be a great addition to salads and appetizers. Also, this cephalopod can be an excellent main dish if, for example, stew it in red wine with vegetables.

The octopus is one big muscle. The larger the octopus, the tougher the meat. To make the meat of this cephalopod soft, juicy and tender, it must be properly cleaned and prepared.

Instruction

Fresh octopus should be firm-fleshed, have a marine fishy odor, skin color should be brown, and the whites of the eyes should be clear and white. It is recommended to purchase octopuses weighing up to a kilogram, they have more tender and soft meat.

Rinse octopus under a stream of running water, go over each tentacle, remove all sand and residual dirt.

Cut off the head just below the eyes, remove the tentacles, set them aside. Cut off the eyes, use a knife to clean the cavity of the carcass. Squeeze out the beak with force, cut it out and discard. Rinse the head, cleaned from the insides, inside and out.

Skin from fresh octopus very difficult to remove. Therefore, cooks most often leave it until they heat it. If you still want to skin, boil octopus in water for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and then remove the skin from the cold carcass.

Now octopus can be cooked or frozen for storage. Experienced chefs recommend always freezing the carcass octopus before, it essentially softens the tough muscle meat. Put the cleansed octopus in the freezer and leave for at least a day, but better for 2-3 days. Water contained in the muscle structure octopus, turning into ice, will expand, tearing the nerves and hard fibers. To unfreeze octopus, it is enough to place it in the refrigerator for 6-10 hours.

From octopus you can cook a huge number of dishes. This meat goes great with onions, garlic, tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, rice, wine and soy sauce. Octopus is not only great in salads, it's great as a main dish. For example, try to cook a barbecue from octopus or stew it in red wine.

note

Octopuses are very helpful. Properly cooked octopus meat is a source of calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium and a huge amount of vitamins.

The octopus is one huge muscle. The bigger the octopus, the tougher the meat. In order for the meat of this cephalopod to turn out soft, juicy and tender, it must be properly cleaned and prepared.

Instruction

1. Fresh octopus should have firm flesh, have a marine fishy smell, skin color should be chestnut, and the whites of the eyes should be transparent and white. It is recommended to purchase octopuses weighing up to a kilogram, they have more tender and soft meat.

2. Rinse octopus under running water, sort through every tentacle, remove every sand and dirt residue.

3. Cut off the head just below the eyes, remove the tentacles, set them aside. Cut off the eyes, with the help of a knife, clean the cavity of the carcass. Squeeze out the beak with force, cut it out and throw it away. Rinse the head cleaned from the insides, inside and out.

4. Skin from fresh octopus pretty hard to remove. As a result, cooks often leave it until the heat treatment is carried out. If you still want to skin, boil octopus in water for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and then remove the skin from the cold carcass.

5. Now octopus can be cooked or frozen for storage. Experienced chefs recommend invariably freezing the carcass octopus before cooking, it significantly softens tough muscle meat. Put the cleansed octopus in the freezer and leave for at least a day, but cooler for 2-3 days. Water contained in the muscle structure octopus, turning into ice, will expand, tearing the nerves and harsh fibers. To unfreeze octopus, it is enough to place it in the refrigerator for 6-10 hours.

6. From octopus allowed to cook a large number of dishes. This meat harmonizes deliciously with onions, garlic, tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, rice, wine and soy sauce. Octopus is not only canceled in salads, it is amazing as a main dish. Let's say try to cook a barbecue from octopus or stew it in red wine.

In large supermarkets, it is possible to find products on sale that cannot be called familiar. But you still want to try them, as you want new adventures, brilliant events and new tastes. And here the questions creep up: how to cook it? Which side to approach? Including the octopus.

You will need

• one octopus weighing about 1 kg.

Instruction

1. First, deal with the theoretical part: the octopus is a cephalopod that is eaten in many cultures. The Japanese, say, prepare sushi with raw octopuses . The body of an octopus has no bones, it consists entirely of muscles. Muscles have a difficult multilayer construction; during heat treatment, protein folding occurs, the meat can become tough.

2. Take the octopus; choose a better young one, weighing up to 1 kg. The flesh should be firm, the skin should be shiny and chestnut, and the white part of the eye should be large and transparent. The smell of an octopus is similar to an ordinary fish, not strongly pronounced.

3. Wash the octopus in running cold water, sorting through any tentacle and removing dirt, acceptable mucus and other “surprises”. After that, you need to gut it: cut the part of the head above the eyes of the octopus. Tilt the torso and remove the innards, eyes, and ink sac. After that, remove the beak: for this, you need to squeeze up part of the body between the tentacles and cut out the organ. The skin from the tentacles will be allowed to be pulled off the boiled octopus like a stocking.

4. To keep the octopus meat soft, there are two methods of preparing the octopus to choose from. The first method is freezing. The water contained in the tissues will turn into ice and break the natural intramuscular bonds. Take the octopus out in the freezer for at least 24 hours, and then leave to thaw on the top shelf in the refrigerator. It is true that you can do the same with a purchased frozen octopus. The 2nd method is suitable when there is no time to freeze. This method is called "scare the octopus". Prepare two pots: pour ice water into the first, and fill the second with water and boil it. Take the octopus by the head and lower it alternately, first into a pot of boiling water, then into cold water. Five or six times will be enough. As a result of abrupt changes in temperature, the connective tissue will be partly destroyed. After that, dip the octopus in boiling water and cook until tender.

Note!
An octopus weighing about 1 kg needs to be cooked for an average of 40 minutes. With an increase in weight by 1 kg, it is necessary to increase the cooking time by another 15 minutes.

Helpful advice
It is allowed to put spices, garlic and a little dry wine into the water in order to beat off the fishy smell. If there is a wine cork at hand, it is also allowed to throw it into the broth. It's great at absorbing odors.

Octopuses are the oldest inhabitants of the depths, which are believed to have outstanding mental abilities and amazing body structure. The eyes of an octopus have a strange structure for marine life and susceptibility to light, which allows the mollusk to be the most big-eyed inhabitant of the ocean.

Octopuses - intellectuals of the deep sea

Octopuses are amazing creatures that are still a mystery to scientists. These creatures unwaveringly attract the attention of ocean scientists with their amazing body structure and strange mental abilities. It is believed that octopuses, along with cuttlefish and dolphins, are the wisest representatives of marine fauna. However, these creatures are significant not only for their mental abilities. Scientists have long noticed that octopuses are the owners of eyes that are unique not only in structure, but also in size in relation to body length and visual probabilities. The huge brain and huge eyes allow the octopus to receive much more information about the world around us than any other animal on the planet. The eyes of an octopus are still the subject of controversy in the scientific community, and far from all the details of the vision of the world by these animals are intelligible and studied by man, but scientists still have some amazing data.

The unique probabilities of the octopus eye

First of all, it is worth saying that the eyes of octopuses are hefty large and make up approximately 10% of the total body weight of the animal. In terms of eye size in relation to body weight, octopuses are real champions in the animal world. For example, in an adult giant octopus, the size of the eyeball is 35-40 cm. The anatomical structure of the octopus eye is very similar to the structure of the human eye. The eyes of an octopus are made up of the retina, iris, lens, and cornea. The pupil is mobile and can expand and contract, but the octopus focuses the gaze not due to the curvature of the lens, but due to its approach and distance in relation to the retina. It is believed that these mollusks are able to focus their eyes on objects that excite them, which other marine inhabitants are not able to do. The emotional retina and lens of the eye of an octopus distinguishes colors well, even in muddy water. The large size of the octopus's eyes also helps it survive in the ocean, because due to this structure of the organ of vision, this mollusk is able to see objects even in pitch darkness. The unique structure of the octopus's eyes allows it to perceive a three-dimensional picture, and therefore these animals beautifully distinguish the shape of objects. Some fans of these cephalopods suggest that the octopus's visual organs allow it to see even in the ultraviolet spectrum of light, but these data have not yet been scientifically confirmed.

Note!
Octopuses are pretty good. Positively cooked octopus meat is a source of calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium and a huge number of vitamins.

If you still do not know how to clean and cook an octopus, then you are here.

Even the Romans and the ancient Greeks were very fond of octopuses and constantly hunted them. Love has passed through the centuries and now the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, despite all the wealth of choice, are happy to eat octopuses in any form. Salted, dried, fresh and boiled clams are useful, especially with olive oil. Octopus has a lot of protein, and besides that, they strengthen the cardiovascular system well.

Small to medium sized octopuses are usually sold whole and are easier to select. As strange as it may sound, the octopus is chosen by its eyes. They are, so to speak, a mirror of his quality. A good and edible mollusk should have transparent eyes. A large individual is butchered and on the shelves you can see only tentacles, which, of course, have no eyes. Here it is worth focusing on skin color. It should be a shiny, beautiful brown color. You can take this product without hesitation. But the octopus, which has black spots at the ends of the tentacles and those whose skin is torn, is better not to buy. They are either not fresh or not properly stored.

Octopus likes to cook in Asia and Europe. In Asian cuisine, shellfish are often simply boiled. Boiled tentacles are the basis of most salads and appetizers.

Before cooking, the tentacles are washed in water, preferably running water, then poured with cold water, and only after boiling the water is boiled for 5 to 10 minutes. The time depends on the size of the octopus. It is very important that the clam cools in the same water in which it was boiled. The cooled octopus is taken out of the container, the skin is peeled and cooked according to the recipe you like.

In Mediterranean cuisine, the ink sac is first removed from the octopus. However, it is not thrown away. Ink can also be used in many recipes. They even remove the beak and eyes. And after that, the carcass is washed in water, even beaten with an ordinary meat hammer, cut into small pieces. More often in this cuisine, octopuses are simply fried in olive oil, and then stewed with vegetables and wine.

How to cook octopus properly

The value of the octopus is the tentacles. The main thing is that they are not rubber. To do this, they can be beaten off with a meat mallet. But there is another, peaceful way. It is necessary to clearly monitor the cooking time of the products and not bring the mollusk to suffocation in boiling water. However, if time is lost, then you need to be patient and cook the octopus until it is edible. During cooking, the mollusk goes through several stages.

How to cook octopus

It is necessary to seize the moment and catch the octopus at the moment when it has not yet become stiff, or wait out this moment. There is a little trick to make the dishes excellent: during cooking, throw wine corks into the pan.

What is octopus cooked with?

Octopus is put in almost all soups that contain several types of seafood. The product goes well with squid. And now many cooks make cutlets from these mollusks. By the way, kids love to eat this dish. Here it is important to remove the beaks from the squid and octopus, gut and pass through a meat grinder. Add garlic, herbs and onions to the minced meat, then roll in breadcrumbs and fry.

Cooking young octopuses

It is enough to keep the cutlets in the pan for two to three minutes. By the way, such dishes are very useful for artists. Octopuses and squids are pure protein, and it is useful for ligaments and allows you to keep your voice for a long time. No wonder the best singers are Italians, who eat seafood almost every day.

What else goes well with an octopus dish?

Any legumes, for example, beans, vegetables, herbs and, of course, soy sauce or olive oil, wine vinegar.

The Japanese serve octopus with rice, seaweed and wasabi. The Chinese are wise and mask the mollusk with sauces. The Portuguese prefer battered octopus, while the Italians prefer to put it in soup for broth.

You can also eat octopus alive. At least that's how Koreans like to do it. But in Russia it is advised to make salads with octopuses. They are light and nutritious at the same time. You can safely put lettuce leaves in a salad, add olive oil or wine vinegar, lemon. But the main thing is not to overdo it. For salad and sashimi, appearance is always important. Therefore, you need to try to cut the tentacles beautifully. Make sure that each belt or circle has a suction cup.

Popular Octopus Recipes

Octopus Feijoada (Portuguese Cuisine)

For this dish you will need 1.5 kg of octopus, 1 cup of beans, 5 cloves of garlic, 5 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tbsp. melted lard, 4 onions, salt, parsley and black pepper, 3 medium carrots and half a glass of dry white wine.

Beans must be soaked for a day or two, dried and boiled over low heat. Cut boiled (with onion and olive oil) octopus. Saute chopped garlic in olive oil and lard in a saucepan. Next, add chopped onion, and sliced ​​​​carrots. Season all this with salt, pepper and continue to simmer. Add white wine and bring the dish to a boil.

And then put the chopped octopus and beans. Add water, add salt and pepper. Cook over low heat. After it is worth taking out a few tablespoons of the beans, crush it with a fork and put it back. Stir and simmer until thickened. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

Fried octopus (Maltese cuisine)

For the dish you will need 0.5 kg of octopus, 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, 4 pcs. onions, 2 tbsp. tomato paste, 8 pcs. olives, 1 tbsp. capers, 1 tbsp. chopped mint, 1 tsp spice mix and 1 glass of red wine.

First of all, you need to remove the eyes and the ink bag from the octopus. Rinse the carcass under running water. Break off and cut into pieces. Brown the onion in oil, add the octopus to it and fry for a few minutes. Then add all other ingredients and simmer for two hours. Stir occasionally. It is necessary to ensure that the meat does not dry out and add hot water. This octopus can be served with potatoes or spaghetti. Garnish should be added at the end of cooking.

Octopus salad (Cypriot cuisine)

Take 300 gr. Octopus, 1.5 liters of water, 1 tsp. salt, 1-2 onions, 2-3 tomatoes, 2 tbsp. chopped parsley, 2 green onion leaves, 90 g. Green olives, 2 tbsp. capers, 4 tbsp. lemon juice, half tbsp. sugar and 2 tbsp olive oil.

Cut the octopus, remove its beak and boil for 40-50 minutes in salted water. After this, dry the clam. At this time, peel the tomatoes from the skin and cut. At the same time, chop the onion, and add green onion and parsley. Mix well. In a separate container, mix oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Dress the salad with the resulting mixture. It can be served with bread with butter.

Fried baby octopuses

Yesterday I stopped by on business in Jaffa, I looked into the fish shop. And what was my surprise when on the counter, I saw small octopuses, though slightly frozen. I never thought that I could meet this in Israel. Buying squid here is not a problem, but octopuses! I decided to buy them, since such luck itself went into my hands. And I'll cook fried octopuses!

What will I need:
500 gr small octopuses
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp multi-colored peppercorns
2-4 small red chili peppers finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce.

1. First of all, the octopuses must be cleaned. To do this, I took a small sharp knife and removed the insides.

The entrails are located in the head area, to remove them you need to either cut off the head or make a slit and clean out all the contents well.
Next, remove the beak. I took the carcass, parted the beak with my index finger and removed it.

Then I threw it away, they don't need it anymore. I carefully wash the carcasses and make cuts on the head in 2 or 3 places. Everything, processing is completed. I put the peeled carcasses in a shallow dish.

2. Cooking octopuses for frying. To do this, put the octopus, oil, garlic, peppercorns and chili in a bowl and marinate for 30 minutes. I heat up a very flat barbecue pan or you can take, if available, cast iron.

I fry 3 octopuses at a time, turning often, for 3 minutes or until they turn white.

Be careful not to overcook! The first batch is ready, I sprinkle it with fish sauce and squeezed lime juice. I put it on the table right away. If desired, you can decorate the dish with sprigs of cilantro (coriander) or a few slices of pepper.

This recipe can also be used to cook squid. To do this, wash the carcasses, dry and cut into squares or strips. Cook them the same way you cook octopuses, just don't overcook them or they'll be tough.

Do baby octopuses need to be cleaned? and got the best answer

Answer from *** TATI ***[guru]
***TATI***
Enlightened
(20212)
You can also use potatoes instead of green peas.
Be careful with salt because octopuses contain a lot of salt. I like O. with tomato, recently made. Or fill the pasta with the same, I recently did it. If I can, I'll upload a photo.

Answer from Grigory Ioseliani[guru]
Octopuses in Vinegar
Peel the octopuses, rinse, boil for 3 minutes in salted boiling water with bay leaf, black pepper and thyme, drain in a colander. Mix the octopus with garlic, cut into thin slices, pour a mixture of vinegar, oil, finely chopped mint, salt, pepper, close the lid, let marinate in the refrigerator for at least a night. Serve as an appetizer with bread and wine.
a handful of small octopuses; 1 clove of garlic; 2 tbsp. l. white wine vinegar; 2 tbsp. l. olive oil; mint leaves; Bay leaf; a sprig of thyme; salt, black pepper

Answer from Svetlanka[guru]
Frozen octopuses already peeled and frozen are sold....

Answer from **Alechka**[guru]
these octopuses are already peeled
I cook them like this, with pepper and beans
in general, I cut the bell pepper into small pieces and overcook it, add small osbminozhek to it and fry everything together for 20-30 minutes
then I open a jar of red beans and add there + a spoonful of tomato paste, you can use any spices according to taste, I often add 1 tablespoon of adjika + half a glass of water and stew for another 15 minutes
overall it tastes good
can be served with potatoes or any cereal

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Do small octopuses need to be cleaned?