BOILED OCTOPUS WITH SMOKED SWEET PAPRIKA & ‘CACHELOS’ POTATOES

The amount of olive oil used in this recipe might seem like a lot, but the octopus needs it. Legend has it that drinking water with this dish will give you a pain in your stomach. What you need here is a nice glass of white wine, and Albariño, a traditional Galician white, is the best.

‘Cachelos’ refers to the potatoes, which are boiled in the octopus cooking water: crucially, they shouldn’t be cut smoothly, you want to partially cut into them and then pull them apart so they make a scrunching sound. This way they will have a rough edge and release their starch.

FOR 4–6

½ an onion, peeled

1 bay leaf

1 frozen octopus (approx. 2.3kg before defrosting), defrosted

200ml extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika, for sprinkling

50g capers

1 bunch of fresh chives, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the potatoes

3 medium potatoes

125ml extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon smoked hot paprika, for sprinkling

Fill a large pan with water, add the onion and bay leaf, and put on a medium-high heat. When the water is steaming, take the octopus and (carefully) dip it into the water, then bring it up again. Repeat three times. This relaxes the octopus, making the meat tender.

Gently simmer the octopus according to its weight (20 minutes per kilo) – if the water is boiling too fast it will rip the skin.

While the octopus is cooking, prepare the cachelos. Peel the potatoes. Partially cut into them, then pull them apart into chunky, uneven-edged pieces around 3cm in size.

To check if the octopus is cooked, take a toothpick and jab it into the thickest part. If it goes through cleanly, with no resistance, it is cooked, but if it feels like there’s something preventing you from pushing through, then it needs to cook for longer, otherwise it will be chewy, which isn’t nice. When you are happy it is cooked, carefully remove it from the pan to a tray (keeping the cooking water) and leave to cool down.

While the octopus is cooling, add the potatoes to the octopus cooking water and boil until nice and soft. The water will turn the potatoes a light blue-purple and will give them lots of flavour. Remove the potatoes to a colander with a spider or slotted spoon – don’t pour them out to drain, as they will smash. Put into a serving bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. It’s a lot of paprika, but you don’t get tired of it.

Cut the octopus into 2cm thick angled chunks – it’s traditional to use scissors, but probably easier to do this on a board with a knife! Put the 200ml of olive oil into a pan and put on a medium-low heat. When warm, add the chunks of octopus and cook for a couple of minutes. Take the pan off the heat but leave the octopus to rest for 3–4 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon to your plate or serving dish. Dress with the olive oil from the pan, the paprika, capers, chives, salt and pepper, and serve with the potatoes.