Iberia · Volume 05, The Rías, the Feira and the Road to Santiago
Pulpo á Feira
Coastal Galicia
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 72 hours
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The dish most people mean when they say "Galician food," and the one this chapter's whole technique ladder is built around. Traditionally sold from a copper pota at village fairs, feiras, and market stalls, cut with scissors rather than a knife, and served on a wooden plate that is doing real thermal work, not just tradition for its own sake.
As tradition built it
About 45 to 60 minutes' simmering, after 24 to 72 hours' freezing.
Ingredients
- 1 to 1.5kg or more whole octopus, ideally Octopus vulgaris
- to cover unsalted water, for boiling
- to taste coarse sea salt
- to taste pimentón dulce and picante, mixed, unmeasured
- to taste Galician extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Freeze the whole octopus for at least 24 hours, 48 to 72 hours for a better result, then thaw fully before cooking.
- Bring a large, unsalted pot of water to a full rolling boil.
- Holding the octopus by the head, dip it into the boiling water and lift it out three times, three to four seconds each time, the asustar, so the tentacles contract evenly.
- Submerge fully and simmer gently, never at a hard boil, for 45 to 60 minutes depending on size, until a knife slides into the thickest part of a tentacle with no resistance.
- Rest the octopus in its own cooking water off the heat for 10 minutes, then lift it out and cut into discs with kitchen scissors.
- Serve on a wooden plate lightly moistened with a spoonful of the cooking water, dressed with coarse sea salt, a generous, unmeasured dusting of pimentón dulce and picante mixed, and a generous pour of Galician extra virgin olive oil.
What a modern chef changes
A blast-chilled freeze, a sous vide asustar, and an ember finish
Rungs 1, 2 and 3
Method
- Blast-chill the octopus to around minus 18°C for an hour rather than a domestic freeze (Rung 1).
- Give it the traditional three-plunge asustar, then cook sous vide at 77°C for five hours (Rung 2), a controlled, repeatable version of the pulpeira's own freeze-and-shock logic.
- Finish with thirty seconds of hard heat on a Big Green Egg run direct, colouring the skin and adding the smoke and char Casa Marcelo's own kitchen uses embers for, before slicing.
- Serve on a genuinely warmed wooden board, dampened with the reserved sous vide liquid (Rung 3).
- Dress with a spice-grinder-fresh pimentón dulce and picante blend rather than a pre-ground jar, since the aromatic oils of freshly ground pimentón survive far better than a tin left open on a shelf.