Oven Roasted Octopus- Polvo no Forno

 

I wanted to do this dish, because it's one of my absolute favorites.

While I was making this dish my 5 year old nephew asked "Tia (untie) what's for dinner", I replyed octopus, "Yum, I love octopus, it's one of my favorite". It made me smile.

At dinner I turned to my sister in law who was commenting on how this is fast becoming one of her favorites as well , & said this dish will be one of those childhood dishes he will look back on & love.

I am pleased be part of his childhood food memories.

When I was in Portugal, I had an octopus dish in a restaurant that blew me away. The octopus was so tender & full of flavor, so when I got back to Australia I decided to re create the dish, it's slightly different to the dish I had, but it's no less wonderful.

The octopus is really tender & the flavore has a depth.

If you like seafood, then you'll love this dish.

Choose large octopus. I get mine from my local fishmonger, so they are pretty easy to get.

Ingredients

• 2kg large octopus
• 2 tab capsicum paste (massa de pimentao)
• 2 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 cup water
• 6 fresh or dryed bayleaves
• 9 garlic cloves
• 2 medium onions, cut chunky
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander, cut stalks & leaves then seperate them
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Serves 4

For this recipe I like to use large sized octopus, the baby ones can be used if you like, but I find the larger ones have more flavor, but it's just a personal prefrance on my part. 
Clean & cut the octopus. Cut the part just below the head, the beak part, discard this piece. Cut the tenticles. I leave the tenticles whole but cut them into two pieces.

In a roasting pan lay all the octopus down, add the olive oil, white wine, bayleaves, coriander stalks, 1 onion, 4 garlic cloves, capsicum paste, salt, water, cover the pan with foil & bake at 180 degrees for 50 min.
After this time take out the pan, remove the foil & add the rest of the onions & garlic & increase the heat to 200 degrees, cook for a further 40 minutes.
You want the octopus soft & tender & full of juice.

Add the chopped coriander on top as your about to serve.
I served boiled potatoes sprinkled with coriander, with this dish & a garden salad.

 Notes

•  It may seem like a lot of liquid but a lot of it will evaporate during the cooking time.
• If the liquid evaporates too quickly add more water & some wine.
• If you dont like coriander substitute it for parsley