Monday 28 November 2011

Polvo à Lagareiro - Homemade

Polvo à Lagareiro(roasted octopus) it's a traditional portuguese recipe, it's easy to make and fast preparation. Below is my latest attempt and I must say it was quite tasteful.
You can get frozen octopus in almost all supermarkets, but sometimes they inject so much water in it that shrinks a lot when cooked, this time I tried "Pingo Doce" supermarket and I was very please with the size and flavour.


Ingredients:
- For 3 meals, ~15 Euros
- 1 red pepper(the vegetable, not the spice)
- Garlic
- 1 Kg frozen octopus
- Small potatoes(the dark red ones for roasting)
- Olive oil
- Spices: black pepper(pt: pimenta preta), salt, bay leaf(pt: louro).

Preparation:
Pre heat the oven to ~200º C.
Defrost the octopus in hot water.
Cover the bottom of a large oven tray with olive oil and put 2 bay leafs, the smashed garlics, the octopus(cut the legs from the head), the potatoes and the sliced red pepper, spray with salt and black pepper.
Put in the oven for ~1 Hour, around 30 minutes check to see if the octopus released too much water, if so, remove almost all and put a bit more olive oil.
Poke the octopus and the potatoes with a fork to see if they are tender, serve with Broa(a traditional portuguese corn bread) and voilá! Bon apetit!

The wine:
You can go with the white or red wine, try the "Encosta de Pias" red for ~2 Euros, it's a simple wine with a good quality/price ratio. If you prefer the white wine go for the "Loios" for ~3 Euros.




1 comment:

  1. To cook octopus could be kinda tricky, since it tends to get too rigid if you don`t be careful. That`s why I always go for the frozen product and it always ends up to be tender and yummy

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