Oh my where do I begin with this amazing recipe. We often eat and really enjoy octopus out in tapas restaurants and abroad. So I was at the fishmongers and there were these 2 octopus and I couldn’t resist. I read if you freeze them it helps with the tenderising process so that’s what I did. When they defrosted I noticed the fishmonger hadn’t prepared them, thank god for you tube is all I can say. I watched the clip on how to prepare them about 10 times and finally went ahead and did it. It was nowhere near as hard as I thought as long as you cut above and below the eyes it is really clean. If you are going to eat the heads (we didn’t) turning them inside out after pulling out all the matter really helps to get them ultra clean. When you skin the octopus you have to be really tough and have a good grip. The head skin comes off in one piece but I snipped the extra skin between the legs so I could get as much skin off the legs as possible. The last bit was my favourite, whacking the hell out of it with a tenderiser! Was it worth it, YES! It was so tender, tasty and yummy. Keeping it so simple with just the potato, lemon and chorizo made the octopus really sing. The crispy capers finished it off perfectly.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 smallish octopus, prepared (I used you tube)
• 1 onion, peeled and cut into 6ths
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme
• 10 black peppercorns
• 400ml red wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 medium new potatoes, cooked and halved
• 4 cooking chorizo sausage, skinned and roughly chopped
• 8 Caper berries
• 1 tbsp capers
• oil for frying
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Directions

1. Tenderise the octopus legs with a meat tenderiser. In a deep saucepan add the carrots, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and red wine. Bring to the boil. Once boiling dip the legs of the octopus in it so they curl. Repeat with the 2nd set of legs and drop both of them into the liquor. If the octopus isn’t submerged top with water. Bring back to the boil then reduce to a simmer and cook with a lid on for an hour. Once cooked leave to cool in the stock while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. In a small pan add some cooking oil so it is about 2cm deep until smoking. Add in the capers in batches and remove with a slotted spoon. Drain on kitchen paper.
3. When ready to serve, heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the potatoes and the pieces of octopus and lightly brown. Next add the chorizo and cook until the fats are released. Sauté together for two to three minutes, then add the lemon segments and parsley. Give everything a good mix and allow to get to know each other for a few minutes, then plate up, seasoning with salt and pepper and garnishing with the crispy capers.