Pickled Octopus Recipe from scratch, okay this was my first time Pickling Octopus. Disclaimer I’m not a professional pickler but I love experimenting with my catch and I've pickled a few things before such as garlic cloves and flower buds.
Taste 8.5/10
2 hours prep and cook then 14 days of burping
As always sorry guys I dont really measure this stuff out I just kind of eye it in, but here are the rough measurements used: You can use those as a rough guide but ultimately its upto you and your taste buds for what you enjoy most . Just remember you can always add more of ingredients to suit but it can be very hard for lots of things to remove once they've been put inside.
Pickled Octopus Ingredients
Fresh Octopus - Common Sydney
Salt
Whole Peppercorns
White Vinegar
White Wine
Garlic Cloves
Bay Leaves
Chilli
Items Needed
A Sharp Knife
2x Pots
Glass Jars with Lids
Water
The Process
Clean the Octopus and removed as much skin as possible. Then massage plenty of salt into the octopus, let it sit for 10 mins before rinsing it.
Next I place the cleaned whole Octopus in a pot pot, next I chuck in 250ml of Chardonnay (usually use a Sauv Blanc but didn’t have any at home so use which ever white wine you have available) then I threw in some whole parsley and peppercorns. I then just added water until the Octopus was just covered. Now apply some heat and bring this pot of goodness to a boil and then reduce to a slight simmer with lid on and keep going until tender (depending on the size and age of your Octopus this could take an hour or so. I know this is vague but this completely depends on the size of the octopus and if you had already tenderised it or not (I do the "Greek method" and I throw mine against a salty rock about 20 times).
Simmering between 45-60 mins is good for this Occy.
Whilst the octopus is simmering away, you can make up the pickling mix. I start by adding add about 500ml of white wine vinegar with 500ml of water bring this to the boil and then take it off the heat.
Once the octopus is perfectly tender remove it from the saucepan and let it cool, no need to drop into ice or anything I think the natural cooling is better for the texture and taste.
Sterilising the Jars
You can sterilised jars simply by cleaning them thoroughly and then adding freshly boiled water to them and emptying, the boiled water will kill the last remaining bacteria.
Cut the octopus up into inch long piece leaving the thin tentacle ends a little longer. Then add the octopus pieces to some sterilised jars.
Add peppercorns, bay leaves, dried chilli and peeled garlic cloves into the jars for flavour. Then fill the rest up with the pickling mix to near full, pop the lid on and store in a dark cool place for at least 12 hours!
I ended up with 3 jars so I’ve played around with the amounts of additional ingredients 1 has more chilli 1 has more garlic and 1 has more peppercorn each has a bay leaf in the jar. Get creative.
Any pickling tips you’d like to share?
#wetmammalrecipe #pickledoctopus #picklingoctopus #preservedfoods #preservedoctopus #occymeal #octopusrecipe #pickling #seafoodrecipe
