Octopus and Potato Salad in Pressure Cooker

By zircon50

Ingredients

• 1 Octopus of about 2 lbs.
• 2 lbs. of Potatoes (about 6 medium)
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley vinegar olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 Tbsp of pepper

Details

Servings 1
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 55mins
Adapted from hippressurecooking.com

Preparation

Step 1

TO CLEAN THE OCTOPUS:
Remove the head, slit it in half and turn it inside out to empty it's contents and the little attached things including the eyes (see illustration, below). Then, remove the beak in the center where all of the tentacles meet. Rinse the cleaned octopus under running water.

TO BOIL THE POTATOES:
In the meantime, cook the potatoes. Wash and scrub the potatoes well and place them whole, un-peeled, in the pressure cooker. Add enough water to just cover the potatoes in half, a pinch of salt and close and lock the top.

Set the flame to high and wait for the pan to begin whistling. Then, lower the flame to medium-low and count 15 minutes. When the time is up, release all of the vapor, remove the potatoes with tongs (reserve the cooking water), and peel them while they are as hot as you can handle. I use tongs and a fork to get started - they are so easy to peel when they are still steaming hot!

TO COOK THE OCTOPUS:
Add more water in the pressure cooker (enough to almost cover the octopus), garlic clove, Bay leaf, the whole pepper, another pinch of salt and bring to a boil before adding the octopus.

Lower the octopus in the pressure cooker tentacles- first. If you will be serving the tentacles whole, and you want to curl them, dip the tips of the tentacles and pull out, then dip a little more and pull out, and a little more again and pull out until the whole length of the tentacle is curled. Then drop the whole octopus in the pressure cooker.

Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker. Turn the heat up to high and when the cooker reaches pressure, lower to the heat to the minimum required by the cooker to maintain pressure. Cook for 15-20 minutes at high pressure (depending on the size of the octopus).

When time is up, open the cooker by releasing the pressure.
Check the octopus for tenderness by seeing if a fork will sink easily in the thickest part flesh. If not, close the lid and bring it and bring to pressure for another minute or two.
Remove and Strain the octopus (save the cooking water and use as broth makingRisotto ai Frutti di Mare!).

Optionally, you can remove the skin by dragging the back of a knife on the flesh - only remove the skin from the suction-cup side if you also want to remove the suction cups. Chop the head and tentacles into small bite-sized chunks.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
While the octopus is cooking, prepare the vinaigrette by putting the following in a small jar or plastic container: ½ cup of good olive oil, 4-5 Tbsp. of white wine vinegar, two crushed garlic cloves, salt and ground pepper to taste. Close the lid and shake, shake, shake to blend.

Dice the potatoes in pieces roughly the same size as the octopus chunks, unite them with the octopus, cover in the vinaigrette and sprinkle with the whole bunch of chopped parsley.

Chill before serving - it's even better the next day so cover tightly!

INSTRUCTIONS