GreekFoodTv☼ Octopus

Greeks love octopus, one of the classic meze dishes and main course stews. Learn to clean and handle this unusual seafood by watching Diane's video. Octopus is delicious with extra virgin olive oil. Grilled, it's the best-known meze. Stewed or braised it pairs beautifully with tomatoes, garlic, oranges, and herbs. Drink an ouzo or a glass of Greek red wine with it. Greek fishermen, to tenderize the chewy, leathery flesh of an octopus, they thrash it 40 times against the rocks. There are definitely more efficient ways to catch and tenderize an octopus. Today, in commercial fisheries, they use washing-machine like mechanisms, or they freeze them, which breaks down the cell structure in the octopus' mussels and makes the flesh quite tender indeed. Octopus dipped in ouzo is a Greek-island meze in its own right, and octopus stewed with anise-flavored fennel—the same basic duet of flavors--is a local much-loved specialty in Crete and the southern Peloponnese. Cooking: The octopus needs not water, just a good heavy pot with lid and a very low flame. Cook it slowly until its own purple juice fills the pot and its flesh is about halfway cooked, then proceed with the recipe on hand. Anyway, we Greeks "own" the octopus to the outside world, just as the Italians have taken possession of the tomato, at least in the minds of most Americans. Of all the fish and seafood specialties of Greece—and there are many—none is more characteristic than octopus. Octopus is one of the favorite ...