Octopus and rice

One of my all time favourite sports is spear fishing. Onece in a while I would pull out an octopus and never really knew how to cook it. Here is a simple yet effective recipe I was taught by some Portuguese fishermen.

A word of warning:
An octopus is practically a living muscle. Its internal organs are in its hood and are usually removed underwater by the fisherman, with the hood being turned inside-out to make the octopus weaker. This does not make it any less impossible to kill. I have had one of these escape my kitchen after a whole day and night of storage in the refrigerator. Use the proven technique of pounding the creature really hard on a rock on the beach or on a similar object. This also helps tenderize the meat. Either way, make sure the beast is dead.

Ingredients:

An octopus
Rice
Vegetables, eg. peas and rice (optional.)
Salt, pepper.

Procedure:

1. Boil the entire octopus in plain water for about half an hour.
2. The boiled octopus should now be soft enough to remove the skin and suckers, do so. (Note, some people eat the skin and suckers, but I don't find them very appealing.)
3. Cut the legs into 1cm pieces, and the hood into similar strips.
4. Boil in salt water. This may take around 3 hours, so a pressure cooker is really recommended to spped the process up. Boil until soft.
5. Mix the boiled octopus pieces with the rice, season to taste, add vegetables if you wish and boil for a further 20 minutes or so until the rice is ready.

Serve with a fresh garden salad and some mixed, boiled vegetables. A glass of light white wine or Portuguese green wine is an excellent addition.