Day 47: Octopus with Roasted Potatoes, Tomatoes and Herbs; Htapodi me patates, domates kai myrodika, May 4, 2013

We had so much fun making octopus the other day, and we thought it was quite successful, we wanted to do it again, but a little differently this time.  When we are looking for new ideas of what to do with a dish, we usually start reading some of the classic cookbooks.  Today's recipe for Octopus with Potatoes is from a classic cook -- Vefa Alexiadou and the book Vefa's Kitchen.  Vefa has taught us several things over the years, and since a wonderful Koumbara from my home town gave us this book when we baptised her son, we are thrilled to use it in her honour.  We enjoy reading Vefa's instructions and are fascinated at some of the combinations of food that she uses.

Baked octopus is something we have not heard of before reading this recipe.  We have heard of boiled, grilled, broiled, fried, stewed, braised, but not baked.  How can you bake octopus -- wouldn't it get too dry and chewy?  Well, that's what we thought originally, but boy, were we wrong!  Surprisingly, baking the octopus really worked!  So, what is the secret?  Well, we will give you our version of the recipe and you decide how it works.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

1 octopus, cleaned (see instructions from a previous post)
4 pounds (about 2kg) potatoes
3/4 cup oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 TBSP dry oregano (we always use Greek oregano as it is very full flavoured)
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice, as needed
water, as needed

We will start with the easy step... preheat the oven to 350° F (about 175º C).  You want to turn it on so it is fully at temperature when you put the octopus in there.  That way, the octopus does not have the chance to get spongy.  And truthfully, preparing everything before the dish goes in the oven will not take you more than 15 or 20 minutes.  That is just enough time for the oven to fully heat.

You can peel the potatoes if you like, but you do not need to. Just make sure that they are scrubbed well.  Cut the potatoes into wedges.  Put the potatoes in a dry baking dish or dry roasting pan.  Do not put oil or anything in the pan, that will come later.  Just a clean dry pan or dish and the potatoes.

Next, cut the octopus into large one or two bite sized pieces.  We used kitchen shears to cut the raw octopus.  It was very easy to use the shears to get in between the legs and through the thicker body.  You can use a knife, but the scissors are easier.  Cut the pieces of octopus and lay them on top of the potatoes in the baking dish or roasting pan.  Once again, do not add anything else to the roasting pan -- it should have only potatoes and octopus at this point.

Now, set this aside for a few minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.

Peel the garlic and slice it into thin slices.  You have the option to chop it, but you want the garlic to stand up to the cooking process without becoming unidentifiable mush in the pan.  Thin slices will look nice and impart enough flavour of garlic to hold up to the potatoes.

Cut the tomatoes, too.  Cut them into a small dice.  We believe that you could use canned tomatoes -- about 1 cup with the juice, but if you have fresh tomatoes, they are lighter than canned, and sometimes more flavourful.

Now, heat the oil in a frying pan or sauce pan.  It seems like a lot of oil, but it is going to work in this recipe more than just frying the garlic and tomato.  It will get poured into the baking dish, so do not skimp on the amount of oil.

Heat the oil and add the garlic.  Cook the garlic until it is just fragrant.  This will take about 3 minutes.  Then, add the tomatoes and the oregano.

Cook the garlic and tomatoes until the tomatoes start to break down and become soft. They change colour a little bit, and look like they are turning mushy.  If you look closely at the photo below (5th one), it appears as if we have more liquid in the pan than the amount with which we started.  That increase in liquid is the tomatoes cooking and breaking down, which is how you know that this mixture has cooked long enough.  Remove the pan from the heat.

Sprinkle salt and pepper and lemon juice on the octopus and potatoes in the baking pan.  Then, carefully spoon the tomato/garlic mixture over the octopus.  Cover as much of the surface as you can.  We say to do this carefully because the tomatoes and garlic are still hot, and the oil is hot.

Cover as much of the octopus/potato as you can with the tomato/garlic mixture.

Pour water into the pan to create enough liquid so the potatoes do not dry out.  The amount of water should come up to half the height of the side of the baking dish (see the bottom photo).  If you have a deep baking dish, then bring the water level up to barely touch the top of the potato layer.  You can add more water  if you need to while the pan is in the oven.

Then, put the baking pan in the oven and let this cook for 2 hours.  That sounds like a long time, but it is reasonable for this dish.  You are slow roasting the potatoes and the octopus, and to slow roast means that it takes a long time.  Our dish cooked in 1 hour 47 minutes.  That was the point when we could put a fork through the octopus without applying too much pressure, and the potatoes were soft and velvety without being mushy.  The top of the dish turned a brownish hue and looked like it was done.

Take the baking dish out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.  Then, serve each person with a slice of lemon, or a sprinkling of lemon juice to really enhance all the flavours in this dish.

This was a nice dish to serve at the table. Each piece of octopus and scoop of potatoes was enough to serve four people as a main course.  That seemed reasonable.  We served it with a salad, some peas, and some crusty bread to pick up all the lemony, tomato-ey juice from the octopus and potatoes.  These were all flavours and textures that "just worked together" and made a really nice dinner.  We still believe that making octopus is impressive for company, but we are finding that it is not as much work as we once thought!  Hopefully, you will find that to be true, too!

This dish contains the small amount of food left over after four of us ate a very hearty amount. Even the next day, the potatoes, sauce and octopus were a lovely Lenten dish that we accompanied with a squeeze of lemon and some wild greens.

The following two outstanding videos highlight the beauty of Holy Friday's Hymns. The first is by the outstanding Fr. Nikodimos Καβαρνό (Kavarnos) and the second is performed by musicians led by the arranger/conductor/composer Stamatis Spanoudakis and chanted by thousands of the audience in attendance. For additional videos chanted by Fr. Kavarnos, please visit his YouTube channel. 

Αι Γενεαί Πασαι - Ω Γλυκύ μου έαρ - εγκώμια της Παναγίας

Αι Γενεαί Πάσαι - Ω Γλυκή Μου Έαρ... απο τον π. Νικόδημος Καβαρνό 

egkwmia Panagias eggomia

I.N. Μεταμορφώσεως Μοσχατου 2005 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8OwQxKEtw

My sweet Lord (O Gliki mou Ear ) Live Peania 1994
Clarinet: Vassilis Saleas
Violin: Lefteris Zervas
Religious. Arrangement: Stamatis Spanoudakis
by Stam Studio
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U8e04LLvLg