Htapodi Me Makaronaki Kofto Stewed Octopus With Macaroni Recipes

HTAPODI ME MAKARONAKI KOFTO (STEWED OCTOPUS WITH MACARONI)

Steps:

• Rinse the octopus under cold, running water and place in pot dripping wet (you don't want to dry it off - this is the moisture it will cook in).
• Add the red wine, garlic, onion, bay leaf and cinnamon and cover the pot.
• Bring to the boil over low heat.
• It is tender when pierced easily with a fork (this can vary from octopus to octopus, so time is not a good indicator of doneness in this case).
• Remove the octopus and let cool until cool enough to handle and cut into bite-size pieces.
• Meanwhile, in pot you have cooked the octopus in, add tomatoes and olive oil. Boil for 8-10 minutes to bind the sauce.
• Stir in the cut octopus and nearly-cooked macaroni and simmer for the remaining 3-4 minutes required to cook your macaroni (if mixture appears too dry, add some of the pasta cooking water - you want this quite 'moist' but not soupy).
• Stir in butter. Remove bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
• Note: I use digitali pasta for this, but I can't get it into the ingredient list with the new Zaar format.
• Bon Appetit.

OCTOPUS IN RANCHERO SAUCE

Steps:

• First roast 2 medium onion and 2 heads garlic in the oven (at 425 for 20 minutes or so until they start to caramelize). Alternately you can pan roast them in a cast iron skillet.
• In a large pot place roasted onion and garlic, octopus, 2 bunches parsley & cilantro, peppercorns, 4 serrano chiles (whole), 16 cups water and beer.
• Boil for 1 1/2 to two hours.
• Remove from heat and let the octopus cool in the liquid while you start the ranchero sauce.
• Bring 6 cups of water to boil with 16 plum tomatoes, 14 serranos, 1 1/2 sliced tomatoes and 6 cloves of garlic and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Strain out the solids (saving the Ranchero broth), puree the solids in a blender or Cuisinart with 1 1/2 cups or the retained broth.
• Now, heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a tall thick pot and add 6 cloves of garlic. Simmer the garlic until it turns golden, remove them with a slotted spoon and carefully pour in the Ranchero sauce. This will cause splattering so I strongly encourage long sleeves. Stir like mad for the first few minutes until it's a gentle simmer. Cook for 30 minutes.
• Now strain the liquid from the simmered octopus and in a separate pan cook down to 3 cups. This should take about 30 minutes. Meanwhile separate the octopus from the veggies and toss the veggies.
• While the ranchero sauce and octopus are simmering down take the final 6 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup of cilantro and salt and either in a pestle or a blender puree into a smooth paste.
• Add the paste, octopus and reduced octopus stock to the ranchero sauce and cook for a final 20 minutes.
• I sometimes split this recipe over two days (make the octopus one night and the ranchero the next).