Thread: Bleedin Thumbs Octopus for Dummies recipe

OK, Occy, what's the easiest way to clean the mongrels. We get heaps in our craypots and mostly they get used for bait but I like a good feed of Occy so what the best way to clean the slippery sods??

We used to nail the head to a fence post and then pull the skin off the tentacles with a pair of pliers.

Cut up the tentacles into 10mm thick slices.
Beat the slices with a meat hammer.
Cook as required.

To clean them make the first cut lengthways through the head and tentacle - this exposes the guts -all in the head and the beak just before the tentacles.

I know this is not the correct way to do it ...but it works for me and is simple.
Octopus is fairly easy and doesn't require skinning...cuttlefish and squid are a bit more tedious. Great food though and cheap as chips.

You can buy Octopus at coles for less than $10 a kg - there isn't many sources of protein that cheap.

BTW you don't have to tenderise baby Occy that you buy frozen..don't know about the stuff you catch yourself, I suspect it will depend on size.

Mate. I really want to eat these bloody occys because the mongrels have just done that to MY CRAYS!!!!
Vengeance is mine!!!!

Octopus is a bit hard to get over here and quite dear. Should work well with squid though? Not sure about the star anise.

Bob,

Star anise is a star shaped seed pod that gives an aniseed flavour - you take the seed pod out before you eat it, you will get it from any Asian/Chinese grocery supplies. You could substitute aniseed, fennel, tarragon all have similar flavour.

If you substituted squid you might find it a bit chewy because it only takes a few minutes to cook. You could just keep checking it as it simmers to tell when the meat is tender then serve...I would guess 3-5 minutes max..maybe not enough for the flavours to combine

I buy my occy at the local supermarket -Coles but you can get it unfrozen from your local fish monger - they just get the frozen stuff from Vietnam or Thailand and charge you extra to defrost it and have it sitting in their shop window for a day or so..


Christopha, how big are the oocys that you get in your pot?

If they're too big let me know and I will send you some small ones as a swap for some crays

The Occys here grow quite large because the buggers are full of cray! Some bloke in WA invented a fancy trap for Occy but they don't work here at all because our "slugs" are so much bigger than Sandgroping "slugs"..... Deliver the little baby occys and we will have a nice feed of Cray!

I notice that the fish markets tenderize the large Occy's by putting them in a electric concrete mixer and let then tumble away for God knows how long.

All this take of octopus reminds me of when I lived in Greece for a short time, picking fruit ..the money wasn't great but one days pay paid for accommodation + all the Amstel you could drink and when you got hungry you ordered Ouzo which came with a small complementary plate of octopus. and when the money got really tight you could buy a bottle of Retsina...........yuk

I had a char grilled lime chilli octopus at a place in Brisbane once that was sublime. Might just put them on the shopping list and hope she gets em