Octopus a la Plancha ★★★★

Using a recipe from the Toro Bravo Cookbook (which is one of our favorite restaurants in Portland).

Octopus a la Plancha is essentially roasted potato rounds, layered with garlic aioli, seared octopus, and piperade (a basque dish of tomatoes, peppers, and onions).

The trickiest part of making this was finding octopus, but I was eventually able to find some locally. Since I was a newbie to cooking octopus, I wasn’t sure if the fishmonger was selling it fresh or pre-poached. Turns out it was already poached, which made prep a lot easier!

While researching this, I discovered that it’s actually recommended to buy octopus frozen, as the freezing and thawing process tenderizes the meat. Good to know!

The dish was excellent, but the only thing I’d do differently is try to get a better char on the octopus.

The Toro Bravo piperade recipe yields a LOT, so I enjoyed the leftovers in the days following, which I’ll save for another post.