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Brian Kennett

Amateur Chef and Boozy Traveling Foodie Extraordinaire

Pulpo ‘w’ Smoked Paprika Lentils

ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4

Pulpo ‘w’ Smoked Paprika Lentils

So today the ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4

went up a notch as I. brought out Pulpo, or Octopus and created Pulpo ‘w’ Smoked Paprika Lentils. Octopus is a bitch to cook if you want it nice and tender. Like an hour and a half low and slow. I have no idea how they do this so well in restaurants. Perhaps it is cooked the day before or that morning and then finished off during service? I don’t know, all I do know is that it is a ball-ache, AKA labour of love as I do love making this as Wifey & #1 love it so much. So, this was their dinner tonight. I buy my Octopus from our mates at RedMart. It comes from Spain and is like 3 good-sized legs with no head, beak etc. Much easier to start.

Let’s get into it and see how ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4 turned out.

This is Pulpo ‘w’ Smoked Paprika Lentils.

ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
Here it defrosted Pulpo. As you can see it is a good size for 2 people. But it is still covered in the gooey jelly so time to get this into a boiling salt bath for a couple of minutes to start the tenderising process and to clean off any impurities.

First things first. Make sure you buy frozen octopus, or if you buy fresh then freeze it. The freezing and thawing have a reaction to the Octopus meat to tenderise it. You still need more steps to get it ready to eat but this is a great 1st step on that journey. The second step is taking the thawed Octopus leg and dropping it for 2 minutes into heavily salted boiling water. Take that out after the 2 minutes and set it aside as next up is an aromatic slow bath.

ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
And here is that aromatic ‘bath’. About 1″ of water. 1 onion cut into 1/4’s, 1 lemon cut into 1/8’s, 2 celery sticks cut into 2″ pieces, 2 Jalapenos and 8 or so bay leaves.
ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
Lay the 2-minute boiled Pulpo on top of the aromatics. Notice the colour change in the Pulpo from only 2-minutes in boiling water, very much pinker in colour now.
ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
And there you have it. I use my French cast-iron skillet pan for this cooking. Pop the lid on and in the oven she goes at 90 degrees for 90 minutes to flavour and tenderises further to the softness heaven my Wifey expects and loves.
ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
90 minutes later out comes the Pulpo and I charred it off in my SCANPAN with some butter. It will blacken up the skin and also add a lovely flavour to the charring.
ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
Shit photo apologies, but you get the picture. I then hand-torched it finally to really blacken and crisp it up. Pulpo is so much better with a char. I would have used the BBQ but had no time to get the coals a going. Slice this nice and thin and get ready for plating.
ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4
I served this with some Smoked Paprika Lentils. A cup of lentils to 3 cups of water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until all the water is gone. Mash the lentils up with a knob of butter, a good pinch or 2 of sea salt & cracked black pepper and 2 Tbsp of smoked paprika. Separately, fry off some finely chopped onion and garlic in butter and when browned stir this into the lentils mix. Squeeze in the juice of one lemon and give it a final stir and taste test. You want this nice and smoky with a zest of sour from the lemon. Plate away, amigos. I did mine on one of my new platters so it is all rustic -like.

There we go. ChillaxBBQ Stay@Home Recipes #4. Don’t complain you don’t have the ingredients at home. Plan ahead and RedMart it, that’s what I did. Mind you the next RedMart delivery slot these days seems to be in 2030 (and I don’t mean half-past eight at night), so you have some time to prep. It’s a cracking dish and a bit of a WOW for those concerned that will be eating it. Have a go at my Pulpo ‘w’ Smoked Paprika Lentils. She is a cracker, go on try it and – ENJOY!!!

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