Pulpo a la Campechana

The octopus simmered long and then chilled in its own liquid, because cooling it in air turns it rubbery.

Chicken, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken, lard, shellfish.

Ingredients

the octopus

• 1 kg octopus, cleaned
• 1 onion, halved
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon salt

the cocktail

• 400 ml tomato juice
• 4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• juice of 4 limes
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, deseeded and diced
• 1 cucumber, deseeded and diced
• 2 serrano chillies, finely chopped
• 1 avocado, diced
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a few drops of hot sauce

to serve

• tostadas, as on their own page
• lime wedges

Method

1. IT IS CHILLED IN ITS OWN COOKING LIQUID AND NEVER IN AIR, and that one step decides whether the dish is tender or rubbery. Octopus that has simmered for an hour is soft while it is hot, and if it is drained and left on a board to cool the muscle fibres contract as the temperature drops and it tightens into something you can bounce. Left in the pan, the liquid cools slowly and the octopus cools with it, and it stays as tender as it was. The pan goes into the fridge whole, overnight if possible, and the octopus is lifted out cold and cut.
2. IT IS SIMMERED AND NEVER BOILED, FOR AN HOUR. A hard boil tightens the outside of each tentacle while the inside is still tough. A bare simmer with the surface barely moving, fifty-five minutes to an hour for a kilo, and it is tested with the tip of a knife in the thickest part of a tentacle -- it should go in with almost no resistance.
3. IT IS CUT AFTER IT IS COLD AND NOT BEFORE. Warm octopus tears under the knife and the pieces look ragged. Properly cold it slices cleanly into neat rounds, and in a dish served in a glass where everything is visible that is worth the wait.
4. THE TOMATO BASE IS TOMATO JUICE AND KETCHUP, AND THE KETCHUP IS NOT AN APOLOGY. Four tablespoons. It brings sugar and vinegar and body that plain tomato juice does not have, and a campechana made with juice alone tastes thin and flatly savoury. Said plainly rather than dressed up as something else.
5. THE AVOCADO GOES IN LAST AND IS FOLDED, NOT STIRRED. Diced avocado stirred through a liquid dressing breaks up within a minute and turns the whole glass murky green-grey. Folded in with two or three turns of a spoon just before serving, the pieces stay whole.
6. The octopus put in a large pan with the onion, garlic, bay and 1 tablespoon salt, and covered with water.
7. Brought to the boil and then turned DOWN to a bare simmer -- the surface barely moving.
8. Simmered 55 MINUTES to 1 HOUR, uncovered.
9. TESTED with a knife tip in the thickest part of a tentacle: it should go in with almost no resistance.
10. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT AND THE OCTOPUS LEFT IN ITS LIQUID TO COOL. The whole pan then into the fridge, overnight if possible, and AT LEAST 3 hours.
11. The octopus lifted out COLD and cut into 1 cm rounds, the head sliced.
12. The tomato juice, ketchup, lime juice, salt and hot sauce whisked together in a large bowl.
13. The red onion, tomato, cucumber, chillies and coriander stirred in.
14. The cold octopus added and turned through. Chilled 30 MINUTES.
15. TASTED and corrected for lime and salt -- it should be sharp.
16. The avocado FOLDED in with 2 or 3 turns only, just before serving.
17. Spooned into glasses or bowls with tostadas and lime.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes