Sautéed octopus with garlic mushrooms

First the octopus is prepared. I buy it fresh, clean it and freeze it for at least 48h. After defrosting, I cook it with an onion for 20-40min depending on the size (important to scare/scald the octopus 3 times before cooking to break the fibers, as we Galicians do).

While the octopus is cooking, we can prepare the garlic and mushrooms, I usually buy shiitake and some other type to have variety. They are washed and dried well, and cut into strips or to taste.

When the octopus is ready, we can start cutting it into small pieces (it is easier to do it with scissors) and while we brown the garlic in a frying pan.

When the garlic is well browned, remove it and add (with little oil and very hot) the mushrooms. We do them well until they are to taste, sometimes they release water and it is necessary to remove this water so that they are not cooked, but almost grilled.

When the mushrooms are almost ready, we can add the chopped octopus, the golden garlic and one or two cayenne and hot paprika (depending on the amount of spice you like, the paprika can be replaced by sweet paprika, but I recommend adding at least one cayenne to give it a special flavor). Add a little EVOO and let the flavors mix well for two minutes.

We look for the cayenne peppers and remove them so as not to have a surprise during the meal.

Serve the octopus with mushrooms. If you like a mixture of flavors, I recommend preparing mashed potatoes with truffle oil.

For the potatoes I reuse the water from the cooked octopus (as for the Galician octopus potatoes). Once cooked, I add a little butter and truffle oil to taste, and mix well with the blender. I like it to be eaten with a spoon, like a cream, but this can be done to taste with more/less butter or oil.

I hope you like the recipe! 😍