Pulpo “a feira”, better known like Galician octopus, is a typical dish from Galicia, the coastal region in the Spanish northwest. It is a plain and little prepared dish, but very flavourful. It is however not so easy to prepare, because it is very important that the meat of the octopus softens before using it. The typical thing to do in Galicia is to serve it in slices on individual wooden plates..

Ingredients

A 750 g. octopus.
1 spoonful of paprika
Olive oil
1 spoonful of red pepper
Salt
Several drops of lemon juice

Preparation

Wash the octopus, of which only the legs will be used. The octopus usually has very hard meat, and this is the reason why it is necessary to soften it, by giving it blows with a wood mallet or freezing it and then defrosting it. In order to soften it is also possible to boil it a big pot of water with some lemon drops. The octopus has to be put in the water while holding it with clamps, and has to be removed and put back in the water several times. After repeating this a few times, the octopus is left cooking in the water until we notice it is more tender (approximately 45 minutes). When the boiling finishes, the octopus is taken out of the water and cut into slices, which subsequently are seasoned with salt and paprika and later sprinkled with the crude olive oil. It needs to be served while hot.