The Results - Arroz Con Pulpo (Octopus Paella)

First of all I feel like I need to apologize for the delay in posting the results to this recipe. I had cooked it for mothers day and planned to do all the post-cooking posting on Monday night.....but....I became an auntie! My sister-in-law got a very nice late mothers day present and I now have a tiny little niece call Sasha Belle. She's cute and at only a couple days old already taking up a whole heap of my time. So please forgive me, but if you want to blame someone, blame 4 day old Sasha! hehehe

So onto the results. I'm pleased to say that it turned out ok. I was really worried about it and thought that I would do a poor job. The rice was nice and fluffy, yay! and the octopus was extremely tender. I highly recommend cooking octopus this way. It was so tender, so much so that it withstood refrigeration and then microwaving the next day, and it was still as tender as when it first come out of the pan.

I did find it a bit bland though. I thought it needed a bit of a kick, maybe a little chilli, or maybe some smoked paprika so it could make up for the lack of other ingredients. I must say though, the next day it tasted a thousand times better. The flavours seemed to develop and become a bit more pronounced and in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

So here are some photos.....

All the ingredients in to be cooked down for the sofrito

***

I'm so glad that I choose to cook the chicken to make the sofrito, it made it so extremely tasty. I had a little left over so on the next night I cooked some pasta and tossed the remaning sofrito into the pasta with a little olive oil. Gosh it was delicious. I will cook it again just to make this pasta dish.

Octopus cooking

***

The stock that the octopus made turned such a brilliant pink colour, almost violet. Once the rice was cooked in the stock, it turned it a pale grapefruit colour. Very pleasing to the eye.

Sofrito in the pan

***

Rice added and tossed to cook individual rice grains with sofrito

***

Followed by the stock

***

A few minutes later the rice has fluffed up and the octopus slices are arranged around the pan

***

Lastly, the parsely and paprika is scattered around the pan and its almost ready to be served

***

There is one thing that I got completly wrong though. My socorat (crust) turned out more burnt than crusty. But if I had taken the rice off the heat any sooner it would have been undercooked and possibly unplesant. Luckily the burnt socorat did not ruin the taste of the paella. 

Burnt socorat

***

I may not cooked this dish again, but I will deffinately cook my octopus in this way in the future. Everyone should try it, it will completely change your mind on what tender octopus is.

Arroz Con Pulpo (Octopus Paella)

Restaurant: MoVida (Victoria)

Recipe from Chef Frank Camorra

2009 Rating: Number 63, 1 Star

Its been a while since I've cooked something from the top 100 list, so I thought I should really stop being slack and cook something delicious. Earlier this week, while having a relaxed morning tea and doing some light reading, I came across a MoVida recipe in Melbourne Living Magazine. It was one of the recipes from the MoVida book, which I've been meaning to get my hands on. I quickly photocopied the precious page and have decided that this will be the dish I will cook for mothers day.

So here's the recipe

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

1 kg octopus tentacles (about 2 or 3 tentacles), frozen, thawed and drained (see note)

60mL olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

250g sofrito

400g Calasparra rice (see note)

1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon Spanish sweet paprika

sea salt flakes to sprinkle

METHOD

1. To cook the octopus, bring a large saucepan of unsalted water to the boil. Meanwhile, rinse octopus under sold running water. When the water is rapidly boiling, plunge the octopus in for 15 seconds then remove. Allow the water to boil again then repeat the process four times, allowing the water to reach the boil again between each plunge. After the last plunge reduce the heat and leave octopus on a very low, slow simmer for 30-40 minutes. The octopus should be tender and the outside pink layer still intact. Carefully remove the octopus from the water, allow to cool, drain and cut into 1cm slices.

2. Reserve approximately 1 litre of the octopus stock over low heat, as it will be used to make the paella.

3. Heat the olive oil in a 34cm paella pan or large, deep, heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic for 30 seconds then add the sofrito and cook for a further minutes. Reduce the heat to low-medium.

4. Add the rice and mix to coat the rice with the sauce, cook for 2 minutes, or until the rice just starts to become translucent.

5. Gradually stir in the reserved octopus stock and increase the heat to medium. From this point onwards, do not stir the paella, as the socorat (crust) needs to form on the bottom of the pan. If the Flame or element doesn't cover the base of the pan, move the pan around during cooking to allow the paella to cook evenly

6. Cook for 10 minutes or until the rice has swollen just a little. Reduce the heat to low - medium and arrange the octopus slices around the top of the paella. Sprinkle with parsley and paprika.

7. Cook for a further 10 minutes the increase the heat to high for 1 minute to form a crust on the bottom of the pan.

8. Remove from the heat, cover with a clean tea towel and allow to rest. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and serve warm.

Note. During freezing, the ice crystals break apart the cell walls and this makes the octopus more tender. Calasparra rice is grown in the village of the same name in the Murcia region of Spain. The plump, round grain absorbs three times its quantity in liquid, but it is not creamy so the grains remain firm.

After I read over the recipe I realised that there was no recipe included for the sofrito. I'm sure that there would be a recipe in the book, but not right here in front of me now. So I did a bit of scouring around. I wanted to remain as close to a MoVida creation as possible so I found another recipe on Gourmet Traveller by Frank himself. Oh good old Gourmet Traveller.

SOFRITO (From Movida recipe for Rice with chicken and runner beans (Arroz de perol) which appeared on the Gourmet Traveller website

Cooking Time

Prep time 15 mins,

cook 45 mins

INGREDIENTS

1.6 kg chicken or rabbit, cut into 12 pieces

80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

1½ onions, finely chopped

1 red capsicum, finely chopped

1 green capsicum, finely chopped

5 tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped

METHOD

1. Thoroughly season chicken or rabbit pieces with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in a perol (see note) or large heavy-based casserole, add chicken pieces and brown for 4 minutes on each side, then remove and cover with foil. Add onion to perol and cook for 10 minutes or until soft but not coloured, then add capsicum and cook for 10 minutes or until soft. Add tomato and cook for another 15 minutes. (This is called sofrito; cooking it slowly and gently for a long time intensifies the flavour and is the key to all good Spanish rice dishes.)

NOTE: A perol is a traditional Spanish pan with deep sides and rounded edges, available from Spanish delicatessens and specialist cookware stores.

Fingers crossed everything turns out well and hopefully mum will love it, stay tuned for the Results!

MoVida

Dining Date: November 2008

2009 Rating: 63th

2009 Star rating: 1

Chef: Frank Camorra

Location: 1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Website: www.movida.com.au

Being a Melbourne local is a little bit spoiling when it comes to good food. We have ample options to pick from, not only in number, but also in diversity. MoVida has been a corner stone of great Spanish cooking for some time, and once I had read their entry in Gourmet Traveller, I just HAD to eat there.

I had heard that getting a table at MoVida was a little bit difficult, so when I called to make a reservation I was expecting some advance planning. Even with having this piece of information, I was still surprised to learn that the earliest I could get a table was 8 weeks from my first call. Of course, I did not hesitate, if I procrastinated about it I probably would have had to wait a whole month longer, and I was already hungry!!

Having this very long build up could have resulted in two outcomes, I could build such hype and anticipation around it that I would be deeply disappointed at the end or all my expectations would be fulfilled. I am glad to report the latter scenario was true.

Image from MoVida website

Daz and I got ourselves ready for the night. From time to time we like to make ourselves look presentable, not always the norm, but I was very glad we did in the end. Even though the atmosphere at MoVida is very laid back and informal, on this particular night it was Derby day. And it being spring carnival in Melbourne, there were scary high heels and feather fascinators everywhere! It was an added bonus though, it was highly entertaining to see all the pretty ladies in beautiful dresses, walking down the street very drunk and shoeless. Sorry, I correct myself they did have shoes, they were just not on their feet. Classy.

Anyway, back to MoVida. We were seated at a table towards the middle next to a wall, with a view of the bar and obscured view of the kitchen. As soon as I sat down I noticed something horribly wrong. My chair was wonky!! This must have been the most unlevel chair in all of Melbourne. I begun to stress and worry, how could I enjoy my meal if I was going to be sea sick. With much complain and whining Daz finally convinced me to say something to the waiter. It was only at the very second I had mentioned the problem to the waiter did I realize that the floor was a brick paved surface, and a slight shuffle to the left completely fixed the problem. Can anyone say drama queen?? We ordered some drinks and the embarrassment was behind us.

We ordered Sangria to have with our meal, it came in a lovely ceramic jug. It was spicy and sweet without being too overpowering. A great way to wash down the tapas dishes. Unfortunately we didn’t take photos of all the dishes we had. But I do have a list of the ones we tried.

Tapas:
Croqueta - Fried silky croquette flavoured with leek and mahon cheese
Pimiento de piquillo con ajoarriero - Piquillo pepper filled with salt cod and potato
Vieira, jamon y espuma - Half shell scallop oven baked with jamon and potato foam
Costilla con sobrasada - Roasted lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork & paprika pate
Cigarillo - Baby leek wrapped in Brik pastry served with a chicken liver parfait
San Jacobo de Cordonice - Hunter Valley quail, partial boned, crumbed, and filled with jamon and mahon cheese

Racion:

Cecina - Air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg
Mejillones en gazpachuelo - Mussels steamed and served in a warmwhite gazpacho sauce

Dessert:
Flan con pestinos - Creme caramel served with spiced sherry pastries
Ganache caliente con turron - Hot chocolate ganache pudding with vanilla bean ice-cream and nougat

I'll only talk about two of the dishes, as they were all sublime and there would not be enough words to discribe them all with justice.

The cigarillo was a great tapas dish. When they say baby leek, this was a real BABY leek. It was tiny, it must have only just sprouted out of the ground before they harvested it for this dish, and thank goodness they did! Wrapped in the crispy pastry it was wonderful to dip into the rich parfait. My mouth is watering just remembering the taste. Before having this dish, Daz was not a real fan of anything with liver in it, not to say the least anything pate like. Since that experience I can safely say he will eat anything that is pate-esque. It amazing to see an event or in the case and taste experience that can change someone’s opinion so dramatically. We loved this dish so much we had to order another before our dessert came out!

Air cured waygu with a truffle foam and poached egg

***

For a racion dish, Daz ordered the air cured waygu. I'm not the biggest fan of waygu. I can understand why some people are and I do agree that it is a unique flavour, but I'm not MAD for it. Daz on the other hand is a crazy fanatic. The whole reason he ordered it was because 1. it had waygu in it, and secondly because it had truffles in it. There's only one thing that beats waygu and that’s truffles, but that’s a whole other story. But boy was I glad he ordered it.

The waygu was thinly sliced almost like a prosciutto, but 1000 times more tasty. The egg was slightly cooked, so that once you burst it the creamy filling of the egg poured all over the meat. Once you picked up a slice of the meat you could drench it in a healthy covering of egg and a dollop of foam. The warm egg and oily meat worked wonders together. I almost find it impossible to describe. Other than to tell you to make a booking now and save your stomach over the next two months for this delight.

Front door of MoVida on Hosier Lane

***

On the way out of MoVida, I thought it would be a good idea to take a photo of the outside. That’s when I noticed the mural of the 'pimping cat'. If you look at the cat closely, he's wearing a red top hat, has a walking stick and a very long colourful coat on. I must say, he looks ultra cool and I can't help to wonder if his "girls" are just around the corner.