All-Fish-Seafood-Recipes.com

Serves/Makes: 4

Ingredients:

Pastry

• 2 eggs
• 7 tablespoons (100 ml) olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon melted pork fat or lard
• 7 tablespoons (100 ml) milk
• 12 ounces (320 g) flour

How to cook Galician Octopus Pie:

• Mix together in a large bowl the eggs, salt, milk, olive oil and melted pork fat or lard.
• Add the flour, little by little, so as to form a soft dough (masa blanda).
• You will know when it is right because the dough will no longer stick to your fingers, although it will still be quite moist.
• Knead the dough very little. Let it rest, rolled out, while you cook the octopus and prepare the rest of the pie filling (see below).

Making and baking the pie:

• Divide the pastry dough into two.
• Take a wide and shallow baking tin, e.g. a round one of 11-12 inches (about 30 cm) diameter or a rectangular one 9 X13 inches (14 x 32 cm). Roll out half the dough so that it will cover the bottom of the chosen tin.
• Lightly oil the tin. Cover the bottom of it with the pastry dough, so that the dough comes up the sides and overlaps the edges.
• Spread the filling over this. Roll out the rest of the dough to make the top of the pie, and put this in place, rolling the edges over and crimping them to make a tight seal all the way round.
• Cook the pie in a moderate oven 350°F/180°C (gas 4) for approximately 30 minutes, until it is a light golden-brown.

Filling Ingredients:

• 2 bay leaves
• 1 pound (1/2 kg) cleaned octopus
• Salt
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 large peeled tomatoes (or 2 tomatoes and 1 tablespoon tomato puree)
• 1/2 to 1 mild red pepper, seeded and chopped

How to cook Filling:

• Have a casserole with boiling water and 2 bay leaves in it.
• Take a cleaned octopus by one end and lower it 3 or 4 times successively into the water, which must continue to boil hard, until the octopus curls.
• Once it has curled, leave it in the water to continue cooking for about half an hour.
• Towards the end of the cooking, add a little salt.
• Remove the octopus, let it cool, then cut it into small pieces.
• Meanwhile, chop onions and fry them very gently, covered, taking care that they do not brown.
• Add tomatoes and let them cook too.
• Add mild red pepper and the pieces of cooked octopus, and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes more.
• Let the mixture cool.

Note:

The Spanish name of this recipe is Empanada de Pulpo.

Comments:

This is version of a famous Galician dish, the like of which you have not met elsewhere in the world. Note that the resulting “pie” is as wide and flat and thin as a pizza.

This recipe for Galician Octopus Pie serves/makes: 4

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The Galician Octopus Pie Recipe adopted from the book North Atlantic Seafood.
Main Ingredient: Various Seafood
Preparation Method: Baked
Cuisine: Spanish