How to cook octopus carpaccio

Ingredients for two portion starter:

• Octopuses, 1 kg
• Ingredient for octopus cooking:
  • Carrot, one average carrot.
  • Celery, 3-4 stalks
  • Onion, 1 average fruit
  • Spices for octopus cooking:
    • Red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp
    • Juniper berries, 6
    • Black pepper, ½ tsp.
    • Bay leaves, 4 leaves
    • Salt to taste
• Ingredients for serving:
  • Garlic, 1 clove
  • Parsley, small bunch
  • Olive oil, 1 tbsp
  • Lemon juice, 1 tbsp
  • Salt and pepper in the mills

Clean octopuses. Remove head content, remove eyes, remove beak ans wash carefully.

Bring water to boil and add all ingredients for octopus cooking, salt to taste.

Carefully add octopuses to boiling water. Ideally, it is necessary to deep each octopus few times into a boiling water, to properly curl tentacles. Simmer octopuses for about 1-1½ hours to make them almost jellied.

Carefully remove octopuses from the boiling water and slightly chill them down.

Cut head into two pieces and separate tentacles from each other.

Now it is necessary to press out all excessive liquid from octopuses and keep them under pressure overnight in the fridge. If you do not have proper press for this, it is possible to do it form simple plastic bottle. Cut top of the bottle. Make holes in the bottom of the bottle. Fill it with octopus pieces and press them firmly, do remember, that the juice will drips from the bottom, use some plate or tray to collect it and carefully throw it out. Slice wall of the bottle, like flower petals up to a level of the octopus meat. Close the bottle petals and tightly wrap into cling film. Keep this pressed octopus meat in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or a bit longer.

Before serving, prepare all sauces. Mix olive oil and lemon juice and blend them carefully. Finely chop garlic clove and mix it with chopped parsley leaves.

Chill down plate in the fridge for serving. Remove the octopus meat from the press-form, or plastic bottle and slice it very thinly.

Serve slices on the chilled plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, parsley with garlic and lemon juice with olive oil.

Octopus carpaccio is ready!