Home RecipesAppetizers Peruvian “Pulpo al Olivo” or Octopus with Olive Sauce

Peruvian “Pulpo al Olivo” or Octopus with Olive Sauce

by Lorena

“Pulpo al olivo” or octopus with olive sauce is one of my favourite Peruvian dishes. To be honest anything is great with that sauce but specially octopus. This time I wanted to give the dish a twist and grill the octopus before plating it with the sauce.

I love octopus but I like it even more when it’s grilled or pan-fried before serving because the colour goes more intense and I like that the outside of the tentacles don’t feel so gooey.

The traditional way to serve it is just cooked in water, then cut in thin slices and served along with the sauce. But I think that by showing you this way of making it I can take the chance to teach you other techniques 🙂


Potatoes go really well with octopus in general but specially with this sauce. When I finished eating it I had a few potatoes left over and I happily ate them with the sauce hahaha.

Let’s talk for a while about octopi and the general state of out marine fauna. I beg you to not buy octopi that are smaller than 1.5kg when clean because these smaller ones won’t have had the chance to reproduce before capturing, thus decreasing the octopi population. Also this way we don’t encourage fishermen to fish small octopi.


Peruvian Octopus with Olive Sauce

4.60 from 5 votes
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Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Medium
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 4 people as an appetizer, 2 people as a main course
Author: Lorena Salinas from Cravings Journal

Ingredients

For the potatoes

  • 500 g potatoes can be regular or new potatoes
  • olive oil extra virgin
  • salt and pepper to taste

For the octopus

  • 1.5 kg clean octopus
  • vegetable oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

For the olive sauce

  • 1 egg at room temperature*
  • 1/2 tsp DIjon mustard
  • 1 garlic clove grated or puréed
  • 200-400 ml vegetable oil
  • drops of lime or lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 100 g purple Peruvian olives ("botija")
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

For the potatoes

  • Cut the potatoes into similar sizes and add enough olive oil to the potatoes so they're nicely covered and can get golden.
  • Mix them with the salt and pepper and take to a preheated oven at 180C for 30-40min or until they're really golden.

For the octopus

  • Freeze the octopus for at least 24 hours, ideally 48 so the fibers inside the tentacles break to make it more tender when cooked. If you can't do this then you need to go at the tentacles with a meat softener or a cling film-wrapped rolling pin to avoid contamination. Thaw completely before cooking.
  • Take water to a rolling boil on high heat.
  • Submerge first the tips of the tentacles and take it out, then go about halfway and finally just submerge all of it.
  • Make sure that it's completely under water. You can put a bowl on top to make sure that it stays there. Put a lid on and cook 20min per every kilo that the octopus had.
  • Take of the water and cut the tentacles off. Discard the rest of the body.

For the olive sauce

  • Blend the olives with the olive oil and reserve.
  • We'll start by making a mayonnaise. You can do it with a whisk or in a blender. Put the egg, Dijon mustard, garlic and salt in a bowl and whisk them together until homogeneous. Alternatively you can blend them together.
  • Add the vegetable oil little by little while whisking or blending.Stop adding oil when you like the texture and finish with a few drops of lime or lemon juice and the blended olives.

To serve

  • I did a base of sauce on the plate, then put the potatoes on top of it and finished with the octopus and extra sauce. I also finished the dish with a few fresh oregano leaves.

Notes

* En el video hice doble receta de la salsa porque a mi camarógrafo Mati le encanta la salsa y le mandé a su casa ?
Tried this recipe?Mention @CravingsJournal or tag #RecipeCJ!

4.60 from 5 votes (5 ratings without comment)

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