Drowning in Crawfish

Nearly killed myself over memorial day

Crawfish

Octopus Terrine

octopus terrine
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I had bought a pair if frozen octopi the last time I was at the fish store, The act of freezing the octopus actually makes it more tender after cooking. Defrosted the octopus in the fridge over a couple of days and tried to decide what to make. I was going to make it for escabeche with capers, olives, onion and peppers, or a traditional galician way but decided instead to make a terrine that either way if it fell apart or had leftovers I could still make into escabeche.



defrosted octopi

I set a pot of water to boil, with no salt (it's supposed to make the octopus more chewy) a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns, and a penny (traditionaly octopus is cooked in a copper pot which gives it a darker color.)



I then dunked the octopus into the water 3 times letting the water come back to a boil after each dunk.



We shot a bit of a ponderous video of the whole process

terrine of octopus from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

As you can see we cooked potato in the same water after the octopus was done. The octopus was seasoned and placed in the terrine with plastic wrap, and unmolded the next day.



My son says it looks like a fossil. We served up the potato with pimenton



and served it all up



Served with some olive oil and some sea salt on the side. Turned out very tasty and makes a cool presentation.

White bean stew

plated beans
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

This dish is a variation of a fabada which is an asturian dish (from Asturia Spain) which combines common or ingredients into a bean dish. These were family subsistence meals where in one pot you can feed many people and stretch the budget. The main ingredient is the bean. I bought some very large dried white beans "alubias judion" from La Tienda.





I soaked the beans overnight, and was a little worried as some of them split in half, some others lost their husk



but I got over it, after chatting with my mother and asking her if I should peel the beans or what. She told me to leave them alone. (mother is always right)
I then got my ingredients in order

One onion
2 bunches of green onion
one whole head of garlic
2 bay leaves



1 tbsp of thyme
2 tbsp of pimenton (smoked paprika) sweet
2 morcilla links (blood pudding sausage)
1 piece of hard cured chorizo
strand of soft non cured chorizo
1 piece of salt cured ham (prosciotto or serrano)
1 large slice of head cheese (I made this)
1 large slice of cured pork loin (la tienda)
1/2 cup of roasted red pepper
1 tbsp of capers
black pepper to taste

I cut a large piece of ham off my La Quercia Paleta





and began to render it in some olive oil in a large stock pot



I then added the onions, bay leaves and green onions and sauteed till only slightly brown



I added the morcilla to brown it and render some fat but then removed it so it wouldn't burst in the stew



I made a puree of roasted red peppers with capers by using an immersion blender and adding a bit of water.



then blended to form a sauce



at this point I added the pimenton to the onions sauteed quickly as it will burn and then added the pepper puree to deglaze the pan



I let it cook for a minute or two then added the beans and the meats



I added water to cover it all as well as the whole head of garlic and returned the morcilla to the pan



I cooked it for 4 hours which was when the beans were tender. I actually let it cool and placed it in the fridge at this point to let the flavors meld. The next day (what is this day 3 of this dish!) I blanched some kale



and added it to the beans as they reheated. The finished product was spectacular. the beans are soft but not mush, they retain their individuality, the pork flavor is perfect with the ham retaining it's flavor and melding with the head cheese and chorizo with the morcilla being perfect. The Kale adds some nice color and contrast. If you have the time I highly reccomend trying this or a variation on this dish.



I've got plenty of leftovers (as usual) so i'll be working my way through it.