Octopus's Garden
Text by Albena Shkodrova | Photographs by Anthony Georgieff
If you see fishermen battering the poor octopuses against the rocks - with all their might, 40 times in a row - there is just one way to forgive them: eat a piece of the victim.
There is hardly a nation in Europe to cook octopus as barbarically and yet as deliciously as the Greeks. There is a direct connection to the beating exercise. This is done for the meat to soften; otherwise it will be as tough as cow's hide. It has been said that some modern heretics have exchanged the distressing ritual for tumble-drying or deep-freezing, but both are disagreeable methods of affecting the octopus's cell structure.
Octopus is one of the most popular foods in Greece, where they cook it in over 100 ways: from sun-dried and then sprinkled with olive oil, vinegar, and marjoram to the "Christmas octopus" with cinnamon, sultanas, and apples.
No matter what dish they are planning to turn it into, the Greeks normally clean and boil it first. This is done even when they are about to grill it.
One of the more important late-autumn recipes is for octopus and white aubergine salad. The vegetables are cut in two, lengthwise, and then baked in an oven until they turn soft. Afterwards the seeds are removed to the advantage of the more fundamental ingredients in the meal.
The preparations should start a day earlier because the octopus, boiled and chopped into pieces, has to be marinated for 12 hours. Finally, it is mixed with half a cup of finely-cut onions and parsley, a red tomato cut into 2.5-centimetre cubes, and a pinch of the omnipresent Greek oregano. The mixture is then poured into the scooped-out aubergines.
You'd better dress it with some more olive oil because the rule of thumb in Greek cuisine is "keep everything well-oiled and every glass well-filled."
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