Octopus à la lagareiro (Polvo à lagareiro)

Another traditional Portuguese recipe, this time with octopus. I love octopus!

It was the first time I made this recipe. I bungled up a few recipes to come up with my ingredient's quantities.

Serves: 4 persons.

Ingredients: 

• 2.24kg fresh octopus
• 1 onion, cut in half
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp nigella seeds
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 7 garlic cloves, crushed with a knife
• 700g new potatoes, skin on and washed
• salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil to taste
• parsley to taste, chopped

Method:

1. Cook the octopus in a pressure cooker with the onion, 2 bay leaves, nigella seeds, peppercorns and 2 garlic cloves . In my Instant Pot it takes 10 min. When the octopus is done, I was left with 679g octopus. Octopus is expensive considering how much you are left with after cooking!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cut the tentacles off the octopus, the head in half and the body in 4 pieces. I used the head and the body for another recipe but this can all the cooked together and feed the number of persons mentioned above.
3. Steam the potatoes for 10 min and then crush them slightly with a knife.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Cover the bottom of an ovenproof tray with olive oil and add the potatoes, 2 crushed bay leaves and 5 crushed garlic cloves.
   
   
   
5. Add the octopus on top, salt & pepper to taste and plenty more olive oil on top.
   
   
   
6. Cook in a 180°C oven for 30 min.
   
   
   
7. Scatter parsley on top and serve.