OCTOPUS
For Cooking
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
40 comments:
IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING, YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, SO KINDLY GET OUT AND STAY OUT.
We welcome Conversation
But without Vituperation.
If your aim is Vilification ––
Other forms of Denigration ––
Unfounded Accusation --
Determined Obfuscation ––
Alienation with Self-Justification ––
We WILL use COMMENT ERADICATION.
IN ADDITION
Gratuitous Displays of Extraneous Knowledge Offered Not To Shed Light Or Enhance the Discussion, But For The Primary Purpose Of Giving An Impression Of Superiority are obnoxiously SELF-AGGRANDIZING, and therefore, Subject to Removal at the Discretion of the Censor-in-Residence.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blech!
ReplyDeletewhat do you get when you cross a black Guy and an octopus?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know but it sure could pick a lot of cotton.
The answer to that riddle is
ReplyDeleteAn OCTOROON.
-Harpoon Hannah of the good ship Brigantine
An octoroon!
ReplyDeleteNow I don't care who you are, that's funny!
Cleaning an Octo-Puss, is just about impossible.
ReplyDeleteThey are much to much full of all kinds of CRAP.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWith any luck you will get the same treatment that FT gave to RN!
DeleteNot in MY Name:
ReplyDeleteLay off Ducky. He's nuthin' like the Registered Nurse.
RN blows hot and cold and loves billing himself as a conservative, while he trashes conservatives and panders to the leftwing peanut gallery.
At least Ducky is reliably on the left.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThe duck never pretends to be anything he's not. And for that, he will always have my undying "Voltairean" support.
ReplyDeleteThe only "support" I'd give him is my Jock Strap!
ReplyDeleteJoe Conservative:
ReplyDeleteHear hear!
Ducky is a marxist, and unlike the vast majority of his filthy, disingenuous ilk, he is honest about it.
Ducky is a marxist, and unlike the vast majority of his filthy, disingenuous ilk, he is honest about it.
ReplyDelete----
Thank you for that generosity of spirit.
You're very welcome, my good lad.
ReplyDeleteHonesty is to always be admired.
Let's face it, a Octopus is a dirty bottom feeding creature, I can't for the life of me know why anyone would want to be one
ReplyDeleteThis is one tutorial I will never use. It looks just awful!
ReplyDeleteA whole lot less "awful" than slaughtering then butchering pigs, lambs or beef cattle, I should think.
ReplyDeleteI've never met an Octopus
ReplyDeleteI hope I never see one.
But I can say with perfect truth
I'd rather see than be one!
~ Old Arcadanian Nursery Rhyme
Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock. Now follow in this direction, now turn a different hue.
ReplyDelete- Theognis of Megara
An old near-Arcadian? ;)
ReplyDeleteps - You don't know how to prepare octopus "Greek" style...
ReplyDeleteHe motions over his shoulder to a man with a bushy mustache and a graying ponytail — Spiros Nikolaidis, the grillmaster at Miltos taverna. He's sprinkling sea salt on foot-long octopus tentacles that are cooking over a hot outdoor grill.
"How long does it take for one of those to cook?" I ask, looking at a sizzling tentacle.
"Thirty minutes, maybe 45," he says. "It depends on how much time the octopus has spent drying in the sun."
He points to the tavern's rooftop terrace. Two pink octopi — or is it octopuses? — are hanging like shirts on a clothesline.
"They've been up there since morning," says Miltiadis "Miltos" Trimis, the taverna's owner.
As a young man, Trimis traveled the world as part of Greece's merchant marine. In 1987, after getting married and starting a family, he opened his taverna on Aegina, where some of his relatives lived.
"We get our fish straight from the fishermen's boats," he says. "Fresh fish grilled right away is always delicious."
Octopus is more complicated.
A fisherman usually traps an octopus and kill it by slicing a nerve between the eyes. Then he — or in rare cases, she — beats the carcass on a rock up to 100 times to wring out the water.
"Like any creature, the octopus is made mostly of water," writes Peter Minakis, a Greek-Canadian food writer, on his popular food blog Kalofagas. "If one were to throw an octopus from sea to grill, all that water in the octopus would simply steam it into a rubbery mass."
That's why Trimis hangs a fresh catch to dry.
"We hang [the octopus] on the clothesline first thing in the morning and don't take it down until the evening," he says. "In the old days, when there weren't freezers, people here used to sun the octopus for days until it was tiny and fit into a little carafe. But it expanded to its original size when it was cooked."
A pasty-faced, jello-ey hermaphrodite who called himself (0)ct(0) bent me over and greeked me once. It was rather frightening, since I was only 8 years old at the time.
ReplyDeleteHis eyes were as flat as a slate-grey sky, and he kept slapping me and making me say how smart he was during his rough poking.
I've never been able to look at an octopus since.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete(0)ct(0)puss is too slimy for me.
ReplyDeleteI will stick with Clamari ,already trimmed and cleaned and cut into ringlets.
But I get the joke
ReplyDeleteOcto is one of those you would like to buy for what they are worth and then sell for what they think they are worth....
Fascinating information, Thersites. I had never heard of DRYING the creature before cooking. In fact in the italian tradition from which I am partially derived it is considered the height of culinary virtue to bring the Octopus from the sea to the kitchen as soon as possible to be cleaned and prepared in the manner show in the videos we posted. If anyone's interested, there are many other videos giving similar-but-not-identical instructions some of which may be more interesting and informative than those we provided.
ReplyDeleteIn Tarpon Springs, FL -- an old Greek fishing village that survives almost intact from the days when it was fully functional as a major source of sponges brought up daily from the Gulf of Mexico by authentic Greek divers -- there are numerous restaurants that cater now primarily to the tourist trade. Hella's, these best of these in my never humble opinion, serves grilled Octopus -- several great, foot-long tentacles joined together curled from the cooking, but still overlapping the edges of the platter. A monstrous looking treat to be sure, but the exquisite flavor easily overpowers the "bad optics." ;-)
A long unfulfilled ambition is to enjoy authentic Bouillabaisse in Marseilles, where I've been given to understand Octopus, squid and the Mediterranean version of lobster join the traditional cockles, mussels, clams, prawns and assorted varieties of white fish in the steaming brew flavored with fine herbes, and saffron.
No American restaurant in my (admittedly limited) experience has ever produced a Bouillabaisse that could equal the heavenly treat made by my French Nanny on rare special occasions -- a periodic Gift of Love to my mother and father whom she adored.
As for our Ducky, I generally agree with Joe and Fred, BUT he's been acting unusually snotty in recent weeks, and has vigorously assumed to role of troll at Lisa's blog in heavy competition for First Place with the Registered Nurse. Perhaps it's understandable in this pre-election period, but that doesn't mean we have to put up with it.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of Speech is RESTRICTED here at FreeThinke's Blog when it becomes a mere matter of constantly hectoring, badgering, insulting and defaming other inhabitants of the blogosphere. It doesn't matter if they be present or absent. Ridicule stops being amusing or instructive when it becomes a mindless attempt to harass, bully, intimidate or otherwise torment others for expressing THEIR opinions -- however odious, asinine or unwelcome they may be.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteOf course he's cranky. The Left has lost the narrative in the critical period right before the election.
ReplyDeleteThey have, indeed, but will the ever-lovin' electorate even notice?
ReplyDeleteDEAD from the NECK UP the lot of them.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteNo, the establishment Republicans have no narrative, no "Contract with America". They only have more gravy for the gander (likely the "fatty" peiping variety)
ReplyDeleteBewildering is the FreeThinke who expresses belief in the benefits to be gained in the free exchange of ideas yet limits the echange to ideas he approves of.
ReplyDeleteQuick to criticize insulting comments and boorish behaviour FreeThinke is among the first to engage in such behavior.
The Great Mirror at your service.
Your welcome in advance.
Perhaps "the Mirror" should contemplate the wisdom in the words of the original great conservative, "Joseph d'Maistre" from his St. Petersberg Dialogue:
ReplyDeleteSo who is this inexplicable being who, when there are so many pleasant, lucrative, honest and even honourable professions in which he could exercise his strength or dexterity to choose among, has chosen that of torturing and putting to death his own kind? Are this head and this heart made like our own? Do they contain anything that is peculiar and alien to our nature? For myself, I have no doubt about this. In outward appearance he is made like us; he is born like us. But he is an extraordinary being, and for him to be brought into existence as a member of the human family a particular decree was required, a FIAT of creative power. He is created as a law unto himself.
Consider how he is viewed by public opinion, and try to conceive, if you can, how he could ignore this opinion or confront it! Scarcely have the authorities assigned his dwelling, scarcely has he taken possession of it, when other men move their houses elsewhere so they no longer have to see his. In the midst of this seclusion and in this kind of vacuum formed around him, he lives alone with his female and his offspring, who acquaint him with the human voice. Without them he would hear nothing but groans... A dismal signal is given an abject minister of justice knocks on his door to warn him that he is needed. He sets out. He arrives at a public square packed with a pressing and panting crowd. He is thrown a poisoner, a parricide, a blasphemer. He seizes him, stretches him out, ties him to a horizontal cross, and raises his arms. Then there is a horrible silence; there is no sound but the crack of bones breaking under the crossbar and the howls of the victim. He unties him and carries him to a wheel. The broken limbs are bound to the spokes, the head hangs down, the hair stands on end, and the mouth gaping like a furnace occasionally emits a few bloody words begging for death. He has finished; his heart is pounding, but it is with joy. He congratulates himself. He says in his heart, No one can break men on the wheel better than I. He steps down; he holds out his blood-stained hand, and justice throws him form afar a few gold coins, which he carries away through a double row of men drawing back in horror. He sits down to table and eats; the he goes to bed and sleeps. Awakening on the morrow, he thinks of something quite different from what he did the day before. Is this a man? Yes. God receives him in his shrines and allows him to pray. He is not a criminal and yet no tongue would content to say, for example, that he is virtuous, that he is an honest man, that he is admirable etc. No moral praise seems appropriate for him, since this supposes relationships with human beings and he has none.
And yet all greatness, all power, all subordination rests on the executioner; he is both the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world, and in a moment order gives way to chaos, thrones fall, and society disappears. God, who is the author of sovereignty, is therefore the author of punishment. He has suspended our earth on these two poles; For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them.
There is freedom (absolute chaos/anarchy) and liberty (rule of law resulting in order). Under which would you rather attempt a "conversation" or make a home and raise a family?
ReplyDeleteNow here, for the umpteenth time, is the LAW enforced by the executioner...
ReplyDeleteWe welcome conversation
But without vituperation.
If your aim is vilification ––
Other forms of denigration ––
Alienation with self-justification ––
We WILL use Comment Moderation.
His name is Freethinke.
ReplyDeleteThinking is an inalienable right.
Speaking... not so much. It's very "alienable". Just ask our "free" press.
Hesiod, "Works and Days"
ReplyDeleteAnd now I will tell a fable for princes who themselves understand. Thus said the hawk to the nightingale with speckled neck, while he carried her high up among the clouds, gripped fast in his talons, and she, pierced by his crooked talons, cried pitifully. To her he spoke disdainfully: `Miserable thing, why do you cry out? One far stronger than you now holds you fast, and you must go wherever I take you, songstress as you are. And if I please I will make my meal of you, or let you go. He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.' So said the swiftly flying hawk, the long- winged bird.
(ll. 212-224) But you, Perses, listen to right and do not foster violence; for violence is bad for a poor man. Even the prosperous cannot easily bear its burden, but is weighed down under it when he has fallen into delusion. The better path is to go by on the other side towards justice; for Justice beats Outrage when she comes at length to the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learn this. For Oath keeps pace with wrong judgements. There is a noise when Justice is being dragged in the way where those who devour bribes and give sentence with crooked judgements, take her. And she, wrapped in mist, follows to the city and haunts of the people, weeping, and bringing mischief to men, even to such as have driven her forth in that they did not deal straightly with her.