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We eat octopus regularly here in portugal. one of the most popular dishes is arroz de polvo. It's pretty easy to make and tastes delicious.
First you should get the fishmonger to clean the octopus for you - as avernus' did.
Then you should rinse the octopus in tap water and place it either in a regular large pot or a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker does wonders for tenderness. Fill the pan/cooker with water until it just covers the octopus, adda little sea salt, and a peeled onion that you have scored. boil the octopus for an hour in a pan or 1/2 hour in the pressure cooker.Once it's ready, it should have turned a pink/purple colour (the skin anyway, the flesh is white).
Remove the octopus but reserve the water. Chop the octopus into small 1/2 inch pieces, removing most of the flesh under a running tap (leave some as it adds flavour and colour). Set aside. You may need more than one octopus depending on how much they shrink.
In a large pot, fry a large diced onion and 2 finely diced garlic cloves in 2 tablesppons of olive oil or more (depending on your preference). When the onion has softened, add one chopped deseeded tomato, a squirt of tomato paste, and 1/4 cup of red wine. Let that fry a little, then add 1/3 cup of rice, and twice that in water - the water that the octopus boiled in, but strain it first! Don't forget to add salt to taste.
Leave to cook until the rice is tender and ready or if the pot is drying out beofre that, add a little more of the water. Just before the rice is cooked, add the chopped octopus pieces.
At the very end, some chopped coriander works very well. I also cheat and sometimes add a slug of worcestershire sauce when I add the tomato - works well.
Sounds simple but it's actually really yummy - a real favourite here. The rice should have some liquid, and not be totally dry. We call it "arroz de polvo malandro", which literally means naughty octopus rice - though the naughty bit refers to the rice not being dry and instead is juicy.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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