I made octopus confit at work today (octopus slow-cooked in duck fat). I had never even seen a whole octopus before, so of course I needed some help from the sous chef for this one. It turns out octopus is very easy to prepare: you just cut off the head and clean the inside up, discard an inch or so of the part between the head and body, and remove a small round thing.

We mixed into the duck fat some paprika and salt and some canola oil to add volume, heated it up in a huge stockpot, and when it was fairly hot added the four octopuses, and cooked them at low heat for a little over two hours.

They were some big, beautiful sea creatures. And if you’ve never tried it, octopus is freakin’ good. It’s flesh is firm, not flaky like fish, and has a nice bite to it. We serve it cold, as part of one of our small plates.

I stopped by the Italian store on my way home and saw they sell frozen octopus for not too much, so I’ll be cooking some soon and putting up pics and stuff.