Octopus can be an intimidating ingredient to work with at first, but in spite of its appearance, this seafood delicacy is fairly simple to cook. The best cooking methods involve slowly cooking the meat until it becomes tender, while rapid-cook methods tend to create octopus that is tough and chewy. If you are interested in preparing octopus at home, here is a quick and simple tutorial on how to grill your very own octopus.

1.

Thaw the octopus. Frozen octopus can be thawed by sitting it in the refrigerator for roughly 24 hours.
Frozen octopus actually has an advantage over fresh octopus because the freezing process helps tenderize the meat. If you are working with fresh octopus, tenderize it first by beating it with a meat tenderizer.
Before cooking frozen octopus, however, it must be completely defrosted.

2.

Separate the tentacles from the body. Use a sharp kitchen knife to cleanly slice off each tentacle at its base.
Note, however, that some recipes require you to cook the octopus whole before cutting it into pieces. Make sure that you read the instructions carefully for the recipe you plan to use before slicing up the octopus.
With the octopus lying flat on your working surface, hold up one tentacle and saw it off at the base. Remove the other tentacles in the same manner.
If you have kitchen shears, you can cut of the tentacles more easily with those than you can with a sharp knife.

3.

Cut the middle piece and the head. Separate the head from the middle piece and cut the head in half.
The middle piece that connected the octopus tentacles to the head is hard and unpleasant, so you can discard it. The head, however, should be cooked alongside the tentacles.

4.

Remove the beak and ink sac, if necessary. When working with frozen octopus, this step is not usually needed, since most frozen octopus is sold with these pieces already removed.
Even if you work with fresh octopus, you can usually ask the fishmonger to clean the octopus for you before he wraps it up for you to take home.
Once you halve the head or body of the octopus, the ink sac and innards should be visible. You can cut these away and remove them with little difficulty.[1]
The beak might still be attached to the hard middle section you discarded, in which case, no further action is needed. If the beak is attached to the body, however, you can usually push it out by squeezing the octopus gently. Once it is exposed, simply cut it out and throw it away.

GRILLING INSTRUCTIONS

1.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius). Prepare a large rimmed baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil.
The oven rack should also be switched to the lower-middle position so that the octopus has plenty of space inside the oven.
The majority of the actual cooking process will be done in the oven. Grilling is a great way to add extra flavor to the octopus, but the cooking method is too fast and will not create a tender enough octopus when used alone.

2.

Place the octopus on the baking sheet. Sprinkle it with salt and cover it with foil.
Create a loose seal by gently crimping the edge of the top sheet of foil to the rim of the baking sheet.

3.

Cook the octopus until tender. This could take up to 2 hours. Let cool when done.
The meat should feel very tender when pierced with a small paring knife or fork.
As the octopus cools, remove the foil cover so that it cools faster.
At this point, you can also cover and refrigerate the octopus for two days or so. Discard any liquid that seeped out as the octopus cooked, however.

4.

Preheat a grill. Brush the grill rack lightly with 1 Tbsp (15 ml) of olive oil and preheat the grill for about 10 minutes to a high temperature.
For a gas grill, turn all the burners onto high and let preheat fully for 10 minutes.
For a charcoal grill, spread out a thick layer of charcoal on the bottom of the grill and let them burn down until white ash forms along the surface of the briquettes.

5.

Coat the octopus with oil. After coating the pieces with olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, to taste.
The oil will give the exterior a better glow and a better crunch. It also helps the salt and pepper cling to the meat.

6.

Char the octopus on the grill. Place the octopus pieces on the grill and cook for roughly 4 to 5 minutes, or until spotted with brown.[3]
After placing the pieces on your grill rack, close the grill and cook the pieces covered. You should only turn the pieces once, and do so during the middle of the cooking process.

7.

Serve with olive oil, lemon juice, and parsley. When grilled, octopus can be enjoyed on its own or sliced and added to other dishes. If you plan to serve it as is, though, the extra oil, fresh lemon juice, and parsley can make it an even more flavorful