Octopus Tacos with Bacon

Octopus Tacos with Bacon
Tacos de Pulpo con Tocino

Tacos are great. Octopus tacos are amazing. Octopus tacos with bacon are over-the-top!

Braised octopus’ mild flavor is enhanced by bright lime juice and roasted tomato salsa. Its lean, chewy, tender texture is balanced by crispy, salty, smoky bacon. When paired with crunchy purple cabbage, spicy red jalapeño, herbaceous cilantro, and pungent onion all nestled in charred corn tortillas we end up with some extraordinarily tantalizing tacos. Ones that are bursting with a wild range of flavors, colors, and textures.

Octopus Tacos with Bacon Recipe

Ingredients:

• octopus
• red onion, sliced
• lime juice
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• roasted tomato salsa
• small corn tortillas
• purple cabbage, thinly sliced
• crisp bacon, chopped
• cilantro, rough chopped
• red jalapeño, sliced
• limes

How To Cook Tender Octopus:

Begin with one pound of Frozen Cooked Spanish Octopus Tentacles (Pulpo Cocido). The octopus is from the Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean, a product of Spain. It has already been cleaned; tentacles have been separated from the head. It was cooked with salt and bay leaves, then frozen. Find it in the frozen seafood section of the supermarket (I purchase it at Whole Foods Market). Keep it frozen until the day before use, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

Place thawed tentacles in a pot and cover with fresh water. Bring the water to a boil then turn down immediately to a low simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the tentacles from the pot and let cool slightly on a platter so they can be sliced. Read more about “How To Cook Tender Octopus” here.

Sliced the octopus into bite-sized pieces. Place octopus and red onion slices in a bowl and season with a good splash of lime juice, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Octopus Tacos:

Char corn tortillas over an open flame, then brush with a small amount of grapeseed oil and heat them on a comal or in a pan.

Mix octopus mixture with roasted tomato salsa.

Place purple cabbage in corn tortillas. Spoon octopus mixture and roasted tomato salsa over the cabbage. Sprinkle with chopped bacon. Garnish with cilantro and red jalapeño. Serve extra limes on the side.

Happy Taco Tuesday!