Octopus In Ranchero Sauce Food

HUEVOS RANCHEROS

Steps:

• For the ranchero sauce: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and put the tomatoes, garlic cloves and onion on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast the vegetables, turning occasionally, until blistered and charred in spots, about 35 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the papery skins from the garlic.
• Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the ancho chiles, cover, and remove from the heat. Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain and pat dry.
• Put the vegetables and any juices from the baking sheet into a blender. Add the ancho chiles, 1/2 teaspoon each chopped chipotle and adobo sauce and 1/2 teaspoon salt and blend until fairly smooth. Taste; if you want the sauce spicier, stir in the remaining chopped chipotle and adobo sauce.
• Heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the sauce (it will sizzle) and 1/3 cup water and cook, stirring, until thickened but pourable, about 5 minutes. Taste and season with salt as necessary. Cover and keep warm over low heat. If the sauce thickens too much, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time to thin it out.
• For the refried beans: Put the beans in a medium bowl with about half of their reserved liquid and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering, then add the mashed beans and a big pinch of salt and mash again until smooth. Cook, stirring and scraping with a rubber spatula, until heated through. If the beans seem dry, add some more of the reserved liquid until they are creamy. Taste, season with salt if necessary and cover and keep warm over low heat.
• For serving: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F and line a baking sheet with paper towels. Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add 1 tortilla and cook until the underside blisters, about 15 seconds. Flip the tortilla with tongs and continue to cook until the underside blisters, about 15 seconds. Remove from the pan to the lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining 7 tortillas, adding more oil if necessary. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the refried beans on each tortilla and keep warm in the oven.
• Using the same skillet the tortillas were fried in, heat 1 tablespoon oil until shimmering, about 1 minute. Crack 4 eggs into the skillet and cook until the edges are crispy and whites are almost set. Cover the skillet with a big pot lid and cook until the whites are completely set, 1 more minute. Remove the tortillas from the oven, top four with an egg, then return to the oven and repeat with the 4 remaining eggs.
• Top the remaining tortillas with the remaining eggs. Sprinkle each with a pinch of salt, some ranchero sauce, Cotija cheese, cilantro and onion. Serve immediately.

OCTOPUS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Place the octopus into a large pot and fill with enough lightly salted water to cover. Bring to a boil, and then simmer over medium heat until octopus is opaque, about 15 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly; cut into bite-size pieces.
• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, mint leaves, curry powder and mixed spice; cook and stir until onion is soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in the octopus pieces, wine, lemon zest and orange zest. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes to blend the flavors, then stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, peas, potatoes, olives and bay leaves. Cover and simmer over low heat until potatoes and octopus are tender, about 45 minutes.

SPANISH OCTOPUS

Steps:

• Place chopped onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf, paprika, salt, and 1 tablespoon olive oil into saucepan. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until onions start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add white wine to create the braising liquid. Bring to a simmer.
• Transfer octopus into braising liquid, turning to coat with the liquid. Cover; reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes and turn octopus over. Continue cooking until octopus is tender, another 40 to 45 minutes.
• Remove from heat; transfer octopus to a large bowl. Pour braising liquid over octopus. Place bowl above a bowl of ice water to cool to room temperature.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap when octopus and liquid are cool. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Transfer octopus to a work surface and mop off braising juices with paper towels; remove as much of the purple skin as you want. Cut octopus into 3 or 4 serving-size pieces. Brush with olive oil.
• Transfer braising liquid to saucepan. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Strain out solids; transfer liquid to a mixing bowl; let cool about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, parsley, salt, and cayenne pepper to make the serving sauce.
• Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill to high heat. Transfer octopus pieces to grill. Cook until flesh is seared, almost charred, 3 or 4 minutes. Turn and cook other side until dark brown, caramelized, and heated through, another 3 or 4 minutes. Transfer to a platter.
• Slice octopus into fairly thick diagonal slices. Place on a serving dish. Spoon braising liquid mixture over the top. Dust with a bit of cayenne pepper, if desired.

RANCHERO SAUCE

Steps:

• On a gas range or under a broiler, roast the green, red and poblano peppers until well charred. Let cool. Stem and seed the charred peppers. Coarsely chop and set aside.
• In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, finely grind the whole guajillo and pasilla chiles and set aside.
• In a large saucepan, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, covered, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the guajillo and pasilla chiles, cumin, chili powder, oregano, thyme, black pepper, salt and garlic. Stir and cook until the spices become fragrant and are fully coated in oil, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, green chiles and sugar. Stir and continue to cook until the sauce starts to simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the vegetables soften and the flavors come together, 30 to 40 minutes. Taste and add additional salt and pepper as needed.

OCTOPUS IN RANCHERO SAUCE

Steps:

• First roast 2 medium onion and 2 heads garlic in the oven (at 425 for 20 minutes or so until they start to caramelize). Alternately you can pan roast them in a cast iron skillet.
• In a large pot place roasted onion and garlic, octopus, 2 bunches parsley & cilantro, peppercorns, 4 serrano chiles (whole), 16 cups water and beer.
• Boil for 1 1/2 to two hours.
• Remove from heat and let the octopus cool in the liquid while you start the ranchero sauce.
• Bring 6 cups of water to boil with 16 plum tomatoes, 14 serranos, 1 1/2 sliced tomatoes and 6 cloves of garlic and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Strain out the solids (saving the Ranchero broth), puree the solids in a blender or Cuisinart with 1 1/2 cups or the retained broth.
• Now, heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a tall thick pot and add 6 cloves of garlic. Simmer the garlic until it turns golden, remove them with a slotted spoon and carefully pour in the Ranchero sauce. This will cause splattering so I strongly encourage long sleeves. Stir like mad for the first few minutes until it's a gentle simmer. Cook for 30 minutes.
• Now strain the liquid from the simmered octopus and in a separate pan cook down to 3 cups. This should take about 30 minutes. Meanwhile separate the octopus from the veggies and toss the veggies.
• While the ranchero sauce and octopus are simmering down take the final 6 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup of cilantro and salt and either in a pestle or a blender puree into a smooth paste.
• Add the paste, octopus and reduced octopus stock to the ranchero sauce and cook for a final 20 minutes.
• I sometimes split this recipe over two days (make the octopus one night and the ranchero the next).

OCTOPUS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a pan, heat up the extra-virgin olive oil. Add the garlic, chile peppers, and anchovies and let cook together. Add the tomato puree, octopus, salt, and black pepper and stir. Let the octopus cook for approximately 1 hour, or until tender. Stir in the parsley and serve.

BIG-BATCH RANCHERO SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine everything in a large pot or rondeau, and simmer over gentle heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent any scorching on the bottom. Add a little water if it becomes any thicker than ketchup. Allow to cool before puréeing.
• Working in a blender in batches, purée until smooth. Check the salt seasoning. Let cool.
• Transfer to quart or pint containers, and stock your freezer, or put the sauce in something more attractive - rubber-sealed jars with hinged lids? - to make gifts of the stuff. Ranchero sauce keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 1 year. (It may separate a little, in which case you can simply reheat and give a new buzz in a blender to reunify.)