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This, too, is a Portuguese recipe++from the Algarve. It can be made with octopuses of any size. Baby ones won’t need so much precooking. Precook 600 to 800 g octopus in 200 mL red wine with a little water. The octopus will exude liquid so that you are likely to end up with more cooking liquid at the end. Retain this and add water to make it up to 600 ea mL. Cut the drained octopus into small pieces. Heat 150 mL olive oil in a large saucepan, add a chopped onion and cook gently, stirring, for 2 or 3 minutes. Add 2 garlic cloves finely chopped, 3 tomatoes, skinned and chopped, and a large green pepper cut into snips. Season with salt, pepper and chilli powder to taste. Cook for a few minutes longer. Add the cooking liquid from the octopus and bring it to the boil. Add 350 g rice (preferable a short-grain risotto rice like arborio) and
bring back to the boil, then turn the heat very low and put the lid on the saucepan. After 15 minutes, stir to ensure the rice is not catching on the bottom of the saucepan. In 5 minutes more, taste a grain or two to make sure it is soft. The rice should still be quite damp. Serve. Makes 4 servings. From Meryl Constance’ column in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Raw Materials”. 3/2/93. Courtesy, Mark Herron. Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; June 4 1993.