Octopus...the other white meat.

Just as important as teaching about food and cooking to my daughters is reading. It doesn't matter what as long as something can be learned from it. We have always read to our kids. It started with the basics of colors and letters, and then progressed into animals and words.

One of my daughters favorite books is a large picture book of animals. Each page of animals is grouped by a trait: "Creepy Crawlies", "Speedy Animals", "Armored Animals", etc. After learning the names we talk about what they do and eat and if we eat them.

You would think that some kids would be freaked out to see a cute deer in the forest and then be told that it tastes so good. But, since we started early this is just life.

On the "Swimmers" page of this book is an octopus. One day I was at an Italian market that has amazing fresh fresh and bought a pair of octopi. When I got home we played the guessing game of "What's for dinner?" I gave my daughter clues like "it's really smart" (when not dead and in a bag of crushed ice) and "it has lots of arms". She couldn't guess so I told her. At first it was disbelief but then curiosity set in.

Perched sitting on the counter in her "work station" we spent a few minutes looking at the cephalopods and talking about the ink, the suckers, and the beak. After the shock wore off she was quite eager to touch in and examine it closely. Priceless!

Usually to cook an octopus you have to either cook it slowly for a long time to tenderize the tough meat, or as my maternal grandfather did, get a clothes dryer without gas hooked up to it and tumble it until it's tender. Italian innovation. Cooking dinner for a hungry toddler (she was not even 2 at the time) doesn't allow that kind of time.

To make a quick dinner we skinned the octopus, which is quite easy, then separated the head from the body. We cut the head off right above the eyes, which gave her something to play with (the ink), but I had to teach her that we could save the ink for pasta, but that was for another day. The head was sliced into thin rounds. Smaller cuts will cook quickly and will be more tender than larger pieces. The arms were sliced into thin "juliennes". A quick scan of the fridge and pantry lead us to a Provencal/Sicilian hybrid inspired dish with capers, sliced Sicilian green olives, roasted red peppers, fresh basil, good extra virgin olive oil and a 25 year old balsamic vinegar drizzled on the finished plate.

The whole dish took about 10 minutes to prep, from skinning to slicing, and less than 5 minutes to saute and plate. Homemade at its best.