21 Mar We cooked Octopus (Pulpo) al pastor tacos and they were perfect !
Thursday night, excited about a new class, all prepared and with our eyes on Chef Coty, this time teaching us how to cook Pulpo al pastor tacos !
The online class began with everyone at their kitchen with the ingredients in front of us and Chef Coty introducing the dish that we are about to prepare telling us a little about the main element in this recipe: the octopus.
A marine ingredient that can seem a challenge to cook, that has not intimidated us with neither its tentacles nor its ink.
An incredible trick that Chef Coty has shared with us, is to leave the head of the octopus, knowing that we won’t eat it, because it will help us “scare” it, meaning getting it in and out of the boiling water, which is a technique and trick only obtained with experience.
The technique that Chef Coty taught us to “scare” the octopus gives as a result that the tentacles start “curling”.
Chopp well every ingredient is a good secret to balance all flavors.
Time to prepare the mango and habanero salsa!
Chef Coty gave us important advice that we should remember when preparing guacamole or pico de gallo salsa, and it is to chopp the ingredients in very small pieces so we can enjoy all the mixed flavors.
Watch out the mangos ! What happens if our mango is too sour?
Chef Coty told us how to save our dish even if an ingredient, such as mango, doesn’t taste as we expect. This gives us an incredible advantage, when we take the online cooking class we can ask the chef about our ingredients and how to save the flavor of the dish that by mistake we could have made too salty or spicy.
Taste what you’re doing while you are cooking !
A great and useful advice to ensure that our dishes are perfect is to taste while we cook. The chef advises us about the flavors we are looking for and confirms that we are on the right track and to know if we need to add or remove something. This way we can also find out if what we are doing will be too sweet or sour and also to have the opportunity to correct on time.
Black pepper and cumin straight into the blender ? No !
We have learned not to blend directly the plack pepper and cumin seeds, at the online cooking classes, Chef Coty has shown us two previous steps, before blending the marinade, with which the smell and flavor of the pepper and cumin will be more intense and pleasant. We had also learned the importance of a good mortar and the right time to use it and use the blender last for a final touch if necessary.
The surprise of a flavor change with one ingredient.
The pineapple is a traditional complement of tacos al pastor. During the class we could distinguish how its flavor stands out after it’s grilled and how the kitchen gets filled with the smells, making us hungry.
Did you know that pineapple softens proteins? Be careful when using it and avoid turning your ingredients mushy.
Remember that we have an octopus in the water ? Time to check it out !
When 25 to 35 minutes have already passed, it’s time to take our octopus out, cut a small piece and check if it is soft enough to eat.
If we did all the steps correctly, the consistency of the octopus must be perfect and the flavor intense and delicious.
Once Chef Coty has told us how to cook it, we can use it in any recipe with octopus and it would be much better than buying a precooked octopus.
Important fact learned in the online cooking class to keep in mind !
The octopus shrinks between 30 to 40%, the grams for an individual serving is normally 180 g, so if one day you want to prepare this delicious pulpo al pastor tacos for four persons, buy a little more than a kilo.
The chef told us how to cut the octopus without wasting any edible parts and removing in a perfect way what we won’t serve. This step is something you can only enjoy in a face-to-face class or in an online cooking class with Chef Coty. If you haven’t had a class we invite you to do it and live an amazing virtual culinary experience.
Spectacular finishing touches.
To finish the class, after submerging our octopus in the marinade, making sure that we are in the range of time that will warranty the perfect consistency of the octopus, we receive the last tip of Chef Coty on how to give crunchiness to the tentacles, and she shows us how to present the tacos with all the garnishes.
And this is how we learned lots of things in one delightful gourmet food night in the online cooking class with Chef Coty.
Join us in this experience and enjoy a culinary moment that you can take with you to your own table with your loved ones.
If you haven’t attended one of the Chef Coty’s online cooking classes, you can still join us in one of the many classes with a menu of the day, or request a particular online class, choosing this octopus recipe
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