An octopus is a popular in the Mediterranean areas but Japanese love it too. Buy a whole fresh octopus and boil yourself. It tastes amazing.

What you need

A whole, fresh octopus

salt  1cup

What to do

Ask at a fish store to clean when you buy.

Tentacles of a fresh octopus still suck well.

I used an octopus which is about 2.5 lbs big. First of all, put the octopus in a large bowl and sprinkle salt over it.

Massage salt into the octopus to clean its surface, then rinse well with running water.

In a large pot, boil enough water to cover the whole octopus. When rapidly boiling, slowly put the octopus in, from the tips of tentacles.

Some people like to cook very well-done and simmer for about 1 hour. I like it almost rare so cook for 5-7 minutes.

Remove the octopus from the boiling water and put it in ice cold water to cool.

Ta-da! This is the base of all octopus recipes. Cut it in pieces accordingly.

Also see the recipes of Japanese fried octopus and Spanish octopus carpaccio.

I have this recipe in Japanese as well.
生タコのゆでかた