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Octopus? That's a challenge for me... Where am I'm going to find an octopus out here in the dessert? LOL

Actually, I do have a few recipes that use octopus, and they all come from my dad's second wife , Angelina, who is from Spain. The recipes she translated for me are from her family, one is a paella dish, then a tapas style dish, Pulpo a la Gallega, which is simply cooked octopus chunks and thick slices of potato garnished with spicy hot, pimentón picante style paprika, sea salt and olive oil. Then I have one with pasta and sauce, but nothing for a salad. 

Octopus is tough and chewy, and by regular cooking methods it can take as long as 2 hours of simmering in salted water to break down the connective tissue so it will be tender enough to eat, so the pressure cooker is definitely the way to go. Now these cooking times are all for a regular sized octopus of about 2-3 lbs, not the little baby ones. I'll give you the pressure cooking directions from her recipes so you can see how she does it, and from there you can probably come up with the other salad ingredients yourself.


Preparing the octopus:
Octopus loses a lot of its volume during cooking, so buy more than you might expect to need for the finished dish. I think the meat is something like 80 percent moisture so it will lose more than half its weight in juices... which goes to making a lovely stock. The octopus will look like a lot when it's fresh, but you'll have quite a bit less than the original quantity after cooking.

Always buy an octopus that is already cleaned, and if you happen to come across a fresh one, just ask the fishmonger to clean it for you, because unless you've learned how, it's really messy and time consuming to clean them yourself. When you get it home, plan on cooking it with 24 hours, or freeze in immediately. Rinse the octopus well and pat dry, then rub it with lime juice, the acid acts as a mild tenderizer. 

If the octopus has not been cleaned, here are the basics steps: lay it in a shallow pan in the sink and turn on the cold water. Working under the running water, turn it inside out and pull away the entrails, the plastic-like bony sticks, the stomach sac, the ink sac, stomach, and eyes.  Discard all of the items you've removed, and next turn the octopus right-side out, and find the beak at the bottom of the head where it joins the tentacles, and cut it away. Wash the octopus well.


Put the octopus in the pressure cooker with enough water to cover, and at a minimum add a bay leaf and 1 teaspoon sea salt. You can get more creative here, adding other ingredients like garlic, onions, whole peppercorns, fresh herbs, use whatever appeals to your tastes that will enhance the finished dish. Lock the lid in place. Bring to 15psi over high heat, immediately reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting to stabilize and maintain that pressure. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and use the cold water release method before opening the lid. 

For salad, I would immediately transfer the octopus to a large bowl filled withe ice water, to rapidly chill it. Freeze the remaining broth* to be used in other fish and seafood recipes. When the octopus is cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized morsels.  At this point you can marinate the slices in a simple vinaigrette, or whatever type dressing you will use on your salad, then cover and refrigerate for at least a hour, or until ready to serve.


*This is usually a mildly flavored broth, so I either like to add other bits of fish and seafood -- shells and other pieces from scrimp, crab, lobster are really good! -- that I have saved in the freezer, to make a richer tasting broth for my next chowders seafood soup, etc. You can also reduce the plain octopus stock by half and then freeze it. The reduced stock contains a lot of collagen and might look a  pretty pinkish color with an excellent flavor.

Hope this helps you!