Ensalada de Pulpo: Puerto Rican Style, Through a Thunderstorm.

I made this for the people I love. I don't eat octopus myself, but I grew up around this dish, and making it takes me straight back to my grandmother's kitchen. This particular batch came together through a thunderstorm quiet prep, a lot of care, and all the color summer gives.

✨ Ensalada de Pulpo (Puerto Rican-Style)

Ingredients:

• 1 whole octopus
• 1/2 lb shrimp 
• 1 red onion, sliced thin
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• Handful fresh parsley, chopped
• Handful cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 cup Spanish green olives
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder and adobo seasoning
• 2 tbsp mayo (to taste)

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, fill with water and add onion, lemon, garlic, and salt. Bring to a boil.
2. Add whole octopus and simmer gently for about 2.5 hours until tender.
3. Let cool slightly, then peel off outer skin and remove suckers (they come off easily).
4. Boil shrimp separately.
5. Chop octopus and shrimp into bite-size pieces.
6. In a large bowl, mix seafood with all chopped vegetables, herbs, and olives.
7. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Add mayo, salt, pepper, and adobo to taste.
8. Chill before serving. Serve cold with tostones or crackers.

It’s a dish full of memory and mood sharp with lemon, warm with garlic and adobo, and layered with the kind of love that never needed to be spoken out loud. We used to make this with my grandmother, all of us packed in her kitchen cousins running around, aunts and uncles laughing, the smell of garlic everywhere. I made it again during a storm, the dogs curled up by the window, my playlist barely playing. Everything outside was gray but the color still came through.

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