Shadowing Practice: How to COOK & PREP OCTOPUS tender | Bart van Olphen - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Welcome on another fishy Friday here at Bart's Fish Tales
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and today I'm going to show you the technique how to cook octopus pulpo.
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Might look difficult but I'm going to show you it's really easy.
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You can cook it in many different ways.
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You can cook it in red wine or light olive oil.
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I'm going to show you my way which is in water.
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And cooked octopus is a great base for a octopus salad, maybe your octopus carpaccio or even you can pre-cook it to grill it afterwards.
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Step number one is you're going to wash the octopus.
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So wash it on a clean running water and you make sure that all the pockets, these things are really clean.
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This is the head of the octopus, these are the eyes and this is the mantle.
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And what you actually do is you turn it around but this part, the inside is coming out and you clean it properly from the inside too.
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Okay, so this is a clean fresh octopus.
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You also could use like a frozen octopus.
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And if you buy it, make sure that you defrost it in the fridge.
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And this preparation I'm going to do is for a whole octopus.
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But actually the same cooking process counts if you would just use the tentacles.
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So guys, this is so simple.
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All you need is just a pot.
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I'm going to add the octopus into my pan.
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So I add stalks of celery.
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Take off the end parts.
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And I cut it rough.
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Add it into my pot.
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One lemon.
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Slice it in two parts.
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Add it to the pot.
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Bay leaf.
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Like five sprigs of beautiful fresh thyme.
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So like ten black peppercorns.
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So the next step is I'm going to add water until the octopus is just covered.
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Just a bit of salt.
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So now a piece of maybe Italian wisdom.
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It's never scientifically proved, but what they actually say,
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if you add a cork to the water in where you're going to cook the octopus, that the octopus will become more tender.
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And I do it every time, and I don't know if it's the cork, but it's always tender.
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So it's something I always do.
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So I add a cork into the water and I bring this all together to a boil.
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So when the water reaches the point of boiling, the 100 degrees Celsius, I bring it a little bit lower.
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I simmer the octopus for 20 minutes.
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This is an octopus of one kilo.
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If you have a slightly bigger octopus, Bigger octopus you might use like 25-30 minutes.
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Then I take off the heat and I leave it there for another 20-25 minutes.
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And then it should be properly and tenderly cooked.
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So this has been simmering for 25 minutes.
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And now the trick.
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I'm going to use my knife and stick it in.
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It's beautiful, juicy, tender.
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So I turn down the heat.
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I turn off the heat and I let it cool down for 15 minutes.
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So it has been cooled down for the last 15-20 minutes.
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I take it out of the pan and the first thing we're going to do, this is beautiful guys, this is beautiful, is take out this, it looks a bit like an ice, so you press on it.
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And this is a hard piece.
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You don't want to find it into your dish.
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So now I take off the tentacles.
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Look how beautiful.
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And you take your hand.
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You have got already your hand.
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And then you will feel that the skin, you can remove the skin quite easily. Of the meat.
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So actually this is the base.
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This is the base for maybe a cappacho.
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for a salad, for just a nice appetizer together with your evening drink.
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Let's also take off the skin of the mantle.
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So guys, this was How to Cook, How to Clean Octopus.
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And please stay tuned because we will upload great recipes with it.
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If you have any questions, any comments, leave them down in the box below.
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And don't forget to subscribe.
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See you soon, Beck.
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On another Fishy Friday.
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Bye-bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to COOK & PREP OCTOPUS tender”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: octopus, add, cook, clean, beautiful. This video has 69 sentences and 696 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:20. The speaker talks at a natural 161 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| octopus noun | /ˈɑktəpʊs/ | Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and… |
| cork noun | /kɔɹk/ | The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water. |
| tender adjective | /ˈtɛn.dɚ/ | Sensitive or painful to the touch. |
| simmer verb | /ˈsɪmɚ/ | To cook or undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point. |
| tentacle noun | /ˈtɛntəkəl/ | An elongated, boneless, flexible organ or limb of some animals, such as the octopus and squid. |
| mantle noun | /ˈmæn.təl/ | A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops. |
| boil verb | /bɔɪ(ə)l/ | To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas. |
| salad noun | /ˈsæl.əd/ | A food consisting principally of raw vegetables (especially greens, e.g. lettuce), other savoury ingredients (typically cooked), fruit, or confectionary; often… |
| appetizer noun | /ˈæpɪˌtaɪzə/ | A small, light, and usually savory first course in a meal. |
| carpaccio noun | Thinly sliced raw beef or tuna, usually served as an appetizer. | |
| celery noun | /ˈsɛləɹi/ | A European herb (Apium graveolens) of the carrot family. |
| defrost verb | /diːˈfɹɔst/ | To remove frost from. |
| kilogram noun | /ˈkɪləɡɹæm/ | In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical… |
| peppercorn noun | /ˈpɛpɚkɔɹn/ | The seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed. |
| scientifically adverb | /ˌsaɪ.ənˈtɪfɪkli/ | Using science or methods of science. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| take off verb | To remove. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| take out verb | To remove. | |
| turn down verb | To refuse, decline, or deny. | |
| turn off verb | To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm going to add the octopus into my pan.
- You don't want to find it into your dish.
- Let's also take off the skin of the mantle.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is just covered · has been cooled |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | Might look · might use |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | I'm going to show · you're going to wash · I'm going to do |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will become · will feel · will upload |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: appetizer /ˈæpɪˌtaɪzə/, scientifically /ˌsaɪ.ənˈtɪfɪkli/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like octopus, cork, tender.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.