After getting back from London, the first thing I knew I wanted to cook was some sort of octopus dish. The octopus from Cambio de Tercio was probably the best thing I've eaten all year, and I wanted to try to recapture some of that magic in my own kitchen. This would be my first time cooking octopus, however, so I wanted to keep it simple. After scouring my cookbooks, I came across a Spanish inspired octopus dish from Eric Ripert's On The Line which I thought was a perfect introduction to cooking octopus.
adapted from On The Line, by Eric Ripert
The Octopus
½ small onion, quartered
6 cloves garlic, cut in half
1 small carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Italian parsley sprigs
1 leek top
1 3-oz piece of prosciutto
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 lbs octopus, tentacles only
Salt & white pepper
¼ teaspoon Piment d'Espelette
The Garnish
1 teaspoon blanched and minced Lemon Confit
2 teaspoons minced Niçoise olives
1 tablespoon garlic oil2
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon thinly sliced chives
Sherry Gelée3
Combine the first 7 ingredients in a pot with enough water to cover the octopus. Season the water with salt so that it tastes like seawater. Bring to a boil and add the octopus. Return to a simmer and weigh the octopus down with a lid that is one size smaller than the pot. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour, or until the octopus is tender. Cool the octopus in the braising liquid until it reaches room temperature.
Drain the octopus, pat it dry with some paper towels and cut into ½-inch thick slices. Divide the octopus amongst 4 small plates.
When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Place the plates in the oven for about one minute to warm the octopus. Season with salt, white pepper and Piment d'Espelette. Garnish with the lemon confit and Niçoise olives. Spoon the garlic and extra virgin olive oils over the octopus, and sprinkle with the chives. Add a small amount of sherry gelée to each plate. Serve immediately.
Loved this dish, though I didn't love the octopus itself. But the flavor was great. As advertised, the prosciutto gave the octopus a great meaty flavor, but it wasn't anywhere near as tender as the octopus I had at Cambio de Tercio. It wasn't rubbery, just chewy. A little too chewy.
The flavor combination is a classic - sherry vinegar, Niçoise olives, lemon confit and garlic give the dish a ton of bold flavors and a lot of bright acidity, which works wonderfully with the octopus. I use a similar combination of ingredients when I make tuna fish sandwiches. It never disappoints.
I enjoyed making this recipe and will probably make it again, though with a slighty different preparation to tenderize the octopus a little more. The only octopus I could find was frozen, so I'm not quite getting the cream of the crop. I'm guessing that this is the biggest reason the octopus is chewier than I'd like. I'm going to need to use a slightly different cooking method on the octopus in order to get optimal, tender results.
1The photos of the dish do not contain preserved lemon, but rather lemon zest, as my preserved lemons were not finished curing at the time.
2This is made by infusing ¼-cup of olive oil with 1 clove of garlic.
3The gelee is merely a gelatin made from sherry vinegar.
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