Ever thought of trying your hand at cooking Octopus? You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a bit out of the comfort zone of many casual cooks. A marvel in Mediterranean dishes, these little sea monsters can become quite chewy if they aren’t prepared correctly. But fear not! Sally’s come up with a near-fool proof way to get the best out of your Octopus.
If you put Greek Octopus into Google, you’ll see pictures of them hanging from clothes lines, surrounded by rocky beaches of the Greek Islands. The reason for this is to get them tender before cooking. Octopus need to be cooked quickly on a high heat, or slowly on a low heat. This beautiful recipe combines both methods, with a delicious result
CHARRED OCTOPUS WITH RED CAPSICUM AND BLACK OLIVES
SERVES 2-4
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- 500 Gr Cleaned Local Octopus
- 1 Small Brown Onion
- 1 Whole Garlic Bulb
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 1 Large Red Capsicum
- 1 Lemon
- Sprig Of Fresh Oregano
- ¼ Cup Olive Oil
- Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper
- Dried Chilli, to taste
- Oil Marinated Black Olives
- Fresh Basil
- 100 Gr Fetta Cheese, Crumbled
- Drizzle garlic bulb and halved red capsicum with a little olive oil.
- Wrap garlic in foil and cook garlic and capsicum in a very hot oven (230C) for 40 mins until garlic is soft and capsicum is blackened.
- Place capsicum in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. The steam will lift the charred skin from the capsicum as it cools.
- Meanwhile, add cleaned octopus, halved onion and bay leaves to a large pot of water.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes. The octopus will change from chewy to tender in the last 10 minutes or so.
- When it’s cool enough to handle, squeeze garlic from cloves and peel charred skin from capsicum.
- Finely chop half the capsicum and combine with garlic puree, olive oil, zest from the lemon, salt, pepper, fresh oregano and dried chilli to taste. Set aside half of this mixture.
- Remove tenderised octopus straight from the pot and into remaining half of capsicum garlic mixture. Allow to marinate for at least half an hour.
- To remaining capsicum mixture, add lemon juice to taste.
- Heat a bbq and cook octopus on hot grills for a minute of 2, to char the edges.
- Arrange charred octopus with remaining red capsicum (torn into strips), black olives, basil and fetta on a serving platter, and drizzle with capsicum dressing to serve.
