Attacking Octopus

We all have a particular dish or dishes that we always order when we dine at a particular restaurant. I always order the spicy miso ramen at the noodle shop near my apartment, the cherry stone clam pizza at Motorino and the grilled octopus at Tripoli, the whole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant in Montreal. A little bit more on Tripoli...

I'm sure I've mentioned this joint before on the constant hunger. Tripoli is the type of place where you'll find old Greek men discussing politics and soccer over strong coffee at 11:00 a.m., families with screaming children hustling to get through an early dinner and loud, drunk young folk engaging in stupid behavior and ordering too much food at 3:00 a.m.

Now, what about this food? There's taramosalata, perfectly creamy and salty and something you'll want to spread on grilled bread. Grilled veal chops, lamb chops, sweetbreads all served with perfectly sliced potatoes drench in olive oil. And then there is the grilled octopus...love of my life. Served with capers and chopped red onion, it's swimming in olive oil and fresh lemon juice. I dream about the grilled octopus at Tripoli.

So I was thrilled when I came home last night and saw that my husband was not only taking over dinner duty, but he was going to make grilled octopus. What an adventurous cook! Now octopus is not the best looking thing you'll ever eat and looking at it in its raw state may scare some of you. I asked my husband how he planned on preparing it and he said that the fish monger at Eataly had suggested boiling it for 20 minutes and then grilling it. Now my husband did research several other recipes on-line but decided that the guy who sold him the octopus must know what he's talking about. The quantity he bought did look like a lot but apparently octopus shrinks a whole lot during the cooking process so the end product would be just enough for two. 

My husband boiled the octopus then grilled it as directed. He then cut it up and served it just like they do at Tripoli, with onions and lemon and olive oil. The result... Rubbery octopus. Where did we go wrong? Obviously we're going to try making octopus again. My husband is determined to get it right. But for now I'll share our recipe and maybe you can tweak it. We welcome suggestions. Do you know how to make perfectly tender grilled octopus? Please share in the comments field or send me an email.

 

Grilled Octopus à la dude who works at Eataly

Ingredients:

2 lbs octopus cleaned by the fish monger

1 whole onion

1 whole carrot

3 bay leaves

salt

1 or 2 corks from a wine bottle

 

To serve:

juice from one lemon

extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup capers

1 small red onion chopped

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste 

 

Method:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the onion, carrot, bay leaves, cork(s) and octopus to the water. Apparently, cork helps to keep the octopus tender. Boil for 20 minutes. 

Remove from water and grill on a stove-top grill for a few minutes on each side. Remove from grill and place on a cutting board and cut into bite-size pieces. 

Place on a serving plate and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Add the onions and capers and season with salt, pepper and oregano. 

Happy cooking!

Comments

[Peggy]

I'm intrigued by this! We always see the octopus in the Whole Foods seafood counter, but have never ventured into trying to cook it outselves... definitely going to have to make that a project!

[Lizzy]

LOL, I love the name of your dish :) And I would love to try some non-rubbery octopus...but I'll let you experiment some more before I try it. Hope you find that perfect technique!

[Nicole @ The Dirty Oven]

Well it looks amazing... I love Octopus salads and grill Octopus is so good. I wonder if it was just grilled and not pre-boiled if it would be more tender. Never really tried to cook it at home. You guys have courage. Thanks for sharing.

[Celia]

I'm a huge octopus fan as well, but have also had problems getting it tender. Thanks for sharing the cork trick!

[egb]

Ooooh!! I've been wanting to cook octopus for weeks now. I've just been waiting for grilling season. I can't wait to try!

[julie]

i came across a post on kalofagas.ca that might help you: http://kalofagas.ca/2009/07/07/grilled-octopus-xταπόδι-σχάρας/

if you try again, please let us know how it turns out! :)

[Alina]

Thanks, Julie. I'll try out this method and let you know how it goes!

[Mike]

Octopus is a very slimy and bland ingredient. I found a way around both problems: Rub it with a lot of kosher salt to "exfoliate" the skin, which removes the slime and also provides a quick cure for a flavor boost. After about 5 minutes, dip the octopus in boiling water to rinse off the salt. This also helps to remove the slime and provide some additional texture/bite instead of something gooey that melts in your mouth. Discard the salty water, then proceed with a long, slow simmer in a court boullion flavored with some red wine. Total cooking time will be a couple hours, but with an ingredient like octopus, which so few people cook regularly, it's definitely worth cooking a lot of it in a large batch.

When tender, chop (faux tourne) into bite size pieces, barely cover it with extra virgin olive oil, and marinate with small amounts of a plethora of Mediterranean ingredients like garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, marjoram, sage, parsley, etc. This will keep for about a week in the refrigerator with great flavor and usage in salads and cold appetizers. It's actually quite delicious with no off-putting texture or fishiness... that is you have tender octopus with lot of bright flavors that complement the octopus instead of competing with it.