While flash frying is great for baby octopus, poaching medium to large octopus is a much better choice to achieve a soft, non-rubbery texture.
By Martyna Candrick
Basque Octopus Salad
While flash frying is great for baby octopus, poaching medium to large octopus is a much better choice to achieve a soft, non-rubbery texture.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Yield: 2-4 1x
- Category: Appetiser
Ingredients
Scale
For the marinated octopus:
- 1 medium raw octopus, cleaned (approx 300g or 1lb)
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- ¼ cup light olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
To serve as Octopus Salad:
- marinated octopus, prepared as above
- 1 medium cooked potato, chilled and diced
- 1 head baby cos lettuce, shredded
- 1 dill pickle, diced
- ? cup olives of choice
- 1 tsp capers in brine
- 1–2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1–2 tbsp chopped salted and white anchovies (see note), optional
- 1 tbsp of the leftover oil
- toasted bread of your choice
- lemon wedges
Instructions
To make the octopus:
- Cut the octopus into quarters, removing the head and beak (hard, shell-like bit from the middle near the head).
- Bring a saucepan of water and a tablespoon of vinegar to a boil and drop in the tentacles and head. Bring to a boil then lower to a gentle simmer and cook for 1-1.5 hours or until the tentacles are soft when pierced but not mushy. Drain and cool in an ice bath.
- Peel off any of the slimy membranes – be careful not to remove too many of the suckers during this process, they look great and add texture to the dish.
- Chop up roughly. Mix oil and lemon juice in a bowl and add octopus. Mix well and season with black pepper. Refrigerate until needed (up to 2 days).
To serve:
- In a large bowl, mix together the octopus, diced potato, lettuce,diced pickle, olives, capers and anchovies, if using. Drizzle with oil. Transfer onto serving dish.
- Serve with lightly toasted bread and lemon wedges.
