conquering octopus.

A couple of years ago, I bought a beautiful whole octopus from Sun Fat in San Francisco’s Mission District.  Inspired by a travel documentary on Greece, I had visions of making a gorgeous stewed octopus topped with olives and lemon.  It was the first time I’d ever broken down an octopus – quite challenging when you don’t know your way around one.  A few hours later, I pulled my stew off the stove and sliced one of the legs.  To my chagrin, it was tough.  Jules tried to be diplomatic about it, but it was a terrible failure.  It mostly went in the trash.

It took a lot of time before I even wanted to attempt octopus again.  I’d heard so many different methods for tenderizing the octopus: beating it against a rock, boiling water baths, cooking it with a cork, salting it…I honestly didn’t have the patience to try any of them, until my friend Lisa over at Nomiku decided to make octopus for our mutual friend’s birthday.  I did it myself this weekend, and let me tell you – I’m fairly certain I will never cook octopus another way!

For this recipe, you will need a sous vide circulator.  Obviously, I’m using one of Lisa’s Nomiku circulators – it’s compact and super easy to use, and they are not paying me to tell you this!

Sous Vide Grilled Octopus with Chimichurri Sauce

For the octopus:

1 octopus, cut into large pieces

2 tsp. of smoked salt (I used Smoked Chardonnay Salt)

2 tablespoons of good olive oil

1 tsp. of smoked paprika

Put all the ingredients in a bag, massage gently, and then put into the 84°C water bath for 4 hours.  Save the juice for use in anything else – it’s basically stock.  I used mine to make a pretty fantastic paella the next day.

To serve, lightly char the outside of the octopus on a grill or using a kitchen blowtorch.  Slice, arrange onto a platter, and top with sauce.

For the Chimichurri sauce:

2 generous handfuls of flat-leaf parsley

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 cup of good quality olive oil

Add all ingredients except oil to a food processor or blender and process, adding the oil in a steady stream with the motor running.  Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavors blend together.  Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Recipe based on Nomiku’s version here!