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Octopus Day on the Gorge

I have some deadlines looming, so of course I am overcome with a need to cook and clean and hang laundry on the line while the sun shines.

And so it was that while diligently sorting through the hidden treasures in my freezer, I came upon an octopus, bounty from last year’s Michelle Rose seafood share.

This particular species, the red octopus (O. rubescens), is considered bycatch in prawn fishing, so the Michelle Rose fishermen decided to make a meal of it and add it to their offerings. Spot prawn season started last Thursday and  I’m looking forward to another share of both this year. All the more reason to drop everything and cook up some octopus surprise.

Octopus is not something I’ve found too often on Canadian menus; when I mention it my friends gag and make squeamish noises about tentacles. They are surprised when I tell them how tender and delicious it can be, as they assume it will be rubbery like cuttlefish and as flavourless as the depressing platters of calimari that (dis)grace so many bar menus.

One of my enduring memories of Crete is a particularly delicious dinner featuring octopus in red wine. This must have been nearly ten years ago, yet the taste and texture live on. When in Italy I always have insalata di polpo, and occasionally carpaccio di polpo. So I was game to try cooking some myself.

Many recipes consulted, and Italian cooking videos watched for good measure. In all of them they dunk the octopus three times in boiling water, to curl the ends of the tentacles and gradually introduce the change in temperature to assure tender cooking. They all stewed or simmered the octopus in water, but I had taken the words of saint Harold McGee to heart–“If you cook octopus in water, you dilute those juices and their flavor.” The flesh, he advises, is 80% water, so it does release a lot of juice while cooking.

This was a hefty one, in excellent condition, having been frozen in salt water. I forgot to weigh it before I started but I’d guess at least 2kg, with very long tentacles making it a bit of a trial to handle. I decided to blanch it as directed – eschewing the salt at Harold’s suggestion – and divide it in two so I could try a couple of different recipes.

One batch I cooked in the oven, with no added water, at 200f. I can cool this and eat it as is, or use it in salads or make a carpaccio. Harold said it could take up to five hours for a large octopus but this one was seeming very tender after blanching, so I only needed an hour; put it in a smaller casserole and turned it at the halfway point and then cooled it in its juices. When I reduced them they were salty indeed so I was glad I hadn’t added any seasonings.

The other half I cooked in red wine the Cretan way. The initial instructions were a little difficult to believe: cook in olive oil on low heat until all the juices are absorbed. Of course the opposite happened, but I figured I could reduce the juices later. I decided to pause after half an hour as the flesh was starting to tenderize beautifully. I added the red wine and gave it another half hour and let it cool in the juices before tucking it away in the fridge for my supper.

Looking forward to a nice healthy meal  of it which will contain iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, selenium and zinc; vitamins C, A, B12, folate and Niacin; as well as some omega-3 fatty acids, choline and taurine.

Here are the recipes:

Slow-cooked octopus (based on Harold McGee’s To Cook an Octopus)

    1kg octopus
    1 large kettle boiling water
  • Clean the octopus, if needed: remove any extraneous matter from the hood, cut out the eyes and remove the beak (found on the bottom of the octopus where the arms meet). Rinse well.
  • Using a large fork, hold the octopus just under the hood so that the tentacles fall downwards. Dip the tentacles almost up to the fork in the boiling water and hold for about 15 seconds. Lift and note the way the ends have curled in. Repeat, plunging a bit further to cover the hood. Once again lift and let the water drain; then repeat a third time, ensuring the octopus is covered in water. Hold there for about 10 seconds and then lift, drain and place in an ovenproof covered casserole.
  • Place the casserole in a 200f/95c oven and cook for 2-5 hours, checking for tenderness with a knife.
  • Drain the juices and boil them down to reduce them to the desired consistency and amount.
  • When cool, you will probably want to remove the skin and perhaps the suckers for a more aesthetic look.
  • Serve the octopus as is, with the juices, or cut into pieces and make into an octopus salad dressed with good quality olive oil and fresh lemon juice (cold boiled and sliced potatoes make a nice addition) with freshly chopped parsley; a mixed seafood salad; or make octopus carpaccio (scroll down to see photos in this recipe for easy instructions) drizzled in olive oil and lemon dressing. Or perhaps you could add potatoes and beans and make a version of this nice sounding octopus stew.

 

Octopus in Red Wine (based on Cretan Cooking, by Maria & Nikos Psilakis)

  • Clean the octopus, if needed: remove any extraneous matter from the hood, cut out the eyes and remove the beak (found on the bottom of the octopus where the arms meet). Rinse well.
  • Using a large fork, hold the octopus just under the hood so that the tentacles fall downwards. Dip the tentacles almost up to the fork in the boiling water and hold for about 15 seconds. Lift and note the way the ends have curled in. Repeat, plunging a bit further to cover the hood. Once again lift and let the water drain; then repeat a third time, ensuring the octopus is covered in water. Hold there for about 10 seconds and then lift, drain and place on a chopping board.
  • Cut the octopus up into pieces about an inch long, or to your preference.
  • Heat half a cup of good olive oil in a pot large enough to hold the octopus pieces comfortably. Add the octopus and cook at low heat for around half an hour, until starting to become tender.
  • Add half a cup of red wine and cook another half an hour or so, until very soft and tender.
  • Serve with rice and a Greek salad, and lots of your best crusty bread.

Televisualess, with eggplant

I have been living for a couple of years now without television, which has been freeing; it has, as I’d hoped, freed up more time for reading, cooking and walking. I still watch stuff on tv-like screens, but now I rent movies and watch videos online. I suppose that has narrowed the field from which my media heroes are drawn, but if it has there’s one person I’m glad I’ve been able to see in a number of documentaries. She speaks clearly, simply and – although the message is terrifying – with hope and vision.

Here’s an interview with the awesome Vandana Shiva, who has put the plight of Indian farmers into the public spotlight, can explain beautifully the perils of seed patents (covered by Vanity Fair in the May/08 issue!) and biodiesels, has put her money where her mouth is through her foundation, Navdanya, and among her many other activities, now sits on the board of Slow Food International:

And now, if you have a couple of hours to spare, here’s Fast Food World: Perils and Promises of the Global Food Chain, a fascinating panel discussion from way back in 2003, featuring just about everyone I admire together on one stage: Vandana Shiva together with Carlo Petrini, poet Wendell Barry, Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and a charming introduction from Alice Waters.

If you’re still hungry after that, I wandered into a wonderful website that is all about aubergines, or eggplants, or melanzane. It includes a recipe for Tumbet, which we had in Spain; I tried Rose Elliot’s version the other day, which was very good, but I think this is closer to the one I fell in love with.

A year ago already

So, it’s been a year since the Iambic Cafe revealed itself – and my evolving involvement with the staples of life: food and poetry. What can I say: the journey continues.

One of those present at the writers retreat where it all began was Barbara Klar, whose Ideas radio program Swine Before Pearls is about to hit the airwaves (February 19, 9:05 pm, CBC Radio 1 – or however that translates for internet transmission in time zones other than Canadian ones: I think we’ll have to be tuning in during the wee hours of the 20th here in Europe). She’s going to explore the connection between our food animals and our own mortality, as we tip over into the Chinese Year of the Pig. It sounds promising.

Me, I’m also impatient to see Barbara’s new poetry collection which is due out from Brick Books — next year? Having heard a few of the poems as they wended their way onto the page, I know it will be more than noteworthy. So the conjunction of food and poetry is present everywhere, not just in my life. And speaking of Brick, another book I’ve been waiting for seems to be busting over the horizon: Lorri Neilsen Glenn‘s Combustion.

Here’s some food I’ve been enjoying now, mid-winter, when fresh vegetables and inspiration might seem at their lowest:

Celery and Apple Soup
(about 4 servings)
1 tbsp butter or oil
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
4-5 stalks fresh celery, including leaves, diced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
2 large cooking apples, cored and chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup Greek (or full-fat plain) yogurt or 1/4 cup heavy cream
Crumbled stilton or gorgonzola; or grated fresh parmigiano-reggiano; or freshly made croutons; or toasted almonds, to finish

  • In a large saucepan sweat the diced onion in the butter until transparent. Add the celery and potato to the onion and continue on a low heat for about 5 minutes.
  • Add the apple and heat through, another 5-10 minutes.
  • Add the stock, seasoning and sugar.
  • Bring to the boil, then simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Stir in the parsley.
  • Allow to cool a little before liquidising thoroughly, and then pass it through a sieve.
  • Check seasoning and consistency, adding a little milk or broth if needed. Stir in about yogurt or cream, and crumble or grate one of the cheeses into the soup, or top with croutons or toasted almonds.

In which I revisit a couple of cooking sites

I was feeling so much better this evening, and checking a few food/recipe sites, testing my tolerance for pictures of food (still fairly low – glad that so far you don’t get aromas through the laptop) and I noticed a couple of major differences between two I’ve visited in the past, both by British food celebs.

Further to yesterday’s posting on recipe copyright I was interested to see, while stopping in at Nigella Lawson’s site that I think it has been revamped since my last visit. It’s very much a glossy marketing forum for books, dvds, kitchenware and of course Nigella herself. No Nigella recipes on offer; instead a clever wrinkle whereby she invites readers to post their own recipes. She does provide an index to her own – simply the recipe title and the name of the book it’s from. Drat, and me separated from my one Nigella cookbook by 7 or 8000 miles I think it is. (There are some of her recipes available at UKTV Food, including a good one for lemon risotto.)

Thankfully Delia Smith still offers a hefty selection of recipes, though some (would be interesting to know what percentage) of them are now locked into “premium content” which you have to pay for. (I wonder if more and more recipes will slip into the “premium” void?) While the site is also a serious marketing tool – you can buy kitchenware, books, online recipe collections and even wine – she has a number of added-value pages, like her online cookery school. If you’ve ever lamely wondered how to make shortcrust pastry, joint a raw chicken, or prepare and serve a mango, she gives you step by step instructions with photos. And if that leaves you thirsting for more she offers links to her own cooking school in Norwich (no she doesn’t teach the classes) and the Leith School in London.

On the other hand there is a page where she plugs products for McCain’s that she has developed to bulk up her football team (Norwich City). An interesting wrinkle – given the U.S. copyright controversy – is that she gives a few of the recipes for these away in case you want the hands-on challenge of making a high-carb, low-fat dish like Lean Shepherd’s Pie from scratch (–if “scratch” to you includes using McCain’s frozen mashed potatoes) (why on earth would anyone use frozen mashed potatoes for anything??). And she does tell the alert reader, flat-out, that a simple baked potato (not counting any fillings) is a better source of carbohydrates than anything McCain’s is offering.

Sick of being sick, food in Britain, and copyrighting recipes

I have been languishing in my sickbed for two solid days, mostly too ill for meditation, although I have reached the following conclusion: surely the ailment that delivers the hardest blow to the solar plexis of the student of food culture is stomach flu. My diet since Monday has consisted of a large bottle of water, two glasses of juice, and this evening about a half cup of cooked white rice. Not least of my discomforts was the irritation of knowing I was missing lectures by visiting food culture expert Laura Mason, who I’d particularly wanted to hear. I did manage to listen to the radio for a little while today, and reflect on some recent articles I’d read.

I listened again to a report on Italian vs British food on the latest Food Programme, which is available online until Sunday when it is replaced by a report on olive oil: very timely for us as we begin a few weeks of study on that very topic. This episode was built around a visit to Fiera del Bue Grasso in Piemonte. Some interesting discussion about attitudes to food, issues around steroid use in cattle, and a recipe for brasato. One remark caught my ear (by eminent food writer Anna del Conte, a longtime Italian expat living in Dorset), which was that there was good food to be had in Britain, and the opportunity to buy from producers, but getting hold of it was tied to class (and income).

On a partially connected note I spotted a piece by Israeli food writer Daniel Rogov on finding good food in Britain. I was amused by his observation that “French restaurants have become the rage in the city and many of these serve meals that, in addition to being creative and exquisite are often so expensive that a weekend in Paris is a cheaper way to enjoy French food than by dining in London.”

I had come upon Rogov while reading his excellent commentary on recipe writing which I’d been led to by following a report on some weird things happening with food patents and copyrights Oddly enough, a friend (thanks Ruth!) had earlier in the week sent me a link to an article about food experiments by the very chef Cantu mentioned in the copyright article. Not convinced this is the kind of food I want to spend my money on just now: too many unprocessed foods I haven’t tried yet, still in their original packaging. (Why does everything I read lately make me want to wail “what have we done to our food??”)

Cheese technology, dragon sausages and rocket soup


Hmm… what’s wrong with this picture…


Enjoying the walk back to class. Postprandial view: fountain at the Reggia di Colorno.

Week two has started at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and we’re deep into microbiology and the technology of cheese. A classmate has thrown down the gauntlet and invited me to find poetry in that.. but first I must master the terminology. No easy thing. But perhaps by the end of the week I’ll know my triglycerides from my diglycerides and my casein from my hydrolytic enzymes. Yessir… thank the lords ‘n ladies of technology for Wikipedia is all I can say. And bless the foresight and generosity of Douglas Goff for creating the Dairy Science and Technology website.

And thank heavens for email. One of my correspondents reliably informs me that at the moment a company in the UK is being hauled over the coals for calling their product “Welsh Dragon Sausages” on the grounds that it is not a true description of the contents. Apparently a commentator on this topic noted that it had blown the cold wind of fear into the makers of shepherd’s pie, angel cakes and chocolate brownies.

Owing to my continuing throat ailment I stayed in tonight and had some nourishing soup. Not chicken soup which I’m sure really does cure everything, but some rocket soup, a kind of vegetable jet fuel I’m hoping, and nice to eat while you catch up on the story of Elizabeth Smart and George Barker:

Rocket Soup

1 tbsp butter
1 large shallot, minced
1/4 cup minced fresh fennel
1 small carrot, minced
1 medium potato, diced
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups rocket

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium and add the shallot, cooking for a couple of minutes until soft.
  • Add the fennel and carrot and cook gently on low heat about 10 minutes.
  • Add the potato and then the broth. Bring to the boil and then simmer another 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
  • Add the rocket, cover and cook another few minutes until the rocket has wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
  • I was lacking a blender, but it could (should?) be blended/pureed at this point or served as is.