Grilled Octopus

[podz]

I'm a huge fan of octopus and grill it whenever I can. Naturally, it goes good with some freshly made greek salad and cold bottle or two of Retsina (a very unique type of greek wine).

Anybody else here like octopus?

 

[mikescooling]

I love it!! It's one of those things that I don't cook that often, but when I do it's the best thing ever. Did you do anything with those aside from cleaning them? How long did you cook them?

 

[podz]

I love it!! It's one of those things that I don't cook that often, but when I do it's the best thing ever. Did you do anything with those aside from cleaning them? How long did you cook them?

When I get them fresh from the supermarket, they're already "cleaned" except for the beak which I remove with a pair of needlenose pliers.

A day before grilling, I put the octopus in a big, empty pot and cook with the lid on at the lowest temperature the stove will do - takes a few hours to release all the water out of the octopus. Next, I cut between each leg, up to the center - eight legs, and cut the head into a few pieces (thus my ninth skewer in the grill photo). Then I marinate in a big glass bowl with a mix of 50/50 kalamata olive oil and lemon juice, throw some minced garlic and oregano in as well.

Skewer them up while the grill is heating. Impossible to grill them without skewers because the legs curl up and they won't cook properly. Grilling takes quite some time, half an hour or even more. Brush marinade on them while grilling - it helps to start little fires. It's pretty darned difficult to burn octopus, but you definitely want to try - a charred surface really adds to the taste.

I normally cut them into slices as soon as I pull them off the grill, so people don't have to fight with them at the table, then throw them back into the marinade sauce and onto a serving plate.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I've only ever had octopai as nigiri sushi & those little bitty ones stir-fried; both are very tasty though & I like the chewy texture. It's next to impossible to get a whole octopus here in MT without spending a small fortune for it, but then we have plenty of fresh trout to drown our sorrows in.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

It's next to impossible to get a whole octopus here in MT without spending a small fortune for it

I don't know what you consider a small fortune, but these guys will ship you a huge octopus (about double the size of the ones I have access to) overnight. The price per weight is also cheaper than I pay.

http://www.thefreshlobstercompany.c...Code=sshi003&Category_Code=SI&Product_Count=0

And, unlike fish or meat, octopus and squid does not degrade in any way when frozen - there is zero difference compared to fresh after you thaw it out.

 

[Yooper]

Wow- that looks great. We don't have it available here, but I would love to do something like that.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Thanks for the link podz! Very cool, I'll definately have to do some biz with them this autumn.
Regards, GF.

 

[JonM]

FWIW, one of the best pairings I ever had was at a beer dinner - one course was grilled octopus, grilled leeks, and a shellfish chorizo paired with Goose Island Sofie, which is a Belgian style ale. Pretty darn good.

 

[podz]

Try some retsina if you can get your hands on it. People either love it or they hate it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retsina

This is the one I normally drink (when not in Greece):

 

[Goofynewfie]

I had it breaded and panfried with siracha sauce, and in chowders.

 

[Melana]

That looks delish!

 

[zachattack]

Just read this the other day on a local NPR site, very relevant!

http://www.wbur.org/npr/193904507/mastering-a-sea-monster-from-greece-a-lesson-in-grilling-octopus

 

[Andrikos]

LOVE me some octopus!

Let me recommend instead of garlic in your marinade, add chopped onion and parsley. Along with EVOO and lemon juice it is the "chimichurri" sauce of Greece (and Cyprus my homeland).

You can also use this awesome marinade to stuff a big fish (we usually use Dorade/Bream and cook it on charcoal while periodically brushing the marinade. Serve with french fries and a simple village salad: Culinary heaven!!!

The best full-proof way to cook Octopus, which is quite tricky, is sous vide. Package it with some EVOO and a bit of salt and cook at 180F/85C for 4 hours.
After that, you can grill it while marinating on REALLY hot fire/charcoal for just a couple of minutes to get some nice caramelization (from the lemon juice) and char. If you have garlic in the marinade (instead of chopped onions) it will burn and taste pretty gnarly.

Oh man, now i'm drooling...

 

[tarawa]

I have had grilled octopus only at a Portuguese Restaurant...now you have me wanting to cook my own!

 

[mikescooling]

Cooking octopus is tricky, you have to cook it very fast or very slow. I think the easiest to cook is calamari. All you have to do is rip the face off, take the piece of plastic out, then peal the skin off and slice it into rounds. You can cook it by grilling or frying. The OP is cooking a larger octo which takes more skill.

 

[tcapmidnoces]

Wow- that looks great. We don't have it available here, but I would love to do something like that.

Yep, hard to find up here. Can find it occasionally at the asian markets though.
Anyone here try takoyaki before?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I havent, but its on my long list of things to try.

 

[Goofynewfie]

Cooking octopus is tricky, you have to cook it very fast or very slow. I think the easiest to cook is calamari.

Calamari is not octopus though......

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I think scooling just meant "amongst tentacled seafoods, calamari is the easiest to cook."

 

[mikescooling]

calamari is a squid, I did not know that. Learn something new every day. And when you are eating you octo think of this clip:

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Oh... or perhaps I could be wrong and schooling thought calamari was octopus. HA!

 

[podz]

Calamari is not octopus though......

True that calamari refers to squid - they are differently shaped cephalopods than octopus but there is not much difference, if any, in the taste.

I generally don't buy squid from fish counters because they are sold by weight and about half the weight of a squid is inedible material (cartilage), whereas an octopus is about 99% edible. The price per weight for the two is often exactly the same, so in my opinion it's never worth it to buy whole squid.

 

[chef273b]

Grilled some baby octopi done in a Thai marinade last weekend. Delicious.

 

[podz]

Grilled some baby octopi done in a Thai marinade last weekend. Delicious.

They look just like the ones I buy from Lidl. I've got an entire drawer of my standing freezer full of them now!

A friend of mine got pretty upset with me for buying the baby ones, but they only come to Lidl once a year and they are sold out on the first day anyway - if I get there too late, the local Greek restaurants have already snatched them all up.

No need to put the little ones onto skewers - straight onto the grill.

Thinking about grilling some octopus now... might need to run to the store and get a bottle of Ouzo ;-)

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I can get baby octopai frozen in a seafood medley here. I haven't gotten around to trying that particular blend yet, but I most certainly will; and soon.

I think it'll actually be better than the blend with mussels cuz I won't have to check for shell fragments & the entire weight will be edible. Not as good as fresh, but it's what we have here in MT.
Regards, GF.

EDIT: Out of curiosity, have you ever tried smoking octopus? I've had smoked squid & it's pretty tasty, seems like it would work with octopai too.
Regards, GF.

 

[podz]

I think it'll actually be better than the blend with mussels cuz I won't have to check for shell fragments & the entire weight will be edible. Not as good as fresh, but it's what we have here in MT.
Regards, GF.

EDIT: Out of curiosity, have you ever tried smoking octopus? I've had smoked squid & it's pretty tasty, seems like it would work with octopai too.
Regards, GF.

Actually there is no difference between frozen and fresh octopus. Octopus is a strange device, but the flesh really does not suffer at all from being frozen. If there was ever a creature that could be frozen alive and brought back to life, octopus would probably be it.

Never tried smoking, but I've bought dried squid with chili powder from a vietnamese food store. It's a tasty snack.

 

[chef273b]

Smoked octopus? I'll give that a shot.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

The Sushi Hana place in downtown Missoula has what they call Ika Sensei; smoked squid salad & it's pretty tasty. I'll get an order of that to go with ikura & unagi to start, after that I'll be working on the nigiri platter called chotokusen. Such food makes me very happy.
Regards, GF.

 

[njale]

never tried it. a supermarket around here has on sale this week: "baby octopus - clean, previously frozen" for $2.99/lb

 

[Hoptimistic]

I'm a huge fan of octopus and grill it whenever I can. Naturally, it goes good with some freshly made greek salad and cold bottle or two of Retsina (a very unique type of greek wine).

Anybody else here like octopus?

where do you get a whole octopus like that