If you a looking for a delicious easy-to-cook dish that will impress your guests and have them fighting over the last morsel, then you MUST try this Aromatic Greek Octopus Salad. I promise you’ll have tender delicious octopus every time!
It’s great as part of a mezethes board or a summer lunch.
What you need
- 1 octopus – around 1kg (cleaned)
- 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 allspice berries
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
To serve
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 Tablespoons chopped continental parsley
- Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
What to do
Preheat your oven to a low temperature of 110°C
Unless you like the challenge of cleaning octopus, I suggest you ask your fishmonger to clean the octopus when you purchase it. If you insist on cleaning it yourself, here’s a HOW TO CLEAN OCTOPUS VIDEO thanks to The Sydney Fish Market to help you if you need it!
Rinse the octopus under cold water.
Place into an baking dish that has a tight-fitting lid (if necessary, cut the legs into large pieces to fit in the dish). Add the oil, cinnamon stick, bay leave, allspice berries, black peppercorns and white wine.
Cover with the lid (if you don’t have a lid that fits properly, cover the dish tightly with aluminium foil then put the lid on)
Bake for 2 – 3 hours or until the octopus is tender – you should be able to pierce the thickest part of the octopus easily with a fork.
Remove the octopus from the dish and place onto a plate.
Strain juice from baking dish into a small saucepan and place on medium heat and bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer to reduce juices by half.
Pour some of the reduced juices over the octopus.
To serve, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil, squeeze the lemon and sprinkle the parsley over the octopus.
Serve your Aromatic Greek Octopus Salad with crusty sour dough breadstick (to mop up the delicious juices), a Greek Salad and a glass of crisp white wine (Greek wine of course – here’s a few to try) and you have a scrumptious summer meal!
Cheers
Vicki
Meatballs and Muffins 