Tender Charred Octopus with Red Wine Sauce and Garlic Skordalia · Excerpt: How to get octopus meltingly tender at home, then char it hard and serve it on garlicky Greek potato skordalia.
People are scared of cooking octopus at home, and I understand why. Get it wrong and it’s like chewing a rubber band. In the restaurant we cooked it slowly in oil at a carefully controlled temperature. At home, gently simmering it in water with aromatics gets you 95% of the way there, with much less mess.
It’s served on skordalia, a Greek dip of potato, garlic and olive oil that’s punchy enough to stand up to the octopus. The red wine sauce has a little cinnamon and nutmeg in it, which sounds strange but is very Greek and works beautifully.
My twist: Instead of serving the octopus straight from the pot, I finish it on a screaming-hot barbecue for smoky, crispy edges.
Serves: 4 as a main, 6 as a starter · Prep: 30 minutes · Cook: about 1½ hours
Ingredients
For the octopus
- 1 octopus (about 1.5 kg), cleaned (frozen is fine, and often more tender)
- 1 brown onion, halved
- 4 garlic cloves, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 sprig rosemary and 2 bay leaves
- 125 ml (½ cup) red wine vinegar
- Olive oil, for grilling
For the red wine sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus 2 tbsp extra to finish
- 1 eschalot, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 sprig each thyme and rosemary, and 1 bay leaf
- A pinch each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg
- 125 ml (½ cup) red wine
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 375 ml (1½ cups) fish or chicken stock
For the skordalia
- 400 g floury potatoes (Desiree or Sebago), peeled and chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 40 g (¼ cup) blanched almonds, soaked in water for 30 minutes
- 125 ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Sea salt
Method
- Simmer the octopus. If your octopus was frozen, thaw it overnight in the fridge. Put it in a large pot with the onion, garlic, herbs and vinegar, and cover it with cold water. Bring it to a bare simmer, so just a few bubbles break the surface, and cook for 45–60 minutes. It’s ready when a knife slides easily into the thickest part of a tentacle. Let it cool in the liquid, then cut it into individual tentacles.
- Make the sauce. Heat the oil in a small saucepan and soften the eschalot and garlic for 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste, herbs and spices and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the wine and vinegar and bring to the boil, then add the stock. Simmer until it has reduced to about 250 ml (1 cup), around 15 minutes. Remove the herbs. Blend until smooth, adding the extra olive oil while the blender runs so it turns glossy.
- Make the skordalia. Boil the potatoes in salted water until very tender, then drain them well. While they’re still hot, pass them through a ricer or mash them until smooth. Blend the garlic, drained almonds and lemon juice with a splash of water to a paste. Beat the paste into the potato, then slowly beat in the olive oil until it’s smooth and creamy. Season generously with salt. Don’t put the potato itself in the blender, or it’ll turn gluey.
- Char the octopus. Heat a barbecue or chargrill pan as hot as it’ll go. Toss the tentacles in a little olive oil and salt and grill them for 2–3 minutes on each side, until crisp and charred at the edges.
- Serve. Spread a generous swoosh of skordalia on each plate, put the octopus on top and spoon the warm red wine sauce around it. Finish with good olive oil and a few thyme leaves.
Tips
- Freezing actually helps tenderise octopus, so frozen octopus from a good fishmonger is perfectly fine to use.
- Everything except the charring can be done a day ahead. Keep the octopus in the fridge in a little of its cooking liquid.
- Leftover skordalia is wonderful with crusty bread or alongside grilled lamb.
