Most of you enjoy a good Calamari a la Romana, but once you try some lovely Octopus, the poor Calamari loses a bit of its shine in my books. Of course I still enjoy my calamari :-).
I had the best Grilled Octopus ever in Lisbon, Portugal, so every once in a while in order to relive the moment, I do my best to make the experience real again!
Unfortunately in South Florida getting fresh Octopus is not much of an option, I buy mine at Sedanos or Food Fair an the outcome is very good and it comes all nicely cleaned up, no ink to be seen which makes it easier to handle.
So here we go:
Rinse your octopus and cut into pieces, I leave the suckers on but sometimes remove some of the dark film if there is too much.
Turn over on to 240 deg Farenheit.
Place a large sheet of tin foil at the bottom of a oven pan and place octopus in the center.
- Drizzle some olive oil (about 2 tbsps)
- Season with salt and pepper
- Drizzle about 3 tbsps of Balsamic vinegar ( I used Oregano infused balsamic) but regular will do just fine
- Add about a tbsp of oregano
Get another sheet of tin foil and carefully place it on top and seal it nicely top and bottom layers to make a neat pouch.
Place in oven for approximately 1 1/2 hrs but check after 1 hour has passed for tenderness. Once it has reached the tenderness required, I like tossing it on a hot BBQ to give it a nice char.
Serve as an appetizer with a nice aioli dip, with rice or side of choice, but my favourite finishing touch is a drizzle of Lavender infused Balsamic vinegar (once again, regular balsamic will work too) but it doesn’t hurt to be adventurous right?
PS: Cooking process can be a lot quicker if you own a pressure cooker and there are lots of recipes out there for it, obviously I do not own one 🙂