Smoked and Grilled Spanish Octopus with Olives and Tomates
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Food:
Fish
Serves:
2 to 3 people
Prep Time:
10 min
Cook Time:
3 hours
When grilled octopus is done right, there's nothing like it. This recipe steps it up by smoking the octopus before going onto the grill to get a nice char. The tender smoked and grilled octopus is placed on a bed of Spanish-style tomates, made by grating tomato and garlic together and mixing it with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Think of the traditional pan con tomate of Spain, sans bread that adds a freshness and brightness to the octopus. The whole dish is garnished with grilled green olives, a drizzle of good quality olive oil and Maldon salt. Serve on its own as a great appetizer, or you can most definitely serve this with some nice toasted sourdough to sop up that delicious tomates and olives.
By:Chef Matt Basile
Ingredients
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1 whole fresh octopus
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2 tbsp olive oil
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Juice from 1 lemon
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1 tomato
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1 clove garlic
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Juice from ½ lemon
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1-2 tbsp olive oil
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Salt
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¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped
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1 clove garlic
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Zest from ½ lemon
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Olive oil
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8-9 pitted green olives (Manzanilla)
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½ lemon, grilled
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Maldon salt
For the octopus:
For the tomates:
For the gremolata:
For garnish:
Instructions
Set smoker to 300F.
Steam the whole octopus for 3 minutes, then place in an ice bath. Pat the octopus dry, then drizzle with olive oil and a squeeze of juice from ½ a lemon. Place in the smoker for 2 hours.
Grate the tomato into a bowl, then grate in the garlic, add a squeeze of juice from ½ a lemon, add the olive oil, season with salt, mix and set aside.
Finely chop the Italian parsley, grate in the garlic, add the zest from ½ lemon. Add to a bowl and drizzle in the olive oil, mix and set aside.
Slice the olives in half. Place on the planch and drizzle with oil, cook until a nice char, flipping occasionally. Remove and set aside.
Remove the octopus from the smoker and score between each leg, then place back in the smoker for an hour. Then remove from the smoker and cut off the tentacles. Drizzle with oil and place on the grill to sear on both sides. Squeeze the juice from ½ a lemon on the octopus while it sears. Add half a lemon face down to the grill to char. Remove the lemon and octopus from the grill, and cut the octopus into 1-1.5 inch pieces.
To plate, add the tomate as the base and then add the octopus on top, and the grilled lemon next to it. Drizzle with the gremolata, top with the grilled olives and season with Maldon salt. Squeeze on the grilled lemon and dig in.