… probably topping my list of foods that i’ve never cooked before is octopus and if it wasn’t for the lovely people at Finish Quantum I doubt very much i’d ever have been able to place it there…
I was very kindly invited and paid to attend an amazing masterclass with Florence Knight who is head chef at one of London’s most succsessful new restaurants Polpetto. She was an absolute inspiration and at the tender age of 28 she has achieved a breathtaking amount of incredible stuff that made me feel rather old and desperately under-done…14 food bloggers crowded into one of those magazine-shoot style kitchens in south London where Florence took us on a mini regional tour of Italian cooking covering some of the most classic dishes served at her restaurant… which started with a stunning tiramisu and ended with a beautifully rustic veal meatball and tomato sauce… and of course included the polpo itself… octopus.
… as I say, i’ve never cooked an octopus before, although I have had the pleasure of sitting in a cafe on the cobbled streets on a Greek island or two where the local fishermen climb out of their boats, octopus in hand and proceed to whack them, whip-like, onto the sea wall to tenderise them… and then of course eat them greedily, grilled and smothered in garlic butter so when Florence pulled two beauties out of a bowl I was intrigued and a little surprised by her method to cook them… but wonderfully happy to eat the fabulous results and I thought I ought to share this with you lovely people and hopefully encourage you to try this wonderfully simple, healthy and rustic dish…
sauted octopus with chilli and new potatoes
so they say you learn a new thing every day and one of those things for me this day was that if you want your octopus to be beautifully tender it can be cooked one of two ways… very fast or very slow… and never in between… Florence’s technique includes simmering the beauties in stock for 45 minutes to thoroughly tenderise them and believe me they were absolutely incredible…
… I foolishly didn’t take notes… well actually i was too busy eating to take notes so I may have left one or two things out but here’s how I think I remember it was done…
I will share the rest of the stunning recipes with you in another post but in the meantime I must, once again, thank the good people at Finish Quantum for inviting me to this incredible experience… I spent the whole day laughing with some of my favourite food bloggers and it’s these kind of special events that bring us out of our little web-holes, blinking into the sunshine and it’s just so lovely to meet some of the faces behind the blogs I read every day… and even though this next bit may seem just a little cheesy, the great thing about the product is that it actually works and as we all know, in this day and age when we really can’t afford to spend good money on bad products it’s nice to know that when I bung stuff into the dishwasher… which I do… and I do mean everything… it will come out clean, because after-all that’s its job right?
i’d also like to thank
eat and of course, enjoy!
Oh I love octopus and I've never cooked it either, this sounds delicious!
A gaggle of food bloggers? Surely that should be a chomp of food bloggers!
Fab looking dish – I'm pining for a glass of ouzo and some sunshine now!
The only way I have ever cooked octopus is in a seafood risotto. Just like you said, it was saute quickly and devoured even quicker. I think my dad(being Italian) would have loved this recipe. I would love to try this dish, because it would have been such a treat for my dad.
When I think of it I have never cooked with octopus t home. It is one of those things that I usually have to buy frozen. I'll keep a watch out.
There's the expression “screw (one's) courage to the sticking point.” One day I will do so and tick off one item on my bucket list: cook octopus.
ooh I love octopus and squid Dom, is that the fair Mrs Burns-Booth I see in the background there? So unfair that all these events are too far for me to attend – sighs – looks out the window at green fields – okay there are some compensations! Great post Dom, thanks for sharing.
Sounds like an enjoyable occasion, but (being a non-seafood-eater), I couldn't say the same of the dish! It's nice to hear about these things though, even if you don't want to eat them.
This sounds like a very exotic seafood dish, and I would really enjoy trying it! It's nice to venture out now and again!
Looks like you had some fun too!
I don't eat or cook octopus but the rest of my family loves it. Looks like a fun day!
This looks good – I love octopus 🙂
I'm glad some people on the day liked it – I kept seeing pictures on Twitter/Instagram/etc of people commenting on how icky it looked, which seemed a little sad…
Lucky guy! I've always shye'd away from octopus fearing it would be like leather if I tried it but yours sounds well doable!
Fantastic Dom, it was lovely to see you and enjoy that stunning octopus dish. It was one of those days that just turn out to be great, for many reasons but mostly as you say because of the getting together aspect. Good old Finish!
Oh Dom, this is just such a cool post. I have never been to a foodbloggers' event and am quite jealous, as London seems to give you such wonderful opportunities to 'get out of the blogger's hole' and into society! Here in the rural backwater, there is precious little of that … but I can live vicariously through great posts like this one … Love calamari and that is octopus, correct? Never cooked my own though! I'd love to try this dish! Keep up your good work! This blog has grown so over the three years you've been at it! Okay … enough gushing…
What a great day out with all these foodies. Love octopus, squid and calamari. I always cook it fast! This is a good slow cook style. Good tip to pop it in the freezer for 24hrs. Yes you certainly learn something every day!
I LOVED the whole day Dom and cannot wait to write up my post as soon as I get home! Wasn't Florence a GREAT tutor and inspirational chef? FABULOUS write-up! Karen xxx
Wow – how jealous am I???? I LOVE Octopus as well so this is a lovely recipe for me. You lucky thing !
What a lovely day Dom, sounds like fun. I'm very envious of all these meet ups you London bloggers get – now that will teach me to live in Cornwall 😉 (not of course, that you live in London, but you know what I mean – hopefully……)