Octopus carpaccio

Octopus carpaccio

Octopus belongs to the "Love it, hate it" foods. Some just adore the purple and white meaty  bite, others get shivers just by looking at, let alone touching or eating, the knobby tentacles of this sea animal.

2 x ca 1 kg raw octopus

For those who love octopus the Galician style pulpo a la gallega or pulpo and shrimp cocktail from Mexico are well known. A cold variation of preparing pulpo is as carpaccio. Octopus in a cold dish is a gastronomic gift that keeps you cool and fills the belly just to the right level on a warm day. Even if served warm and you are eating outside, when the food starts to get cold on the plate it still tastes great, unlike a piece of meat that one would like to re-heat to continue eating.

Cold octopus carpaccio

The preparation of carpaccio di polpo is simple.

Cook the pulpo in water. (Instructions can be found here). Mid-way, taste if your octopus needs salt and if yes, add to the cookin g water. Let it cool in the cooking water so it does not dry out and starts to build the gelatinuous jelly. When cool, fold the whole piece tightly together and place it in a plastic bag. Tie it with rubber bands if necessary to keep it tighly together. Leave in the fridge for a few hours or over night until it becomes firm.

Carpaccio di polpo

When ready to serve remove from the plastic wrap and cut thin slices with a very sharp knife.
Serve with some thick balsamico or fig vinegar, some olive oil and flakes of seasalt as a cold starter or light meal with some fresh salad.

Octopus carpaccio with balsamico

The Luxury of Travelling For One Meal: Giant Garlic Prawns

Yes, I have done it. Since the sustainability and food miles and all the media about how bad the air traffic is for the planet I have carried a bit of a bad feeling in my conscience. The primary reason for the trip was to experience one more time a pleasure of one single meal and introduce this most pleasurable and hopefully equally unforgettable experience to my friend. I got to know this restaurant during one of the business trips and that evening left a haunting impression in my food memory bank.

The second trip was taken under a considerable risk. I did not know and could not find the name of the restaurant. At that time in the early years of the 21^st century not all searches on the internet gave results. I knew from memory that it was down at the river and they had just one specialty. 

This all happened during the time when Estonia was not yet part of the European Union and Schengen agreement and it was not uncommon to be asked for the reason of the visit by the entry guards at the airports. And so did the border guard at Luxembourg airport. I answered: “Holiday” and the guy in the uniform looked suspicious. It was probably unusual that Luxembourg, a tiny country with a Duke and lots of banking and steel industry and some European Union/European Commission sessions going on, attracted tourists. I wonder if the border guard would have been less or even more baffled if the answer would have been “A meal in the restaurant down by the river that serves big scampis with copious amounts of garlic”?

Garlic Scampis

The air in the restaurant was hazy with the thick smell of garlic like in the past places used to be grey from cigarette smoke, the fact that almost everyone in the restaurant was eating the same thing and the meaty prawns dripping with garlicky oil got me hooked for life. They were brought to the table flaming in the baking dish. Now I have two very clear memories from that place. We have a saying that two will not stay without the third…I am so hoping for that to be true.

I was relieved, to an extent, when I saw that the editor of the Food & Wine Magazine in the May 2012 edition declares that she took a trip to Copenhagen just to eat at Noma. Makes me feel a bit better. I do think this is luxury and am grateful for having been able to do this.

Where have you travelled for the ultimate food experience?

Garlic tiger prawns

Ingredients: (makes 2)

Olive Oil (a few knobs of butter optional)

1 head of garlic

3-4 tiger prawns per person

Sea salt

Wedges of lemon

Crusty bread and/ or fresh green salad

Heat the oven to 230°C. Cut the crust lengthwise with scissors on the back side up until the tail. Then cut the meat lengthwise for 2/3 into the depth to make the butterflies. Crush the cloves of the head of garlic with a pinch of sea salt with the mortar and pestle.

Crushing the garlic with sea salt

Spread garlic on prawn butterflies

Place the prawns in the baking dish and spread the garlic on the prawn butterflies and generously cover with oil.

Bake in the hot oven for ca 10 min. Be careful not to overcook to avoid the prawns become chewy.

Serve with wedges of lemon, crusty bread and a green salad.

Tiger prawns with garlic in oil

The restaurant in Luxembourg is Chez Bacano. They serve steak as well but if you truly love garlic and scampi I recommend you try this flagship dish. If you do not like garlic and scampi I suspect the steak would not taste what you are expecting and the whole garlicky experience may possibly not provide and equally positive unforgettable experience. The atmosphere is casual. Be prepared that you smell garlic in your clothes for some time.

Cocktail de Pulpo y Camaron (Acapulco Style) - Cold Octopus and Shrimp Soup

For those who love seafood this Mexican cold soup is refreshing, spicy, healthy filling meal on a hot summer day.

 You need per person:

150 grams of cooked and peeled shrimp and 150 grams of cooked octopus 

Cook the shrimp and the octopus separately – see the cooking instructions under Pulpo a la gallega

3 parts of Tomato Juice 2 parts of Natural Orange Juice

1 part (to 1.5) ketchup

½ part of olive oil  

Tomatoes, ca 1 per person

Onions, minimum one, more if you like onions

Coriander

Garlic, 2-3 cloves

Chillies and/or chilli sauce

Salt

Avocados and limes (the green ones)

 e.g. 300ml of Tomato Juice + 200 ml Orange Juice etc…

Put the sliced octopus and the shrimp in a bowl big enough to put the liquids in.  

Fry the sliced garlic with the olive oil until the garlic is dark and toasted and let it cool.

Chop the onions, the tomatoes and the coriander

Mix the juices and the ketchup

Put everything in the bowl with the seafood

Take out the garlic from the oil and the olive oil to the mix. 

If you have fresh chilli, chop finely and add it too…

 Mix everything. The “soup” should be a bit thick (if not add a bit more ketchup).

Ready, salt to taste, and serve with the lime, avocado slices and the chilli sauce as you like it. 

Special thanks to Pavel

Pulpo a la gallega - Galician style octopus

This is one of my favourite recipes. It is a frequent dish on the tapas menu in Spain. Worth trying when in Spain. It has been absolutely yummie every time. If you don´t happen to get to Spain often it is not difficult to make it at home. Just takes a little time to cook the pulpo, but the result is worth it.

Raw octopus

1 pulpo – 1 kg piece makes 4 (with potatoes as main course)

2-3 l water

2-3 bay leaves

Olive oil, 5-6 tbl spoons or enough to drizzle on the pulpo

Garlic

Pimentón dulce (red paprika powder), ca half a teaspoon

Coarse sea salt or sea salt flakes

Lemon - optional

Boiled potatoes - optional               

To cook the octopus bring water to boil in a large high saucepan. When the water is boiling hold the octopus  and drop it into the boiling water briefly for 3 times before placing it in the pan. Add the bay leaves and bring to boil again at high temperature. Reduce the heat and simmer for 90 min. Taste to see if the pulpo is soft. When soft, take it out of the water and cut the tentacles into ca 1cm thick slices.

Take a small pan, heat the oil, put the coarsley chopped garlic in and cook for a couple of minutes then take the garlic out and add the paprika powder into the oil and heat again for 1-2 minutes.

If you prefer a heartier meal, boil some potatoes while the pulpo is boiling too (both should be ready around the same time to avoid re-heating) and cut the boiled potatoes into 0.5-1cm thick slices when still hot.

Arrange the potato and pulpo slices on a plate, cover with the paprika-olive oil and add a little  sea salt on top. Cut the lemon into wedges and squeeze some juice over if desired.

Pulpo a la gallega

A linguistic note: octopus is knows as „pulpo“ in Spanish, „polvo“ in Portuguese, „polpo“ in Italian, „tako“ in Japanese, „Krake“ in German, „kaheksajalg“ (8-foot) in Estonian…
Now, octopus and kaheksajalg refer to the number of tentacles, but polvo, pulpo, polpo do not. I wonder why...? 

Spicy Prawns in Green Sauce

"Prawns" are generally referred to the bigger species, including the giant Black Tiger prawns. The smaller species are often called "shrimp", however it seems in the US the distinction is not so clear. In English the "shrimp" becomes "Crevette" after poaching, in French "Crevette" means "shrimp". Despite the terminology, shrimps and prawns taste lovely just briefly cooked in a little oil with chile and/or garlic with a piece of fresh crusty bread. The simplest recipe for poached Crevettes is in a salad with avocado and tomato in a little mayonnaise sauce.

A starter or a light lunch for 2-3

3-4 prawns per person, deveined and cut deeper in the thicker end of the back and formed as "butterflies"
2 cloves garlic
50ml of olive oil
1 medium shalotte onion
a good handful of fresh flat parsley leaves
salt and pepper, freshly ground
1-2 dried chiles 
juice of half a lemon (yellow) or a generous splash of white wine

Heat the oven to 250C. The oven must be hot as the prawns will be cooked for a short time to avoid them becoming chewy.
In the food processor crush the garlic with the oil then add the chiles, onion and parsley leaves and mince till quite smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Arrange the prawn butterflies in an oven proof pan where the prawns stand quite close and the liquid stays close around them. Spoon the green paste on the prawns, splash in the broth or wine.
Roast in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until the prawns have turned pink all over.

Serve hot. Some fresh bread helps to "suck up" the tasty sauce.
I do recommend making the sauce quite spicy with chili and if you wish to cool the palate a bit serve sliced avocado to neutralise the "heat".

Shrimp bisque

inspired by Lulu

I made this soup inspired by a wonderful Mexican shrimp soup and the various bisque recipes.

For 3-4 as a starter:
300g  raw shrimps in full shell, I got the big prawns
10-20g butter
a couple of table spoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped (0.5cm cubes)
1-2 stems of green celery, finely chopped (0.5cm cubes)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 table spoons tomato paste
100ml white wine (you can also use dry sherry)
ca 1-1.5 l fish fond or water
50-100ml 25% (or 35%) fat fresh cream
salt and a little chilli to season

Remove and rinse the shells, cut the backs of the shrimp and remove the dark tract.
Heat the butter (I added a little oil too) in a thick bottomed pan and cook the shells in it for a couple of minutes till all are pink.
Remove shells from the pan into a bowl - you will need them later.
Add 1 tbl spoon oil into the pan, heat on medium and fry the onions first for ca 2 minutes till they turn clear, add carrots, celery, garlicand fry for a few minutes.
Add the tomato paste, mix well and cook for ca 5 min. Now add the shells back to the pan.
Splash the wine (sherry) in and reduce the liquid for 2-3 minutes.
Add the fish fond or water or a mixture of both and simmer for 30 minutes.
When the vegetables are soft and the liquid has taken a rusty colour I took out the shells and used a blender to purée the soup. The other method is to wring everything through a cloth or press through a sieve as much as possible.
Heat a little oil in another pan, cut the shrimp/prawn into smaller bite-size pieces and fry with a little chilli if you are looking for a spicier taste. The shrimp should be fried only for a short time to avoid turning chewy.
Now put the shrimp/prawn into the soup and add the cream. Bring to boil.
Season with salt.

If you wish you can make some croutons by taking a couple of slices of white bread, cutting a garlic clove in two and rubbing the bread on both sides, sprinkling a little olive oil on the cubes, then frying in a pan or toasting them in the oven turning them from time to time.