Grilled Octopus by Alex Dana

Rosebud Restaurants Alex Dana to share a recipe:

We are fortunate that we are located in Chicago and we have numerous sources for almost any fresh ingredient you could want. One thing our customers often crave is our grilled octopus which some say we are famous for. One way to prepare octopus is to boil it until it is tender and then to lightly grill it or put it under the broiler.

You should always tenderize your octopus before cooking it. In Italy the fishermen beat the octopus against the rocks by the ocean before cooking it. Since we use fresh octopus, some say the easiest way to tenderize a fresh octopus is to beat the living daylights out of it with a blunt object, but most octopus sold in the US have been previously frozen. In this case no tenderizing is really necessary, but you can still use your meat tenderizer if you want too.

Many Chefs add a few wine corks to the cooking pot and it is said to tenderize the octopus. We added this step to our recipe, but it is not required.

After your octopus is cooked, just drizzle a light citrus vinaigrette or a little extra virgin olive oil. Our octopus can be eaten as an appetizer or as an entrée or it can be chopped into pieces as part of a delicious seafood salad.

Grilled Octopus recipe:

2 Pound Octopus

2 Wine Corks

1 Cup White Wine

1 Lemon, Sliced in half

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Cloves of Minced Garlic

Fresh Chopped Parsley

Sea Salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Put the octopus in a saucepan large enough for it, add half of the lemon, a few wine corks and a cup of white wine. Add just enough water to cover the octopus and then cover with a lid. Heat on your stove on high but once boiling reduce the heat to a simmer. Make sure you cook the bottom of the octopus so it is tender when pierced by a fork. Turn off the burner and than just allow the octopus to cool in the water to room temperature.

Remove the tentacles from the head and if you want, cut the head into pieces as well. Drizzle the octopus pieces with a lightly cover of Olive Oil. You can than heat up the grill or broiler and cook until the edges begin to crisp and brown, but be careful not burn. Drizzle on a little more olive oil, squeeze lemon on top, sprinkle with chopped parsley and minced garlic. Then just season with salt and pepper and enjoy.

Buon Appetito!

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