662/1038 - Maggie's octopus salad

Last week I paid a visit to the Supreme Court, a requirement for a criminology assignment, and decided a quick trip to the Queen Victoria Market would make sense while I was in the city. My fish craving has not left me and so the seafood stall took the majority of my cash for prawns, flake, a slab of sushimi quality salmon and a couple of enormous octopus tentacles. 

In this weird little week between Christmas and New Year it was lovely to find a day to relax a bit and cook. It was almost the perfect day, until it wasn't. I have been a bit distracted lately and it was this lack of focus that almost spelled disaster for me today. Keen to retrieve a set of hand crafted bowls from the top of the cupboard, I climbed to the top of the step ladder and carefully removed the bowls. The next moment was surreal, with me somehow completely forgetting that I was on top of the ladder and simply turning to the side to step off. Bowls flew and I came crashing down, face and forearms first. Thankfully I only suffered a bit of a split and bump on my head where I smacked it on the floor and a very large, very sore purple index finger. My beautiful hand-made bowls did even better than me, without a mark to be seen. Small mercies, hey?

So clumsiness aside, it was a lot of fun working with the octopus. I left it to cook for a bit longer than I was supposed to but it didn't seem to do it any harm, with every piece lovely and soft and not rubbery at all. I had less octopus than the recipe actually required and so was able to use a mid-sized saucepan for the cook, with the tentacles swirling into a perfect spiral in the juices. I am kicking myself that I forgot to sprinkle some of my lovely chipotle dukkah over the top but it was still a really lovely salad and a beautiful way to eat one of my favourite things from the sea.

This recipe can only be found in the newest version of The Cook's Companion, and what a fabulous little addition it is.