Octopus Salad

Octopus Salad,

 Mitsos Taverna, Corfu, Greece - cooked by Agatha, caught by Spiros

Octopus, and the rest of the family of squid, calamari and cuttlefish are sea creatures I would never have eaten as a child in London - I had to wait for the delights of savouring these for travels in Europe - Spain, Italy and then Greece.

These days I know that my holiday has started when we arrive in Athens, settle into our favourite hotel, and then wander up the street to Strofi - a restaurant with a rooftop garden where you can sit, sipping a glass of wine, and watch the sun going down behind the Acropolis.  The first thing we order is their octopus salad - a revelation of tender, meaty, lobstery tasting delight - perfection.  The shoulders relax, travel fatigue drops away and I begin to enjoy my holiday knowing that there's plenty more of this where that came from.

It's a shame that most people I know would never dream of attempting a dish like this because they think that the cleaning is going to be complicated and messy, and the cooking difficult - all not true.  Apart from being good for you, as well as delicious to eat - it is cheap.  When you look at most seafood around the $25-$35 mark and compare it to squid and octopus at $5-$12 - there's nothing not to love.

IS OCTOPUS SUSTAINABLE?  This question is of increasing concern to most of us as fishing stocks are depleted by unsustainable fishing practices.  My advice - buy local.  I get mine from a large seafood shop in Ballina that sells everything that is caught when the trawlers go out but is not valued as much by the fishermen - by-catch.  This is generally the seafood I favour; squid, sardines, octopus and red mullet and other small fish.  If it turns out to be not that good for eating I make stock out of it.

WHY OCTOPUS IS GOOD FOR YOU:  

These days we are repeatedly being told that seafood is good for you and we should be eating it at least three times a week and avoiding meat.  Apart from being low in calories and saturated fats and high in protein, seafood is increasingly being shown to be helpful is fighting autoimmune diseases - like multiple sclerosis.  So what are the nutritional facts about octopus - bearing in mind that I actually eat it because it tastes damn good!

1.  Octopus, like nearly all seafood is lean and low in calories and saturated fats.  It is however quite high in cholesterol but, like all things, eaten in moderation it won't do you any harm.  It's a staple food for coastal Greek people who have the famous benefits from eating the so called 'Mediterranean Diet' that includes all kinds of seafood, including octopus - with lower rates of stroke and heart disease.

2.  Iron.  One serve has all the daily requirements for men and half for women - add a handful of parsley girls and your done for the day!

3.  B12.  Octopus exceeds your daily requirements of this important vitamin that is essential in the production of new red blood cells and supporting everyday brain function.

4. Selenium. One serve of octopus provides more than you daily requirements.  An important trace mineral that plays a role in protein metabolism during digestion.

A NOTE ABOUT ROCK BASHING!  You may have seen or heard stories about octopus fishermen bashing their catch on rocks to tenderise it,with tentacles and froth flying.  This is certainly true if the octopus is going to be flash fried or barbecued - otherwise it is like chewing rubber.  However, there is absolutely no need to do this for a dish like this where it is simmered first in water - it honestly renders it delectably tender.

Now, don't be scared - trust me!

What to Buy

For this dish you need the octopus to be large with thick tentacles - the opposite for when you are buying them for chargrilling on the barbecue - then you need small ones.

Fresh octopus should smell sweet with no trace of ammonia.  Use it as soon as possible after purchase, certainly within 36 hours, and do not store with the guts intact - the same goes for squid, calamari and cuttlefish.  

How to Clean

Simply cut the head off whole - this way you will not disturb the ink sac, and discard it.  Cut the octopus in half and pop out the black 'beak' from the middle and discard.  Cut the tips off the tentacles and discard.  That's it!

Cleaned octopus ready for cooking 

How to Cook

1. Place the cleaned octopus in a saucepan and cover with cold water. 

2. Add to this one dessertspoon vinegar, a bay leaf and one clove of garlic sliced.

3. Bring to boil and simmer for 20-40 minutes.

4. Us a small sharp knife to check when it is cooked - it should have lost its rubberyness but be firm and tender.

5. Don't over cook or it will turn to mush.

6. Drain straight away

7. As soon as the octopus cools a little rub off the dark skin - the is best done wearing disposable gloves.  This is a very simple and quick task.  There is no need to remove the suckers.

Cooked octopus - just need to get the rest of the skin off

Preparing the salad

1. Slice the cooled octopus into bite size pieces and place in a serving dish.

2. Cover with olive oil, sliced fresh garlic and sprinkle with dried oregano and thyme.  It may need a little salt at this stage.

3. Serve with wedges of lemon, fresh black pepper, sprinkle of parsley and crusty bread.

4. If the octopus is fully submerged in the oil it will keep for a week or so in the fridge.

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War the author Henry Miller went, for the first time, to Greece to visit his friend Lawrence Durrell and stayed for nine months traveling from Athens, around the Peloponnese, Corfu and to Crete.  His experiences are recorded in one of the best travel books you will ever read, The Colossus of Maroussi.  

Maybe it just has a real resonance for me because I too went to Greece and fell in love - with the varied landscapes, the romance of being on the edge of Europe and the beginning of the East, the history, the marvelous island journeys, the best swimming in the world, THE FOOD and, most of all the Greeks.  I agree with Miller when he says in the book "I like a good Greek meal better than a good French meal, even though it be heresy to admit it"

Cycling in France - Bordeaux and beyond Day 1

in 2015 we did a cycling trip from Innsbruck to Verona and it was so wonderful that we wanted to do the same kind of thing again, only somewhere different. We love the south-west of France and had glimpses of Bordeaux on a previous trip, vowing to return - the city and whole region is just so lovely.  This was where our trip in August 2016 started.

How bad could cycling through the premier wine growing of France be with its chateaux, historic villages, the forests of Aquitaine to the seafood heavens of Arachon and Cap Ferret on the Atlantic coast - staying in comfort and eating and drinking some of the best food and wine you are going to get anywhere in the world?

First let me point out that we own no lycra, but after last years' experience we did get some cycle touring shorts that have a kind of padded nappy insert - as me mate lovingly said "all ready for the nursing home Nanma"?

• The companies that we organise these tours through take all of the stress out of the trip - you just have to turn up, get on  the bike and pedal! 
• They organise: the bike - touring upright kind with panniers and basket, 
• Repair kit for the bike, 
• Helmet, 
• Book hotels in advance with choice of standard (we go 3-4 star - come on, I've been on a bloody bike all day),
• Take your bags from hotel to hotel.  
• Provide you with comprehensive and detailed daily route maps that include places of interest, historical background and recommended restaurants and lunch stops.

Place de Bourse, Bordeaux where our trip began

DAY 1  Cadillac to St Macaire 50km  28th August 2016

Our trip started in Bordeaux after a short flight from the UK.  We opted to spend a couple of days here and, let me tell you, Bordeaux is wonderful.  See my previous post for a rundown on what to do if you have a couple of days here.

The leaning clock tower of Cadillac

We were then taken by taxi on the 30 minute journey to Cadillac where we spent the night at the lovely Chateau de la Tour Hotel which had the added bonus of an outdoor swimming pool and three acres of  leafy  grounds.  Things got even better when we realised that the restaurant in the hotel had a pretty good reputation so we booked for dinner that night on the terrace - we were not disappointed.  Unexpected delights like this, we have discovered, are one of the features of these cycling tours - you go to lots of places you have never been to before and probably never go to again - a real adventure, with fabulous food thrown in savouring the novelty of it all.

Medallion of pork with truffle oil potatoes & roast capsicum sauce

Cadillac has a lot to offer for a stopover - no pink American cars but an historic 15th century chateaux,  12th century church and cobbled market square.  My luck was in because it was market day and a short stroll into the town from our hotel turned into a two hour culinary adventure.

Ah, the joys of a traditional French produce market - which I ate my way around and bought some pate de campagne from the butcher for our picnic the next day (he had four different homemade kinds).  With that and some REAL bread and tomatoes we were all set.

Next day we set off bright and early on our bikes, which had been waiting for us in the grounds of the hotel, looking forward to our ride through the premier Bordeaux wine country.  The weather forecast was promising a scorching hot day of over 36oC - which I was not looking forward to - my thermostat does not work too well these days, so we wanted to get the bulk of the ride out of the way before late morning.

The start of our adventure - outside the Cadillac Chateaux

We started out on a bike path along the lovely Garonne River and then headed into rolling vineyard country and past many small chateaux with wine tasting - just a tad bit early for us though - 8am on a Sunday morning.

Could see from the outset that this was going to be more of a walking/cycling trip - with my bung knee paining me and the heat I just couldn't get up the hills and ended up walking a fair bit!  What an absolute joy it was to be out here though - a great sense of freedom.  

Arrived in the lovely village of VERDELAIS, cycling through the beautifully proportioned town square lined with plane trees still dressed in their summer emerald green foliage. and stopped at the only place open for a coffee watching the locals turn up for Sunday morning mass in the 16th century basilica.  I was drawn in when the choir began to sing with the congregation joining in - a moment of peace, joy and cool!

The bell tower is topped by a magnificent gilded copper statue of the Virgin Mary, after whom the basilica is named - Notre Dame.  I wondered, at the time, if this town was particularly devout as the church service was packed - not the half dozen elderly ladies you get in St Michael's in Mullumbimby on a Sunday.  I subsequently discovered that the church houses a famous shrine - a 14th century wooden statue of Our Lady of Verdelais, that is said to perform miracles and is on the pilgrim route through France. I also read of a 'Black Virgin' cult centred around this statue and the church - intriguing non?

Our short coffee stop got even more interesting.  The small hole-in-the wall cafe, opposite the church, I am sure was just open on a Sunday to take advantage of the post service need for refreshments by the huge congregation for the rest of the place was as quiet as the grave. In fact, the cafe overlooked the village graveyard which snaked up the hillside and, mooching about, I was astonished to read,  on a faded sign by the gate, that Toulouse Lautrec was buried there - the renowned Impressionist painter of can-can girls, famous singers, prostitutes and the cafes around Montmarte, Paris at the turn of the last century.  As a teenager I loved his poster art and had a copy of the famous 'Jane Avril' on my bedroom wall - all that talent, dazzling paintings, debauchery and absinthe drinking - what was not to love for a nice girl from Brockley.

Lautrec was born in Verdelais and was living here in the family villa when he died of a stroke, aged 36, in 1901, after suffering years of alcoholism and venereal disease  Its hard to believe that a recent painting of his sold for US22 million for his grave is unlovingly neglected and looks hardly visited.  

Magnificent bell tower of the Basilica of Notre Dame in Verdelais topped with her gilded copper statue.

So after cycling through verdant vineyards, with this year's vintage ripening on the vine, and after 50km or so, we finally cycled into the charming and historic village of St. Macaire to find our hotel, where we were met with our sight for the day - a man rolling a barrel of wine down the street!  To be continued........