Grilled octopus recipes?

Of the various dishes I have not attempted yet, one is grilled octopus. I had some good octopus dishes recently in restaurants, so it got me thinking…

Anyone have any “foolproof” yet delicious recipes for grilling octopus?

Thanks!

Bruce

I used to do octopus quite a bit. You have to tenderize it somehow. Various recipes call for a pre-grill braise in salty water with various other spices or adjuncts, or dips in boiling water, or soaking in milk (Never had this work). Traditionally, and the way I like it best , is to beat the octopus against a rock or anything hard that you don’t care about stinking. It takes a lot of beating, followed by gently kneeding for maybe 5 minutes. Thus last step can be in a ziplock bag with oil salt and any other seasoning. Alternatively I suppose you could gently-ish use a mallet or heavy pan and a towel. You want to break down the internal muscle without breaking the skin. Again do the ziplock thing after beating.

Then, it’s just a medium grill oil and a lot of salt. Some people toss garlic or spices on, but I don’t.

Warning: it’s gonna smoke like crazy, so use your outdoor grill even if you have a high CFM hood.

Warning 2: you need it to cook fairly fast, so mind the size of your chunks. If a leg is too thick at the top, just cut that part into smaller pieces. The saying is “cook octopus either 3 minutes or three hours”, (if it takes more than three minutes, it’ll start to toughen. )

For mechanical tenderization, the I have borrowed fro Michael Chiarello. Place said invertebrate in a gallon ZipLoc bag and remove as much air as possible. Place that bag into another bag and remove as much air as possible. Repeat a third time and tape the outermost bag with packing tape.

Place the package into your clothes dryer on tumble/no heat for 20 minutes. Voila.

Or just braise it first. We do octopus all the time, and always braise first with aromatics, then hit with high heat. Always tender and nicely crisped on the outside.

Step One: Put Octopus on Grill (make sure it’s dead first or it may give you some trouble)

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Step Two: Apply Flames

Technique #1 (Tip: Nail down your food)

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Technique #2 (Tip: Don’t do it too good, or they’ll expect you to make breakfast too)

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Genius!

No idea results, but I am going to try this… Grilled Octopus With Chili-Herb Oil Recipe

While hilarious and a fantastic source for many memes, Bruce, the real secret to perfecting this is sous vide. Far superior to the braise and the couple restaurants I frequent in the LA area that serve a spanish octopus dish both sous vide it prior to browning over a wood fire.