Octopus Salad!

Photo via Flickr courtesy of Jean-François Chénier

Mmm... octopus!

Years ago I probably would have pulled a face in sheer disgust, but since discovering my love for things Korean (especially their food) octopus has quickly shot up to the top of my favorite foods list. The contrast of the white and deep purple colours! The chewy texture! And the flavor, oh the flavor...

My addiction has gotten so bad that I've taken to making unscheduled trips to my local only-slightly-out-of-my-way Korean supermarket to pick up a large curled tentacle of fresh, cold, pre-cooked octopus to take home and slice and nom to my heart's content.

While I do love this great 8 legged sea creature, everything must go in moderation, and my large curled tentacles are rarely finished in one night. Normally I throw the remainder into the following night's ramen or stir-fry.

One night last week, however, we had a guest over for dinner and I wanted to try something to do with my octopus that was both more out of the box and more normal, in a Western sense.

The result? A VERY delicious Octopus Salad...

I tried to look up a recipe online, but most of them called for ingredients I didn't have, or didn't quite mesh with the orange carrot soup I already had planned for the menu that night. So, pulling from several existing recipes to give me an idea of what flavors would work well together, I put together the following:

Summer Octopus Salad

Approx 1 cup cooked Octopus, cut into small pieces (you could use more if you had more, this is as much as I had)
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 can baby corn, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 finely chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped cucumber

Optional: (I didn't add these things, but if I had them, I probably would)
chopped red radish
cilantro
water chestnut or canned bamboo
etc

Dressing:

I mixed the dressing free style so I don't have exact measurements.

I used a small dash of avocado oil and large dash of sunflower seed oil
Juice of a couple of lemons AND a couple of limes
1 teaspoon each of ground oregano and ground cumin
1 or 2 hot chilies
1 clove of garlic

I blended all of the dressing ingredients in my food processor, and combined all salad ingredients with the dressing in a bowl. The spicy sour taste of the dressing, combined with the sweetness of the vegetables and octopus made it totally work. Needless to say, our guest was impressed (as was I!).

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