Tender Grilled Baby Octopus

Just walking through the grocery store, I see baby octopus. I love octopus and immediately grabbed a package excitedly!

Once I got the octopus home however I realized I hadn't cooked octopus in ages and though I love it at my favorite Japanese spots I had yet to discover how to make it tender and delicious at home.

Hence, this recipe from Mark's Daily Apple.

I decided to twist this recipe thinking I would do sous vide, but then also realized sous vide would take more hours than I had (for about a pound of baby octopus 77C for 5 hours). So I improvised on the original Mark's Daily Apple recipe by adding garlic, olive oil, lemon, rosemary, and thyme with the cleaned octopus heads and bodies and blanched it IN the bag. The octopus then marinaded for a couple of hours in the fridge. After that I "grilled it" in a cast iron pan.

For 1 pound of baby octopus:

1 lemon juiced
1 tsp fresh rosemary chopped

1 tsp thyme

1 garlic clove chopped

1/4 cup olive oil or neutral oil

Place the marinade and cleaned octopus in a thick bag.

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Turn off heat. Place bag of octopus in water, fulling submerging portion with octopus, for 1 minute. 

Cool octopus by running bag under cold water or submerging in ice bath. 

Refrigerate at lease 2 hours, preferably 4 or overnight.

Once octopus have marinaded, wipe marinade off and grill or broil until done, about 4 to 6 minutes total.

Serve with lemon juice, garlic, your favorite chopped herbs, and olive oil - passing salt to taste. Or use your favorite dressing or sauce.