Serves 3
Ingredients
For the octopus:
• 1 fresh octopus
• 1 shallot, diced
• 3 garlic clove
• 1 carrot
• 2 bay leaf
• Aprox. 100ml of olive oil
• 1 red cabage
• 1 red onion
• 2 limes
For the Algarvian carrot puree…
• 200 grs of fresh carrots
• 1 tea spoon of cumins seeds
• 1 soup spoon of vinegar
For the sépia crisp…
• 125 grs of salted butter
• 250 grs of all purpose flour
• 125 grs of octopus or squid ink
Method
1 The octopus gets tender if frozen in advance. You could buy already frozen if the quality is guaranteed. In a tray, put the octopus already defrosted and cut in tentacles with the rest of the ingredients.
2 Cover with tin foil and bake in oven at 130 ºc for about 3 hours.
3 Meanwhile, in a food processor, extract the juice from the red cabbage and onion into a bowl. Add the juice from the limes.
4 Once the octopus is baked and tender, remove from baking tray and let it submerge in the purple juice for about 3 hours.
5 Cook the carrots in water with salt and the cumins seeds.
6 Once cooked, remove from water and in a food processor, make the puree, adding vinegar and if needed, the carrot stock. It needs to be like mayonnaise texture.
7 For the sépia crisps, leave the butter at room temperature, after adding all the ingredients and mixing it, leave it to rest for about 1 hour.
8 Stretch the dough for about 3mm in a baking tray. Put it to bake in an oven for 180º for 9 minutes.
To serve:
1 Put the puree in a piping bag and make a spiral from it.
2 Place the octopus in centre and the broken crisps resembling charcoal from grill.
3 Place the glassweed or Salicornia as you wish. It’s served cold as in the sunny Algarve, as “tapas” or as a salad.
Recipe courtesy of Luís Batalha for the MacDonald Monchique resort