In January this year, I was lucky enough to go on a family holiday to the Maldives, spending seven days soaking up the Maldivian sunshine and dipping in the crystal clear blues of the Indian Ocean. This post may sound like a holiday description of the aforementioned coveted location based on the opening sentence. Still, it is not intended to be one of those; this will be one of my foodie diaries. In this post, I will write about how I ate my way through the rather varied menu at the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort and how I ended up developing an obsession with a specific seafood dish. (When I say obsessed, I mean I ate it like 4-5 times whilst we were there.)
For the very first time in my life, I managed to sample grilled octopus and let me tell you. It was love at first bite. Octopus, generally speaking, has a rather negative reputation due to its chewy texture, which is very likely to occur if it is not prepared correctly. Well, this was prepared accurately; its texture was nothing but velvety soft and had no unpleasant seafood taste. On the contrary, it was seasoned so perfectly that if I did not see the octopus legs nestled on a bed of sauteed onions and creamy humus, I would not have known what I was munching on. I am addressing this to anyone apprehensive about trying octopus upon seeing it included on a menu. The combination of the hummus and the red onions may sound somewhat unusual at first glimpse, but the flavours were in perfect harmony, and the overall concoction worked brilliantly. Cheers to the remarkable team at the Anchorage Bar!
Just look at it; doesn't it look mouth-watering? Anyway, enough rambling, I am one of those people who love attempting to recreate restaurant dishes at home, and the fact that this was my go-to meal on holiday reassured me that somehow I have to prepare it.
Prior to being taken to the airport, I managed to talk to the head chef at the Anchorage Bar, and he roughly explained how this dish is made to taste this scrumptious. The secret ingredient in this dish is a five-hour-long sous-vide bath for the octopus, not for the guest, obviously. When the chef explained the recipe to me, he said that the sous vide is set at 130 degrees without mentioning Fahrenheit or Celsius. After doing some research and perusing other recipes online, I discovered that he meant Fahrenheit, as sous vide machines cannot possibly reach 130 degrees Celsius. Before committing to one recipe, I am usually skimming through at least 50, which results in me ending up with a concoction of said recipes. This is exactly what happened this time as well. As I write this, weeks after my octopus endeavour, I do not precisely recall which recipes I perused; I only remember one.
While doing my meticulous research, my octopus was soaking in a bowl of water. The one I bought was already cleaned, so I just had to split it into tentacles. I carefully placed the tentacles in a vacuum bag, drizzled it with olive oil, and sprinkled it with bay leaves and bits of star anise. (Following the instructions of the chef.) In the meantime, I set the sous vide machine at 83ºC and waited for it to heat the water to the said temperature.
I sealed the vacuum bag (take a look at the picture on the right) and submerged the soon-to-be tender octopus tentacles in the sous vide bath, which reached the predetermined temperature, and I set the timer for 5 hours. It goes without saying that I did not observe the octopus's five-hour-long spa experience, I did other things in the meantime. Also, a friendly piece of advice do not do this in the evening like me because you will end up closing the octopus spa at midnight. As the sous vide programme was done, I took the sealed bag out of the boiling water and put it in the fridge until the next day.
The next day, I prepared the side dishes, namely the humus and the sauteed red onions. I poured a can of chickpeas into the food processor with a teaspoon of tahini, a sprinkle of ground cumin and salt, and a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. I have a confession to make I never measure the components of hummus; I just do it by eye and taste. Basically, I keep tasting it until it reaches the flavour and texture I enjoy eating. For the sauteed onions, I cut about four red onions and started cooking them in a drizzle of olive oil. As they softened, I added a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar and a drop of balsamic vinegar. I sauteed it until it was soft enough, and if I was not fully satisfied with the taste, I added more vinegar or sugar. Depending on your personal preference, you can make it sweeter or sourer. (God, I am terrible at writing recipes)
After completing both side dishes, I set them aside and placed a pan on high heat with a bit of olive oil. When the pan was hot enough, I placed the octopus tentacles in it one by one to grill them. Due to not having any experience in grilling octopus whatsoever, I kept flipping them over to see whether their colour and texture changed. When they are done, the tentacles' skin is slightly crispy and a bit darker in colour.
For the plating, I placed some hummus and smoothed it in the middle of a plate; on top, I added the sauteed red onions, followed by the grilled octopus legs. And voila, the remake of my favourite holiday dish was complete.
Let me say it was amazing the octopus was actually really tender and flavoursome, I would recommend it!
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