Sous vide Galician octopus with watercress, radish and samphire tempura
by
- Starter
- Medium
- 8
- 4 hours 40 minutes
PT4H40M
This sous vide octopus recipe takes a classic Galician dish and brings it into the twenty-first century. Beautifully tender octopus is paired with crunchy roast radishes, a verdant watercress purée and tempura-fried samphire and caper berries. This dish goes beautifully with Classic Estrella Galicia 4.7% beer – we'll be serving the pair together at our one-off Estrella Galicia dinner at Bar 44 Penarth on 11 June!
Ingredients
- 1 double-sucker octopus , weighing approx. 3-4kg, ideally from the Galician coast, head removed
- 1 lemon , peeled and juiced
- 1 bunch of parsley stalks
- arbequina olive oil
- sea salt
- 500g of watercress
- 1/2 garlic clove
- 16 breakfast radishes , or rainbow radishes, halved
- 100g of samphire
- 24 caper berries
- 40g of cornflour
- 40g of plain flour
- 200ml of sparkling water
- oil, for deep-frying
- hot smoked paprika , ideally pimentón de la vera
Equipment
- Sous vide equipment
Method
1
Preheat a water bath to 75°C. Place the octopus in a vacuum bag along with the lemon peel (reserve the juice for later), parsley stalks, plenty of arbequina olive oil and some sea salt. Seal and cook for 4 and a half hours
2
Meanwhile, make the watercress purée. Cut off the stalks until you're left with mostly leaves, and set a few aside for garnish. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and have a bowl of iced water ready. Blanch the leaves for 30 seconds then refresh in the iced water. Squeeze all the excess moisture from the leaves, then transfer to a blender with the garlic clove. Blitz until smooth, then season with salt and a dash of olive oil. Cover and set aside
3
Combine the cornflour and plain flour in a mixing bowl then slowly pour in the sparkling water, stirring constantly, until a smooth batter forms (do not overwork the mixture). Season with salt, then keep in the fridge until ready to use
4
Preheat an oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Toss the radishes in the reserved lemon juice, some sea salt and olive oil, then roast for 10 minutes
5
Heat a deep-fat fryer or deep pan filled with oil to 180°C. Coat the samphire and caperberries in the cold tempura batter and place into the hot oil, frying for a few minutes until crispy (you may need to do this in batches). Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm
6
Once the octopus is ready, remove from the vacuum bag and pat dry. Place a griddle pan over a high heat until smoking hot. Separate the 8 tentacles – one for each plate – and pan-fry for a few minutes until crisp and coloured all over
7
To serve, place a tentacle on each plate with a quenelle of the watercress purée. Arrange 4 radish halves, 3 caper berries and pieces of samphire on each plate along with a few watercress leaves. Dress with arbequina olive oil and a sprinkling of hot smoked paprika, as true Galicians would!
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Sous vide Galician octopus with watercress, radish and samphire tempura
