Recipe: Octopus salad and fresh tarragon creme

Octopus salad and fresh tarragon cream. Photo / Michael Craig

There is something quite delicious about the flavour of fresh octopus which goes well with fresh tarragon. Here, Geoff Scott has made a savoury whipped cream "dressing" to go with the octopus salad. "On the night, we will finish garnishing each plate with an artist's brush stroke of octopus ink," he says.

Serves 4

• 400g fresh octopus or squid
• 500ml olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 fresh or dried bayleaf
• 1 fresh red chilli, sliced with seeds
• 8 black olives
• 1 orange, zested and segmented
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced

1 Cook octopus in boiling salted water for 1 minute then plunge into iced water for 1 minute. Repeat two more times; this will help to tenderise the octopus.

2 Peel off the skin and suckers. In a saucepan bring the olive oil, garlic, bayleaf, chilli and olives to the boil. Add the octopus and simmer for 1 hour. Remove from the heat and allow the octopus to cool in the oil. It is best left overnight.

3 The next day, remove the octopus from the oil, slice finely and mix with peeled orange segments, orange zest, fennel bulb and slices of the black olives.

4 Drizzle with a little of the octopus oil and season with sea salt flakes and white pepper to taste. Serve with tarragon creme.

5 For the tarragon creme - whisk 1/3 cup of cream, then gently fold in 2 tsp of finely chopped fresh tarragon, a pinch of fine salt and ½ tsp of lemon juice.