Recipe: Octopus & Chorizo Salad

Chorizo and seafood is a match made in heaven, so being inspired by the ‘surf and turf’ theme we took a Mediterranean approach to create this salad.

Our original intention was to use squid, but our fishmonger didn’t have any and suggested using octopus instead. Octopus and squid are both cephalopods but require different methods of cooking to get the best from them.

Squid is best quick cooked but octopus being such a muscular creature requires some long pre-cooking to tenderise it. Providing you haven’t procured a beast of gigantic proportions like something from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, it really doesn’t take much to cook it.

Smaller octopus are generally softer and don’t need to be bashed before putting them in the pot – the Greeks whack them on a rock!

If you do decide to use squid instead just skip all the pre-cooking part and score and cut your squid into pieces then marinade and griddle.