Fremantle Octopus

Ingredients

Octopus:

100mL olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 small fennel, sliced
1 handful Fremantle octopus
1 tsp black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
250mL white wine goat's cheese

Croquettes:

250g soft goats' cheese
2g xantana
Zest of 1 lemon
Sea salt
2 eggs
100mL milk
100g plain flour
150g panko crumbs vegetables
100g fresh peas
6 Dutch carrots, small
6 golf ball carrots, small
6 baby turnips
6 baby beetroots
3 miniature fennel bulbs
6 baby golden beets
Salt

Note: Xantana is a thickening agent that can thicken soups, sauces and other liquids without changing the taste or colour. Xantana is created from the fermentation of corn starch mixed with a bacteria found in cabbage.

Lemon emulsion:

1 egg yolk
3 lemons, juiced
250mL olive oil
Sea salt to serve
6 anchovies
50mL extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
200mL olive oil, for frying
1 punnet Shiso micro herbs

Method

Octopus:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and sauté all the vegetables. Add the octopus, peppercorns and bay leaves, mix together and sauté for 5 minutes.

Deglaze with the white wine, bring to the boil then cover with water, bring to the boil again then turn down heat to a very slow simmer. Cover with a lid and leave to cook for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the juices with the lid on. Once cool, take the octopus out of the juices and remove the suckers, cut the tentacles into 3cm long pieces, strain the juices and pour over the clean cut tentacles.
Refrigerate.

Goats' cheese croquettes:

Pre-heat the deep fryer to 160 C. Place the goat’s cheese, xantana, lemon zest and salt into a food processor and blend to a fine paste. Refrigerate the paste for 2 hours. Roll into 1.5cm diameter balls.

Whisk the eggs with the milk to make the egg wash. Roll the balls in the flour, then in the egg wash and then in panko crumbs. Deep-fry the croquettes until golden brown.

Vegetables:

Bring a small pot of salted water to the boil and blanch the peas for 30 seconds. Strain and refresh them under cold water, remove the outer casing and reserve the split pea.

Trim and clean all the other vegetables, leaving the peel on, so that the beetroots, carrots and turnips are left with a 1cm stalk, the fennel trim to about 6cm in length.

Place the beetroot in a pot with cold water and a pinch of salt and place on moderate heat. Cook until you can pierce the flesh easily with the tip of your knife. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Peel and store in the cooking liquid.

Do the same with all the other vegetables.

Lemon emulsion:

In a food processor, blend together the yolk and the lemon juice until well combined. Set the blender on a moderate speed and begin to add the olive oil gradually until the mixture becomes thick. Season to taste with salt.

To serve:

Place the octopus and the cooking liquid on a moderate heat, place the beetroot in a separate bowl to all the other vegetables and drizzle with some oil to lubricate. Season and do the same with all the other vegetables.

Heat a small saucepan with oil and shallow-fry the goats' cheese croquettes until golden brown. Cut the anchovies in half length-ways as well as the fennel.

Arrange the split peas onto the plate first then all the other dressed vegetables. Remove the octopus from the cooking liquid and dress with some extra virgin olive oil and season. Place on the plate along with half an anchovy and two croquettes. Place teaspoons of lemon emulsion around and finish with some shiso leaves.

The dish should resemble a little garden.

Credits: Guy Grossi - an edited extract from 'Signature Dishes' by Michelle Tchea, Published by New Holland