This colourful dish from Fusion Resort Cam Ranh is perfect for summer, with fresh octopus served two ways. One is blanched, rolled into a carpaccio style (a dish of meat or fish thinly sliced and served raw), and the second over an open fire to get a smoky flavour.

Ingredients

1 whole octopus (around 1 kilogram)

1 lemon (halved)

60g pineapple (cut into cubes)

30g fresh tomato (cut into cubes)

60g smoked tomato (pureed)

60g long beans (pureed)

15g red onion (cut into cubes)

1 red radish (sliced)

5g fennel seed

5 black peppercorns

5g spearmint (thinly sliced)

3 bay leaves

1 red sorrel leaf

30ml kumquat juice

15ml tomato & paprika oil

30ml olive oil

1tsp paprika

Salt

Pepper

Instructions

For the octopus:

- In a pot, add the octopus, lemon, fennel seeds, olive oil, black peppercorns, and a pinch of salt, then add water until the octopus if completely submerged

- Cover the pot with aluminium foil and cook on low heat for 45 minutes or until tender

Octopus Carpaccio:

- Remove the octopus from the water, then cut off its head and separate the tentacles into groups of four

- Use a plastic wrap to compress the four tentacles into a cylinder shape, then place the octopus in the freezer to set 

Charred octopus:

- Separate the remaining four tentacles into two groups, making sure that two tentacles in each group are still attached

- Season them with salt, pepper, paprika, and olive oil

- Over an open flame, char the octopus until the outer layer is slightly crisp

For pineapple salsa:

- Char the pineapples using a blow torch

- In a bowl, add in charred pineapple, fresh tomatoes, red onion, spearmint, kumquat juice, and salt, then mix thoroughly

Serving

- Remove the octopus carpaccio from the freezer, then cut into thin slices (around 3mm thin) and remove the plastic wrap

- Arrange the sliced carpaccio into a half-moon shape using five slices per plate

- Put the long bean puree and dried tomato puree on the opposite side of the carpaccio 

- Place the charred octopus onto the octopus carpaccio

- Spoon over the salsa, drizzle over the tomato oil and garnish with red sorrel and red radish. VNS