The base of this salad is octopus. We used other seafood in salads, why not octopus? Here, I’ve braised octopus until tender and once cooled, I separate the tentacles and then lay them out on  large piece of plastic wrap and tightly roll up into a log. Then I tightly wrap with elastic bands or butcher’s twine and place in a fridge. The next day, I unwrap the plastic and thinly slice the sausage of octopus. You get a cross section of the octopus that looks like a mosaic. Stunning!

The next component of the salad is the dressing. It’s unusual but delicious and I know you’re going to try it: beet vinaigrette/dressing. Yes, beets….be it boiled or roasted or if you’re in a rush…canned. They all work! This dressing starts off by pureeing the beets in a food processor then adding some mustard, scallions or chives, red wine vinegar, touch of honey, salt and pepper and a slow stream of extra-virgin olive oil. Two herbs accent this dressing: earthy fresh thyme for some bottom end and chopped fresh dill to lift the flavours .

Finally, the salad is brought together with shaved asparagus. Snip the tips and use a vegetable peeler to shave thin slices of asparagus. With a little planning, place the shaved asparagus in cold water and place your fridge for  couple of hours in the fridge – they will curl up for an even nicer effect.

Octopus Mosaic With Shaved Asparagus Salad

(serves 4-6)

1 octopus, braised and cooled

1 bunch of fresh asparagus

Dressing

1/4 cup chopped cooked beets

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

1 scallion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon Dijon style mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

orange segments for garnish

Kalamata olives for garnish

1. The night before, after you’ve braised your octopus, separate the tentacles. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap on your counter and place the tentacles on the plastic. Roll-up the plastic tightly around the octopus and twist the ends to tighten even further. Wrap lots of elastic bands around the tube of octopus or tie up with butcher’s twine. Place in the fridge overnight to set.
2. The next day, cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and discard. Now cut the tips of the stalks and slice in half, reserve. Now use your vegetable peeler to make long thin shavings of your asparagus stalks (optional, place them in a bowl of cold water and into the fridge for a couple of hours to curl up). Take your asparagus out of fridge and drain well/pat dry and reserve.
3. To make your dressing, place the beets and garlic in a food processor and purée. Empty into a jar then add the remaining ingredients (except for the garnishes) and seal with a lid and shake well to emulsify. Open jar, adjust seasoning to taste.
4. Remove the wrapping from your octopus and thinly slice it with a sharp knife. Place about three slices on each plate and set aside. Place your shaved asparagus and reserved tips in a bowl and add enough dressing to just coat the vegetables and toss gently with your hands. Place a mound of dressed asparagus on top of the octopus and top with orange slice and olive.
5. Serve with a Tselepos Mantinia Moschfilero.

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© 2013, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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• Some seats left for my cooking class this weekend, One Night in Athens
• Benaki Museum (Athens) to host Gastronomy Days from May 24-26th
• The northern Greek city of Edessa celebrated cherries with its 1st Annual Gastronomy Festival May 17-19
• One more week until I come to New York to cook at Amali restuarant on June 1st – get your seats now
• Beyond dolmades, there are many other ways you can use grape leaves in your cooking
• The Athens Insiders’ Guide has an itunes app with many restaurant suggestions at your fingertips
• The island of Tinos hosts its first World Music Festival this weekend
• You have to watch this video clip, “The Island of Crete”, Incredible Memories spot

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© 2013, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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Here in Canada, we don’t have the wealth of wild greens available to us in the countryside but there are many alternatives and they are to be found at your local farmer’s market or even supermarket!

A favourite here in Canada and the US has to be rapini, a bitter green with thick stalks, broad leaves and a hint of a look much like broccolini. Some call rapini cimi di rapa or broccoli raab. Anyway you like to call it, we have the Italians who settled in California near the turn of the 20th century for bringing this delicious green to North America.

Rapini is the base ingredient for this delicious pizza I made yesterday. It’s a source of vitamins A and C, high in iron and calcium. The other ingredient in this pizza is Italian sausage meat, another product widely available now in your local supermarket or favourite butcher’s shop. The great thing about thus pizza is that it has the decadence of the sausage, the health benefits from the rapini and the look, the contrast in colour makes it a beauty too!

Next time it’s pizza night, try it with rapini and Italian sausage…it could become your family’s new fave.

Pizza With Rapini & Italian Sausage

(serves 4)

1/2 pizza dough recipe

approx. 1 cup of jarred tomato pasata (sauce)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

approx. 3 cups of rapini

3 cloves of  garlic, smashed

1 spicy Italian sausage

Extras

all-purpose flour

corn meal

pizza paddle

pizza stone

pizza cutter

1. To make the dough, add the water, olive oil, sugar, yeast into a medium size bowl and allow the yeast about 5-6 minutes to activate. Now add the salt and flour and knead with your hands until a smooth ball of dough is formed (not too sticky). Drizzle with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot in your kitchen and allow to double in size (about 90 minutes).
2. In the meantime, place a medium sized pot of water on your stovetop and bring up to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt and once aboil, add your garlic and rapini and blanche for about 4 minutes. Remove from a strainer and run under cold water until cooled, then drain. Place in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and mash the garlic, toss and reserve.
3. One your dough has doubled in size, sprinkle some flour on your pizza paddle roll out the dough into your pizza shape. Lift the underside of the dough and sprinkle cornmeal underneath so that the you’ll be able to slide your pizza on your pre-heated pizza stone. Pre-heat your oven to 450F, place the pizza stone on the rack set to middle position and add the minced garlic, black pepper and oregano to your sauce and mix. Spread the sauce on your pizza dough then top with mozzarella and spread the reserved rapini over the cheese.
4. Now slice open the casing of your sausage and remove the meat (discard the casing). Roll the meat into little meatballs and scatter over your pizza.
5. Once your oven has hit 450F, slide your pizza on the hot pizza stone and bake for approx 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the outer crust has just browned. Carefully remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before slicing. Serve a bottle of Terradorra Anglianco 2009 red.

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© 2013, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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Big thank you’s to Despina Kreastoulas and Greg Pappas of the Greek America Foundation, who approached me to organize a dinner to coincide with the 3rd Annual Greek Film & Foto Week. Our guests loved the space, we all proudly wore our “I love GR” pins and some proceeds of the dinner will go to the Project Hope Fund.

The ambiance of the evening was rounded-out with the warm candle supplied by Neo-Image Candlelights. Thank you John! The wine was was furnished by Kolonaki Group and pairings selected by Steve Kriaris. The wines were splendid with the dinner, thank you Steve.

This dinner also had a couple of new collaborators: the first one being Kallikori olive oil from Messinia. Effy and Spyro have been friends for a few years and it was wonderful to finally have their product used in one of my dinners.

Keeping with the Messinia theme, many components of the menu were made with Navarino Icons products from Messinia. This company is world-renowned for its Costa Navarino luxury resort and now they’ve branched out to market and promote the local food items of of Messinia. A warm thank you Peter Poulos for his generous support.

Before you scan through the photos, a friendly reminder that the next dinner is set for Saturday, June 15th at the Cherry Street Restaurant. We’re going to be dining outdoors and feasting on whole lamb on the spit! Half the seats are already gone so gather your friends and book your seats soon.

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© 2013, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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Spring poppies, Amynteon, Florinis

• I’m cooking a Mastiha/Chios themed dinner in New York City on June 1st, grab your seats now
• Toronto International Film Festival to focus on Athens in 2013 City to City program
• Check out Kipos, a traditional Greek taverna in North Carolina
• Here’s a list of 51 recipes and ways you can use Greek yogurt in your cooking
• Spondi resturant of Athens joins the ranks of world’s top restaurants
• You may now pre-order my cookbook, Everything Mediterranean, in stores this November

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© 2013, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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