Octopus, chilli and herb salad

Name: Octopus, chilli and herb salad
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Burmese
Ingredients: 2½ tbsp lime juice; 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 2 tbsp peanut oil; 1 medium octopus, thoroughly rinsed; 1 tbsp caster sugar; 4 tiny hot red chillies, finely sliced salt; 3 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded, or ½ tsp finely grated lime zest; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 4 firm tomatoes, cut into slim wedges and deseeded; handful of long coriander (saw-tooth herb) or regular coriander leaves; 4 pink shallots or 1 small red onion, finely sliced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

Octopus, fresh from the Bay of Bengal; shredded blades of saw-tooth coriander, fresh from Thandwe market; all jumbled with lime juice, salt, chilli and onions... need I say more? You’ll find it all at home too..

Ingredients

1 medium octopus, thoroughly rinsed
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 cloves

Asia
Myanmar (Burma)
Starter
Pescatarian
South East Asia
Gluten-free

Method

Bring a pan of salted water to a rolling boil, then pop in the whole octopus and gently simmer for 30-40 minutes, depending on size, or until just tender (test with a knife). Next, drain, slice off and discard the head and beak (located in the ring-hole of the tentacles), then slice the ring of tentacles into arms and cut these into sections. Warm the peanut oil and garlic until the garlic star