Red wine & star anise-braised octopus with coriander dressing

My first-ever experience of eating octopus almost ensured I’d never eat it again. Our family was staying at Cape Palliser, which is at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand. We’d go there several times a year, usually staying in an old woolshed that friends of my Dad owned. The woolshed would be filled with bales of wool, or with bales of agar seaweed - harvested in non wool-shearing months as a way to supplement the farmer’s income. Out on the beach were Antarctic fur seals and pen