BBQ Baby Octopus salad

I went up to Brisbane in November for my sister's graduation. Our family had dinner at a casual seafood bbq restaurant - I can't remember the name. But they had the best BBQ octopus salad - the octopus was very tender.

My dad knew the chef so he called him up a few days later and asked for the recipe. It turns out the secret ingredient is... kiwi fruit.

First you take baby octopus that has been cleaned, and you marinate it with kiwi fruit that has been pulped. I use about 3 kiwi fruits for 600g of bbq octopus. Just put the octopus in a bowl, spoon out the kiwi fruit, mash the kiwi flesh with your fingers and mix well with the octopus. For the size of baby octopus, don't leave it for longer than 30 minutes otherwise the octopus starts to disintegrate. The chef said it is also used on steaks.

I did a search on kiwi fruit and according to the Food Coach and Nudie websites raw kiwifruit is rich in the protein-dissolving enzyme actinidin which is a natural meat tenderizer.



The next part is quite messy. After the kiwi fruit has done its magic, you have to rinse the octopus and pat dry. Then marinate as normal. I like putting it in some olive oil, garlic, oregano, smoky paprika and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Throw it on the barbeque and serve with some mixed salad leaves.

Try it, it really works!

Masala Dosa for brekky

On a recent trip to Bangalore, India for work, I had a special dish called masala dosa for breakfast. I've only ever had it as an appetiser in indian restaurants in Sydney. I didn't know it was a breakfast dish. I found it wasn't served as part of the hotel buffet as it has to be made fresh. You can however order it for breakfast which is what I did.

Dosa is like a very thin crispy crepe made from a batter of finely ground rice and urad bean blended with water.

A masala dosa is a normal dosa stuffed with lightly cooked filling of potatoes, fried onions and spices.

It is served with various accompaniments such as chutneys and sambar - a pea and vegetable stew or chowder based on a broth made with tamarind and dal.

The masala dosa I had above is served with sambar (in the bowl) and some wet chutneys (coriander and tomato).

Lunch at Danks Street Depot

We caught up with a good friend of ours for brunch at Danks Street Depot. I wanted to try out their lunch menu, in particular, the Chicken Liver Parfait. My friend had never been so I didn't want her to miss out on the staples - truffled eggs or the poached eggs with bacon hash. Luckily they serve both on their lunch menu (due to popular demand).

My friend had the truffled eggs (unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it) while I had an instant heart-attack due to the chicken liver parfait. Hubby had the poached eggs with bacon hash.

The chicken liver parfait was very good but very rich. It has a layer of butter to preserve it, served with sourdough toast and caramelised onions. I also ordered a green salad which did wonders to cut through the richness of the livers.

Would I order it again to have as a main? Absolutely, but only after I have lost a few kgs from the first eating!