The Great Octopus Experiment!

Ever since we first ate grilled Octopus in Santorini, we fell in love with it.  We loved it so much we ate it numerous times while there. The photo above was taken at Mama Thira's in Firastefani on the island where they string out the legs to dry in the sun for hours before grilling them.  We also had excellent octopus recently in Porto, Portugal. Craving some octopus, we decided this week it was time for us to try our hand at grilling them at home.  Here in Venice, we see octous at the fish market regularly, but we don't ever see grilled octopus being served anywhere. It's always prepared as a marinated seafood salad.  But- we wanted grilled.  We researched several recipes and decided to try one of Mario Batali's. How bad could a Mario recipe be, right?  

The next step was to go to the fish monger to procure some octopus.  Mike went down to our neighborhood fish guys in Campo Santa Margherita and asked for a kilo ( roughly 2 lbs) and they cleaned it right there for him. To be honest we were not keen on the idea of having to clean it ourselves at home.

Unwrapping the package at home, Mike discovered he had 3 of them in the there! We put 2 in the freezer, and proceeded to the next step in the recipe. The octopus was washed (see above), then put in a pot of water along with a wine cork (this is Mario's method), and boiled for about 45 minutes.

 Here's our dinner boiling! Not a pretty sight!

 And here it is, just out of the pot, looking a little bit better!  Next step is to marinate it in olive oil, lemon and some spices for 15 minutes to an hour.

 Here's the octopus being readied to go out on the grill.  Grilling only takes about 5 minutes on each side. Mike cut the legs apart, we did not eat the head part.

 And here is dinner, plated along with grilled potatoes, red peppers, onions and some roasted cabbage.  The final verdict on the experiment- it was good, but not as good as we had in Santorini.  We have 2 more in the freezer, we're determined to try another recipe to see if we can improve on it. If not, I think we're headed back to Santorini.

This week's stuff

Che Freddo!!!!  We have been having incredible COLD days here over the past week. So cold that the lagoon has frozen over, and the Grand Canal and even the smaller canals have ice on them.

Ice chunks on the canal outside my apartment

Ice on the bottom and sides of the gondola.

The Carnevale Regata on Sunday was cancelled due to the frigid temperatures, and the temperatures have only gone lower throughout the rest of the week. Last night a wind (a Bora) was whipping down the streets and the canals  with such force we thought our shutters were going to be ripped off the house. All night long we heard boats banging up against the brick wall. This morning I read in the newspaper that il Toro, that bull I blogged about the other day, suffered quite a bit of damage from the high winds. It was constructed mostly of reeds from the lagoon. I think those reeds made their way back to the lagoon last night.  By mid day, what was left of il Toro had been moved from it's mooring next to La Salute to a place on land.

Besides the weather, this just hasn't been a good week at Ca' Hendersoni.  Even though I admit we are living a dream life,  there are still times we get a brutal reminder that life can smack us in the face just like anyone else.  On Monday, I took my dog Sam to the vets.  He is 17 yrs old this month, quite the old guy, with rapidly declining health. He's been on medication for arthritis, however in the last 2 weeks he can barely move. I wanted to know if there was any stronger medication we could be giving him.  Well, we now know that there is something a bit more serious causing the pain- he has a large tumor on his right back leg.  The vet took some blood and extracted some cells and sent them off to the lab. Unfortunately, the test results showed nothing conclusive. The next step would be a biopsy.  The vet, and we agree, feel that Sam is too frail to deal with surgery. At this point, we are giving him a new pain medication, much stronger.   Not a good start to the week.

Tuesday, I dropped a knife between the washing machine and the sink cabinet.  In order to retrieve it, we had to move the washer. When we put the washer back in place, it wasn't exactly right, so I ended up jacking it around a bit to get it positioned properly. While I was jacking around with the washer, I managed to bump the stainless steel counter top that has the sink embedded in it.  This counter top is not anchored in anyway- I moved it about a quarter of an inch off center.  So- I had to jack around with the counter top.  While I was doing that, I sliced open my thumb, which bled like an S.O. B. I had blood to clean up everywhere! Finally, with everything back in place, I got out of the kitchen before I could cause any more damage!

Two days later, while we were cleaning up dinner dishes, we looked down to discover we were standing in about a quarter inch of water, that was quickly making its way across the entire kitchen floor!!!  Somehow, while I was "fixing" the counter top I had moved previously, the pipe under the counter came loose, and gradually got looser over the two days.  When it finally gave way, the water spewed everywhere!  We had a swimming pool in seconds.  We had to empty the entire cabinet below the sink and dry that up. We had to mop up the floor. And- we had to pull out the washing machine to mop up behind it. I should have just left the washing machine where it was in the first place!

See, my dream life has it's crap days too!!

I'm sorry to say that my Venice Carnevale updates are going to take a hiatus starting tomorrow because we will not be in Venice. We're headed to Portugal, and will catch Carnevale on Maderia Island, where they celebrate it more like in Rio de Janiero.  We'll be back in Venice just in time for the very last night of Carnevale.  I am very eagerly awaiting the closing event of Carnevale 2012- Vogata del Silenzio. I watched it last year from the Accademia bridge, this year we have tickets to be riding in one of the gondolas that night. Vogata del Silenzio, a silent procession of gondolas down the Grand Canal ending at St. Mark's square, begins at 11:30 pm.  By midnight, all the boats will have arrived at St. Mark's square, where the wooden bull,  il Toro, will be set on fire, signifying the end of Carnevale and the beginning of Lent.

According to weather reports, the temperatures in Portugal are about 20 degrees warmer than in Venice today. Let's hope so. The forecasts for Venice are calling for snow on Friday and Saturday.