Tentacles

Tentacles, Basil, and Lemongrass Salad

I bought one of the most beautiful cookbooks I have ever seen a few weeks ago - Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart - and at the time bookmarked a few recipes. One of these recipes was Muc Nuong Xa, or Salad of Grilled Octopus, Basil and Lemongrass.

The original plan for tonight was to make this salad and a simple Vietnamese fried rice on the side. However, I had some trouble procuring a pound of octopus. The fish monger I go to at the Reading Terminal Market only had 3-pound octopus. That was too much octopus for me.

Instead of octopus, I left the market with a pound of squid tentacles, which to my knowledge I have never before cooked, let alone eaten.

First I trimmed the tentacles, removing the hard bits at the end (the left side of the picture above), cut the tentacles in half, and rinsed them. I'm not sure whether any of this was actually necessary. I then marinated in fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, salt, garlic, and oil for 30 minutes.


While the tentacles were marinating, I cut up vegetables. I cut the cucumbers into very sloppy matchsticks, sliced the red onion, cut the grape tomatoes in half, and thinly sliced the lemongrass. I left the basil as is.

The recipe I was following called for roasted rice powder. I made this by toasting raw jasmine rice and grinding it with a mortar and pestle. I'm not really sure what this added to the salad. Maybe a little texture? I guess I would have to try it with and without in order to tell. In any case, here is a picture of the roasted rice powder:

As I do not have a backyard, rooftop, or balcony, I don't have a grill. Instead of grilling, I cooked the squid on a cast iron skillet. The problem I found is that squid releases a lot of liquid when cooking. Mid-way through I drained the liquid. Also interesting to note is that the tentacles start moving when you cook them. It is kind of creepy and strange. They look alive.

After they were done I mixed all the vegetables and roasted rice powder, put the tentacles on top, and garnished with a Thai chili, Vietnamese dipping sauce, and chopped roasted peanuts. Guess what? It was actually pretty good, though time I think I'll thinly slice a shallot and leave the red onion out, or alternatively, learn how to thinly slice an onion and use less of it.

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Tentacle Salad Recipe adapted from Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen.

1/4 cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoon oil
1 small octopus, ideally
2 small cucumbers
2-inch piece of lemongrass, white part only, finely sliced
1 small red onion or a few shallots, sliced thinly
1 handful Thai basil leaves
10 cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon roasted rice powder
3 tablespoons dipping fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped roasted peanuts
1 bird's-eye chili

Mix the fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, garlic and oil and marinate the octopus in it for 30 minutes. Cut the cucumbers into matchsticks and combine with the lemongrass, onion, basil, tomatoes, and powder.

Grill the octopus for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until done. With the tentacles, I probably only cooked for 3 minutes total. Once cooked, add to the salad, dress with the fish sauce, and serve garnished with peanuts and chili. Can also garnish with fried shallots.