Spanish Octopus

I made this for myself recently with pickling spices from Kalustyan's in New York City (24 grams), 12 grams of salt (plus two pinches after chilling), juice of one small-to-medium lemon (plus lemon to taste after chilling) and one teaspoon of pepper flakes. The octopus used was one pound of baby octopus from Portugal, perhaps Spain (presumably frozen). After preparing, I placed it in a ceramic bowl and covered with cling wrap and refrigerated overnight, eating as a cold salad the next day. First off, this would go great with an albarino or other sharp white wine. Second, it's got a kick, but the kick will depend as much a anything by the pickling spice you use. Kalustyan's lists the ingrediants as cinnamon chips, yellow mustard seed, dill seed, brown mustard seed, all spice, clove, mace, coriander, peppercorn, bay leaf, cardamom (note: seeds, not pods), red chili (note: mine had a whole chili, but there may also have been some crushed chili in there) and dry ginger. You can understand why I wasn't about to make this myself, even though I had many of the ingredient spices already. There was a dominating flavor of clove, along with the underlying zing of the pepper; I suspect a different pickling mix, Penzeys say, would have had a different effect. Regardless, this is a dish that cries out to be served with something: a cold couscous, perhaps, I even thought of melon (Japanese melon ... not too sweet, but a good crunch, came to mind). Fundamentally, this wasn't a bad dish, I'm just not sure it met my expectations. I will certainly try it again, however. And with an accompaniment next time.

• christopherbailey

• New York, New York

• 8/5/2007