Octopus Ceviche with Avocado and Red Pickled Onions

Ceviche is one of my favorite summer foods. It's light and it tastes delicious. It's also easy to make. Last weekend, my friend Meatball wanted octopus ceviche. We were in Glendale and no one wanted to go out and attempt to find some. So for Sunday night, I made octopus ceviche for him. I never made this before so I did some researching and came up with the following.

I included a recipe for red pickled onions from Border Grill. It's optional, but I highly recommend trying them. They are crazy good.

Ingredients for Ceviche

1 lb cooked octopus meat
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
Juice of 8 limes 
3/4 cups of finely chopped cilantro
Kosher salt 
2 serrano peppers
1 avocado
tostadas for serving

Cut the octopus meat into small bit size slices. Place the octopus in a non-reactive container (I also use a glass casserole), add the lime juice, the onions, cilantro, and serrano peppers. Sprinkle some Kosher salt and combine well. Let marinate overnight.*



*A lot of recipes out there say to marinate for a few hours. That's ok to do here because the octopus is cooked. I like to marinate overnight because the octopus takes a nice citrusy flavor.

Ingredients for Red Pickled Onions

1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon roughly chopped cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 small beet, trimmed, peeled and cut into 8 wedges

Place the onions in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan and pour in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and remove from the heat. Strain and set aside the onions.

Combine the vinegar, black pepper, cumin, oregano, garlic, sugar, salt and beet in the saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 7 minutes. Add the blanched onions and gently simmer an additional 7 minutes.



Transfer the mixture to a container, cover and refrigerate at least a day before serving.



The next day, take the onions out of the mixture. Reserve until ready to be served.

Serving it all up

Before serving, add cubed pieces of avocado to the ceviche and mix lightly so avocado keeps its form. Put ceviche on tostadas with some pickled onions on top if desired.  Add additional salt if needed.



References:
Ceviche de pulpo or octopus ceviche 
Recipe: Peruvian ceviche at Ciudad