Fish Salad Recipe

Hello Everybody! Today I am sharing with you my fish salad recipe! I make this recipe every year on Christmas Eve to share with my family! It is one of the many courses I serve for the holiday. Watch the full video to follow along as I cook this recipe step by step or continue scrolling for the written recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. small shrimp, peeled and tails removed
• 1/2 lb. mussels, removed from shell
• 1/2 lb. bay scallops
• 1 lb. calamari and tentacles
• 3 lbs. octopus
• 2 lemon peels, halved
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup black olives
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• handful of parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste

To begin, bring two pots of water to a boil and add some salt. Have one bowl filled about half way with cold water and another empty bowl, in which you will mix the fish together, next to the stove.

In one pot, slowly add the octopus in, making sure to dip the arms in slowly so that they start to curl up a bit before dipping the whole octopus into the pot. Add two halves of a lemon peel for flavor and to keep the color bright. Let cook over a medium flame for about 20 minutes. If your octopus is larger, it may need to cook longer.

In the second pot of boiling water, add two halves of the lemon peel and the bay scallops and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Scoop the scallops out with a hand strainer and pour into the cold water bowl. Mix the scallops around the cold water to cool down and then use the hand strainer again to transfer them into the empty bowl for mixing. Add the lemon peels back into the boiling pot of water.

Next, add the shrimp and let boil for about 3-4 minutes. Scoop the shrimp out with a hand strainer and pour into the cold water bowl. Mix the shrimp around the cold water to cool down and then use the hand strainer again to transfer them into the second bowl for mixing. Add the lemon peels back into the boiling pot of water.

Now place the mussels into the pot and let them boil for about 5 minutes. Once they’re done, add them into the cold water to cool down. Then remove all of the mussel shells, and place the mussels into the mixing bowl.

Next you will need to cook the calamari and tentacles. These take a little longer to cook, approximately 10-15 minutes. If you notice there is no longer enough water to boil the calamari, you can add more so that all the calamari cooks evenly. Once they are done cooking, remove them from the boiling water and place them into cold water to cool down; then transfer them to final mixing bowl. At this point I also like to scoop out a few ladles of the water from the calamari pot, this will be saved for later and added into the fish salad.

At this point the octopus is done cooking. Again, remove it from the boiling water and place it into a bowl of cold water to cool it down. Once it is cooled down, I like to run the octopus under cold running water and clean off each tentacle (see video). Next we will be cutting the octopus into bite sized piece. First, remove the head of the octopus, and the mouth (see video). Next cut the octopus into your desired sizes. Place them into the final mixing bowl.

Next you will cut the calamari into ring pieces, just like fried calamari. If the tentacles are too large, then can also be cut into smaller pieces. Add all the cut pieces into the final mixing bowl.

Now it’s time to finish off the salad with the garlic, parsley, olives, salt, black pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and the water from which all the fish was boiling. Mix it all up and your done! You can store this in the fridge, it’s best to eat when the salad is cold. My favorite thing to do is to dip my bread into the salad!