For your enjoyment…

Do you feel the same as I do on weekends on or special holidays, or when you have guests over? I’d like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoiled for choice or I can’t think of anything at all. If even intensively searching the internet turns out to be fruitless or leafing through piles of cookbooks doesn’t turn up any solution, try our Recipe of the Month!

From the chefs of the Schick Restaurants in Vienna, every month there is a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to prepare and enjoy at home! If you don’t want to have to prepare the recipe yourself, you can order the finished dish in comfort at the corresponding Schick Restaurant and indulge all around…

In September 2017 – recipe by Felix Albiez – chef of the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Octopus . Paella spume . Peas . Chorizo

Recipe / ingredients for 4 servings:

Octopus:
1 octopus
1 tbsp. peppercorns
1 tbsp. fennel seeds
1 tbsp. coriander seeds
4 bay leaves
1 small bunch of thyme
1 clove of garlic

Pea cream:
300 g peas
40 g butter

Paella spume:
100 ml olive oil
500 g prawns or lobster carcasses (preorder from a fishmonger)
2 cloves of garlic
100 g diced fennel
100 g diced leek
100 g diced onion
50 g diced celery
50 g diced carrots
500 g quartered, very ripe tomatoes
20 g saffron threads
20 g Piment d’Espelette
5 peppercorns
10 coriander seeds
200 ml cava
3 l fish stock
50 g butter

200 g Chorizo sausage
pea cress

Preparation:

Wash octopus. In a pot, bring water and all spices to a boil. Add the octopus and boil on medium heat for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until soft. Allow the octopus to cool, then remove the tentacles from the body and divide into portions.

Heat the olive oil in a pot and sauté the shellfish carcasses in the olive oil. Add fennel, leek, onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Fold in tomatoes, saffron, Piment d’Espelette, peppercorns and coriander seeds and allow the liquid to thicken. Quench with cava, then allow to thicken fully. Fill with fish stock and simmer on medium heat for approximately 50 minutes, skimming frequently. Press the stock through a cloth.

Boil the peas in salt water for approximately 2 minutes. Purée the peas together with butter in an electric blender until a homogenous mass forms. Add boiling water depending on consistency.

Cut the Chorizo sausage into small cubes and slowly sauté in a pan until crisp.

Serving:
Cut the octopus into small slices and sauté lightly. Place pea cream in dots on the plate. Spread octopus on the plate and garnish with pea cress and Chorizo crumbs. Heat the paella stock, add butter and spread on plates (see photo).

We wish you lots of fun cooking… bon appétit!