Octopus Ice Cream 6.15 A Vineyard Valentine

“Sookie, you can’t serve Valentine’s Day burritos; that’s flirting with disaster. We could be talking the octopus ice cream disaster of ‘98.” 

For the real octopus ice cream: 

• 2 cups heavy cream

• 1 cup whole milk

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• ¼ cup tahini

• 1 tsp vanilla

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

• 1 tin canned octopus, drained

For the sour gummy octopus ice cream: 

• 2 cups heavy cream

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 4 tbsp lemon juice

• ½ tbsp lemon zest

• 1 tsp citric acid (plus more for serving)

• Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink food coloring

• Trolli sour gummy octopus candy

Directions: 

For the real octopus ice cream: 

1. Combine the heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, tahini, vanilla, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. 

2. Churn by hand or in an ice cream maker then transfer to a metal bowl or loaf tin and place in the freezer to set. 

3. Press a piece of plastic wrap to the surface of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming. 

4. While the ice cream sets, chop the octopus into small chunks. 

5. Top with the toasted sesame seeds and octopus

For the sour gummy octopus ice cream: 

1. Combine the heavy cream, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla.

2. Churn by hand or in an ice cream maker. Then mix in the lemon juice and zest and citric acid a little at a time to prevent curdling. 

3. Transfer to a metal bowl or loaf tin and place in the freezer. 

4. To prevent the ice cream from melting, dye the ice cream one color at a time. Keep the undyed ice cream in the freezer, but work with about 2 cups at a time to dye. 

5. Add the 2 cups you’re dyeing to a small bowl. Add a few drops of the red food coloring and stir to combine. Return the small bowl to the freezer. 

6. Repeat this step to create the remaining colors, again working with 2 cups at a time in a separate bowl. 

7. Once you’ve created all the colors, take all the bowls out of the freezer and add a few spoonfuls of each color at a time in a random pattern to the original metal bowl or loaf tin. 

8. After adding all the ice cream back into the original metal container, use a skewer or knife to marble the colors to create a swirling tie-dye pattern. Be careful not to overmix and muddle all the colors together. 

9. Press a piece of plastic wrap to the surface of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming. Allow to set in the freezer for a few hours. 

10. When serving, add more citric acid on top (no more than ⅛ tsp per ½ cup of ice cream otherwise it’ll be too sour) and add the sour octopus gummies. 

This will go down as the weirdest thing I will ever make. Throughout my time doing the original project, I always said one of the biggest reasons I wasn’t going to recreate every single food mentioned on the show was the infamous octopus ice cream disaster mentioned in this episode. When I got to meet my inspiration for the project, Bradley of @bradbakes, in London and shared this little tidbit, he insisted that I should still attempt to make octopus ice cream. I swore up and down that there was no way I would ever do that…

When I got to this episode in my original run-through last year, I couldn’t bring myself to make it and went with the Valentine’s burritos. Then, I asked some friends to help me announce my encore and had them share a dish I hadn’t made from the show that they would want to see me recreate. And of course, Brad once again insisted on octopus ice cream. I couldn’t avoid it this time. It was in my announcement video for everyone to see. 

I had the idea to play it safe and make an ice cream for the sour octopus gummies, but one thing about me is I won’t back down from a challenge. Especially a culinary one. And so, against my better judgment, I decided to brave real octopus ice cream. I’ve only tried octopus a couple of times because the tentacles and the suction cups really freak me out. Since I don’t live anywhere near the shore, I knew I’d have to go with tinned octopus because I couldn’t trust fresh octopus to be actually fresh here. 

I didn’t want to make a full octopus ice cream base because that would be too much, so I decided to make a tahini and toasted sesame seed savory ice cream that I thought might hopefully balance out the seafood flavors and top it with octopus. And I tried it…on camera. To see what my verdict was, go check out the reaction video on my Instagram. 

But suffice it to say, I don’t think anything I ever make for this project or outside of it will ever be weirder than this concoction. 

What about you, are you brave enough to try octopus ice cream? 

Happy cooking from the Hollow!

If you missed my last encore dish, catch up here!