Smoked Octopus Appetizers

OK. Before you snarl your nose at the name...Smoked Octopus Appetizers...close your eyes and take a bite. Surprised you, didn't I? My sister gifted me with an assortment of tinned seafoods and frankly, I had no idea of what to do with octopus. I knew my brother-in-law Don would eat it; I would at least try it, and everybody else would look at us like we were crazy. Well, they don't know what they missed by passing on this delicacy. I ate several and Don polished the plate for me.

Admittedly, when I opened the can, I was mmmm, not so sure about this. It was not a pretty sight and we do tend to eat with our eyes. I scoured the internet for ways to prepare and came up pretty empty. Add to a salad or soup were popular choices, but very limited (none that were appealing to me) regarding appetizers. Happy Foods Tube had a "Spanish Octopus Appetizer" recipe and I could imagine the flavors and used it to base mine by. 

INGREDIENTS:

Smoked octopus (drained and rinsed)

Roasted red pepper strips

Mezzetta Italian Olive Antipasto (marinated with Chardonnay and herbs)

Mzezetta cocktail onions

Cocktail skewers

Everything I have sampled from this company, including the octopus, has been amazing. I also made a smoked salmon dip with the Smoked White King Salmon Bellies which Don claimed to be one of the best he had eaten. (I just wish my sister would have sampled her gift!)

Ooof. Okay. It smells okay but I am still just a touch skittish.
Let's drain this and see what we have.

OK. work with me here! These octopus pieces have me thinking of a line from
a John Candy movie but I'm still diving in!

Once drained, I sliced the pieces into coins. If something odd fell off, that was fine.

I then alternated an onion, piece of octopus, a roasted red pepper strip and olive on a skewer until I used up all the pieces.

All the skewers were placed on a platter and drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with Italian herbs, salt and black pepper. They were kept refrigerated until ready to serve.

All jokes aside, these were very good and I would gladly prepare and eat them again.