A Bite To Eat With Alice: Nornie Bero's confit octopus with native chimichurri
Alice is joined in the kitchen by Nornie Bero, who shares a truly special dish — her confit octopus with native chimichurri. Known for celebrating fresh, local and native ingredients, Nornie showcases how simple yet deeply flavourful Australian bush foods can be.
Fresh octopus should be firm, glossy, and have a slight ocean scent.
(
ABC TV: Wesley Mitton
)
Native greens in full glory — saltbush and warrigal greens bring a bold, earthy flavour to this vibrant chimichurri.
(
ABC TV: Wesley Mitton
)
This dish is a labour of love, slow-poaching octopus in aromatic olive oil with fennel, garlic and native spices to create a melt-in-your-mouth texture. It's then grilled to develop a smoky char, before being topped with a bright and zesty native chimichurri made with saltbush, warrigal greens, and pepperberries.
Despite appearances, this dish is really as simple as whacking it in a tray, and popping it into the oven.
(
ABC TV: Wesley Mitton
)
A true showcase of native Australian flavours, this dish highlights the beauty of cooking with local ingredients, while delivering restaurant-quality results at home.
The octopus shrinks as it slow-cooks, intensifying its flavour and creating melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.
(
ABC TV: Wesley Mitton
)
A bold, herb-packed native chimichurri, featuring Australian ingredients like saltbush and warrigal greens.
(
ABC TV: Wesley Mitton
)
Tips
Wash the octopus
thoroughly to remove any stickiness from the suckers.
Save the leftover oil:
Store it in an airtight container and use it as a seafood-infused oil for other dishes.
Pepperberry is sometimes called mountain berry
in supermarkets, so keep an eye out for both names.
Seal the foil tightly
over the dish to trap heat and ensure the octopus poaches evenly.
Saltbush has a flavour similar to oregano
, making it a great native herb to cook with.
Gently mix the greens
in the mortar instead of bruising them, to preserve their fresh flavour.
The octopus can be confited the day before
and left in the fridge overnight, making prep easier.
This recipe appears in A Bite to Eat with Alice, a new nightly cooking show
and weeknights at 5pm on ABC TV.
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Preheat oven to 190°C fan-forced (200°C conventional).
In a bowl, combine the octopus and salt, wash and rinse well.
Place fennel tops, pepperberries, tarragon, garlic, shallots and chili in a baking tray. Top with octopus and cover with olive oil. Place baking paper on top and cover with foil. Place in the oven to poach for 1 hour.
Once cooked, remove the octopus from oil and place into an ice bath to cool. Slice and grill on each side until golden brown.
Meanwhile, prepare the warrigal and saltbush chimichurri. Combine the warrigal greens, saltbush, coriander and chili in a bowl. Add the olive oil, then the vinegar and oregano, and season with pepperberry and salt.
To serve, top the grilled octopus with native chimichurri.
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It looks good on paper and you think, well, I should be making a few bucks, but you don't see anything," said Storer. "All my money is made through live performance. I rely heavily on ticket sales, which is like a roller coaster." The contradiction between listener sentiment and behaviour could be the basis of a campaign for actively discovering local music - a bit like the 'Life. Be in it' health campaign of the 1980s - suggested Music Australia director Millie Millgate. "We can remind Australian audiences what these bands are doing overseas and encourage them not to miss out - like, don't miss out on your own party," said Millgate. "There's no one single bullet, but if audiences can be mobilised to do their part and really seek out Australian new music, it would go an incredible way." And the Music Australia research suggests we could potentially Aussify Spotify: listeners like the idea of a dedicated Australian music streamer, with 42 per cent saying it's something they would pay for. Melbourne rock band Amyl and the Sniffers are one act making it big on the global stage, and when the band appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon recently, singer Amy Taylor's top was made from two classic Aussie thongs. It's a big effort to demonstrate a sense of national pride - but it seems many Aussie musos are actually getting more love overseas, with more than 80 per cent of royalties for local musicians coming from international listeners in 2024, according to figures from Spotify. The research also found radio still plays a role. A quarter of music fans still tune in to discover new music, with ABC station triple j a popular source. 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