Connie’s notes
We had been planning on reshooting the takoyaki recipe so I bought a tray of fully cooked octopus from my seafood purveyor. There’s been no chance to make a batch of takoyaki yet but, meanwhile, there was dinner to prepare for my older daughter, Sam, who eats no red meat. She’s still recovering from a flu-like infection (she tested negative for COVID, thank goodness) and, well, I’m a mom who wanted to pamper her daughter. So, this became her dinner.
And what’s so special about this dish minus the mommy-loves-Sam part? Okay, octopus is tricky to cook. Undercook it and it’s tough. Overcook it and it’s tough. There’s a sweet spot that I haven’t discovered yet mostly because I have not had much experience cooking octopus. So, I stay with portions that are already fully cooked and only require reheating.
If you don’t own a claypot, you can make the dish in a regular pan.
Ingredients
- ½ cup rice any rice variety should work except glutinous rice
- 1 ¼ cups fish broth / stock homemade or store bought
- fish sauce if your broth is underseasoned
- 1 cup diced fully cooked octopus
- 2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- ⅓ to ½ cup shelled edamame
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
- thinly sliced scallions to garnish
- sesame seed oil to garnish
Instructions
- Rinse the rice several times, drain and dump into the claypot.
- Pour in three-quarters cup of broth (and fish sauce, if needed) and bring to the boil.
- Cover the pot, turn off the heat and leave until the broth has been absorbed by the rice grains.
- (Note: Cooking a dish like this traditionally requires soaking the rice for a few hours before cooking. The first three steps do away with the presoaking)
- Place the octopus in a bowl, add the soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar and ginger, and toss well.
- When the rice has soaked up the liquid, arrange the octopus pieces on one side and the edamame on the other side. Drizzle in any leftover soy sauce mixture.
- With the heat set to medium, drizzle in another quarter cup of broth along the edges of the rice.
- Cover the pot, cook for five minutes, then, take a grain of rice and test for doneness. If the rice needs to cook longer (aged rice needs more liquid), drizzle in the remaining broth and cook for another five minutes.
- By the time the rice is done, the octopus and edamame should be fully heated. Just sprinkle in some toasted sesame seeds and scallions, drizzle in a bit of sesame seed oil and serve.
Kimchi soup with pork and tofu
