tako meshi

One of the items we got at the Wajima asa-ichi (morning market) was a whole dried octopus...500 yen (about US$5)

The guy we bought it from said that you could heat it on the grill and just eat or make tako meshi (octopus rice) with it.

I thought it would be nicer to enjoy it as a rice dish, so that is how I prepared it.

I cut it in half and then into bite sized pieces. I then added it to 2 cups of washed rice, 2 cups of bonito-kelp stock, 2 tablespoons shoyu, 2 tablespoons mirin & 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.

Threw everything into the rice cooker and...voila!

I topped it with some chopped green onion.

NOTES: The hardest part was cutting this octopus into bite sized pieces. It was like cutting hardened rubber. I imagine cutting a rubber slipper with a dull knife would be similar??

The grains of rice were a bit al dente, I think it was because I had some brown rice mixed in.

The dried octopus plumped up nicely after cooking.

Flavor wise, we knew this would be good because we could smell all the flavors melding as it was cooking...it was a little salty, a little sweet, nice spicy crunch from the green onions and the octopus was really tender.

We had this with some kinpira and takuan for dinner this past Sunday.

I have the other half of the octopus and some leftover stock so I'm making this again....soon!