tako pesto salad

I was able to gather most of the ingredients for this copycat salad that I tried from 7-eleven.

If I am not mistaken 7-eleven sells this as a pupu (appetizer) rather than as a salad.

I don’t have exact measurements so just ad-lib if you do try it.

1 tako leg, boiled, cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 small head broccoli, steamed, cut into bite sized pieces

2 small potatoes, peeled and boiled, cut into eighths

handful of edamame, cooked then shelled

2 or 3 tablespoons pesto (basil, mac nuts, oil, parmesan cheese)

After everything is cooled

Gently mix everything together with pesto

NOTES: so easy and tasty! makes about 2 servings

The original dish has celery in it but I couldn’t find any at the market, so I left it out.

Most markets sell tako legs already boiled in the seafood section, so this was easy for me to put together.

When I made my pesto, I made a small batch (2 or 3 tablespoons) using a handful of basil leaves, small handful of toasted mac nuts and a small clove of garlic.

I put everything into a food processor and drizzled in some oil.

Then before mixing it with the tako and other ingredients I added 1 teaspoon of grated parmesan cheese.

Try to make this ahead so everything can meld while it is chilling in the fridge.

I served this on butter lettuce 

If I have all the ingredients together I would definitely make this again.

tako meshi (the other half)

With the other half of the dried tako, I made another pot of tako meshi. This time adding some gobo (burdock). I "whittled" the gobo and added it to the tako and rice.

I had frozen the other half of the stock thinking I could use it for the batch of tako meshi mentioned above, but one of my bottles (the one with more stock in it) cracked in the freezer, so I threw it out.

(Satoshi actually thought we could salvage the stock, but I didn't want to take any chances.)

So instead of making more stock, I just used the amount of stock that was okay and added some water. Also, I didn't add the sugar, just shoyu and mirin.

Whittling the gobo was a good method too, the gobo came out tender.

Despite the cracked bottle of stock, the tako meshi with gobo was delicious.

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!

furikake

The photo in my book looked so good that I decided to give this recipe a try. This recipe is really easy and doesn't take too many ingredients. Although, if you cannot find aonori, I would sprinkle some parsley.

Making furikake does take some time, but it is worth it because I know what I am putting into it and there are no extra additives or preservatives.

This recipe comes from a book that I have talked about in the past. I adapted the recipe because I didn't have one of the ingredients.

It was great on rice.

Tako, potato and tomato furikake
Adapted from "Furikake 101" by Hideo Makuuchi

200g tako (octopus), boiled
3/4 potato, peeled
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons oil
1/2 teaspoon aonori (green laver)

Cut tako into bite sized pieces.
Cut potato into the same size as the tako.
Put tako into a frying pan and on medium heat "cook" the tako until all the water disappears.
Take tako out and put oil and potato into frying pan.
When potato has changed to an opaque color, turn the heat down and add the ketchup and the tako.
Be careful not to burn.
After the potato and tako are well coated, add the aonori and turn off the heat.
Put over hot rice and enjoy!

NOTES: I think this furikake is more of a wet type and would be good in a musubi.

If you missed the previous posts on furikake, you can see them here and here.

tako salad

The first time I tried this recipe, the salad looked nice, but didn't taste good. It was really bitter.

The original recipe calls for watercress, shiso (perilla)(10 leaves) and boiled tako (octopus)--about 1 leg. The dressing is just lemon juice and some oil.

So, I changed the recipe and I think this version is better.

The day I wanted to make this, the supermarket had no watercress, so I subbed it with rocket/arugula. For the dressing, I used the bi bim kook soo sauce. Cut and toss.

Doesn't look as nice as the first photo, but sure does taste better.

sunomono & kinpira

When the weather is humid and hot, what do you like to eat?

I tend to favor things with vinegar in them because the sourness paired with a little sweetness is somehow refreshing to me.

This is what I made for dinner last night: Tako sunomono & kinpira

Tako sunomono (Octopus marinated in vinegar)-serves 4
150g boiled tako(octopus) legs
4 cucumber
20g wakame (kelp)
salt
wasabi(Japanese horseradish)

Marinade: 6 tablespoons vinegar
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
1.5 tablespoons dashi (stock)--if none on hand, just water will be fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Slice the cucumber thin and salt, leave for at least 3 minutes
Take hot water and pour it over the tako legs (this is to get rid of the fishy smell it may have, plus get the tako ready to soak in the marinade)
Cut tako & wakame into bite size pieces
Assemble marinade, put everything in.
When serving, you can add some wasabi on the side.

Another type of food that I like to make is something spicy. The second dish I made for dinner was kinpira. It was the first time for me to try this recipe and boy, was it good! Be sure to serve it with lots of rice.

Adapted from "Orange Page--Obaachan no aji (book 5)"
1 package pre-cleaned kinpira mix*
200g minced pork
1.5 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1/2 teaspoon tobanjan (Chinese chili paste)
1 tablespoon miso (soy bean paste)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

Rinse kinpira mix and set aside. *you can sometimes find kinpira mix in the refrigerated sections or freezer sections, it should have gobo (burdock), carrots and sometimes renkon (lotus root) in it.
Add oil to pan and coat kinpira mix well.
Add tobanjan, when you can smell the chilies, add the pork.
Cook until pork changes color, then add rest of seasonings.
Cook until most of the liquid evaporates.

Both dishes pair nicely with beer and can be served as pupus (Hawaiian for appetizers). Be sure to make the sunomono in advance so it can take in some of the marinade. If you are a working mom or dad, you could probably make the sunomono the night before, or both dishes the night before, so that when you come home you can just heat up the kinpira. You can also cut back the fat from the kinpira by making the dish in advance and scraping off the oil the next day.

Enjoy!