Let's make Octopus Salad and Tofu-stuffed Mushrooms!

Hmm, what a lovely evening! Not too cool, not too warm... need a last minute idea for something to eat. Well, we have some leftover stuff and uneaten ingredients... what about the world famous Tako {Octopus} Salad with Radish Greens and Mustard Sauce?

And perchance a side of Tofu-Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms?
Ooo, it's gonna be good!

Intrigued, are you? Good! First, put water on for some fresh dashi. Then, made up the Mustard Miso sauce. Way easier than it sounds-- just parts light miso, Japanese mustard, and rice vinegar. I later added some dashi to thin it out. That made all the difference in the world! Nice and smooth.

I make it first so that i can just leave it while the water is boiling (and i should have started brining the octopus now too. Whoops.)





Here's what it looks like! Easy, ne?








So now, take the stems off of these guys. This part is oddly satisfying. Removing stems is one of those soothing activities that makes me feel a little less crazy-- just a nice meditation.

These guys were really cheap ($3) and lasted us a good week plus. Made a nice addition to my Udon, and a quick quesedilla i made yesterday.


Every cookbook i read says not to wash mushrooms, but just to wipe them with a damp cloth. I think this is mostly so that they'll soak in all the flavor, but a certain person in my household is kind of uneasy with this. So they get washed.

They still absorb flavors just fine, and to her credit, there is a lot of crap on the mushrooms.

One book even recommends using Q-tips to clean mushrooms. Now, really. Q-tips?? We're all adults here.


Now the tofu part. Puree half a block with one egg and a tiny amnt. of Miso. Ends up looking like hummus, and if you do the processing in the living room, you don't even wake up any babies living in the house!

Notice the tea strainer, too. I tried the bonito trick again, with better results. I think tea bags are the best way to go, though.


Okay, now the freaky part.

I get horror movie "The Orphanage"-level chills when i pull these things out of the package. This is a big part of the reason why i don't like to eat meat, and stuff like octopussies draw that line pretty distinctly-- this thing was alive.

It's not that i feel wistful about that (okay, sometimes i do)

But mostly i just irrationally fear that they will re-animate and start squirming in my hand. I had this phenomenon first happen in San Jose when i was eating some shrimp. They just looked too shrimpy, and i suddenly imagined them swimming about on my plate.

Anyway, you have to first cut off their gross, flacid heads. If you can do this, Brownie Points for you. It sucks. It's gross.

Sans-cephalo octopi can then be brined-- you just rub salt on the legs and let them sit for 10 minutes. Rinse in cold water, and throw into a boiling pot of water. This part is crazy-- the limp legs instantly firm up and get all curly, and it turns this striking color of purple.

This process also removes the membrane-y brown outer layer. Some sites say to boil the legs for a minute only, but the longer you do it, the more of this membrane will come off.

And look what you end up with! Aren't they pretty?

They're especially nice in person, and amazing to handle these firm, tough legs that were just a minute ago really squishy, bland, and drab. Okay, they kind of make you wanna vomit. BUT! Once you boil 'em, they're pretty. Rinse them in cold water again.

Next part-- soak it in lemon or lime juice for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, fill the shitake caps with the tofu/egg mix. This part is really fun. It's like making cookies!

Line them on a paper towel or Trader Joe's bag if you don't wanna have yet another dish to clean.

Believe me, they add up.

Now, grease a pan with vegetable oil (doesn't take much) and put the shitakes stuffing down. Then you press on them with a spatula for a few seconds to make the filling stick to the shitakes.

Flip them after a minute. Then, add that dashi mixed with mirin and soy sauce. This combination, hoo boy. It is GOOOOOD.

They look so funny-- like Deviled eggs that someone ran over.


This is the squashing part.

It should start to smell really nice-- savory, sweet, and salty. It's comfort food at its finest.




Then, put the dressing on the octopus (might as well rinse the lime juice off) and add the creamy Miso Mustard sauce. Then, to make this thing really kick @$$, add some radish greens to the top. These are hard for us to find in the Midwest, but i think they're pretty commonplace in a place with a decent market.

See? Isn't it pretty? The perfect complement-- a nice medium beer. Believe me-- it's a perfect pairing.

Here are the mushrooms finally finished! Probably a bit too much oil, but they end up being really moist. It's almost like eating clams- they are so savory, moist and meaty. Really nice.

Andoh-san recommends serving it with flavored salts, which i don't have. I just recommend serving it with beer.

Simpler Times, though not Japanese, is highly recommended.

Whew!

It did take much longer than i thought (mostly due to poor planning-- i forgot to brine the octopus until i was halfway through the menu), but if you throw in some rice you made earlier and perhaps stir-fry some of those lotus slices sitting in your fridge-- you've got a nice bar-food kind of meal!

And, you've got a nice blue shirt. Sharp, farmer!


It helps to have a wonderful partner who does dishes while you're cooking (even if they are kind of getting in your way, it's more than worth it).

Obviously, dishes are not all from this meal. Notice those cupcake tins? Uh huh.


One last thing-- make sure to empty the trash that night.

Call me superstitious, but i don't want those octopus heads coming back as ghosts to haunt me, with their gauzy beady little eyes....

Plus, you don't want raw seafood sitting in your trash overnight. It's just-- ew. You just don't.

Voila! Octopus and Tofu-stuffed mushrooms!