Tako-meshi (たこ飯, Setouchi octopus rice)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Donabe clay rice pot, or a rice cooker
• •Fine-mesh strainer lined with cloth
• •Rice washing bowl
• •Rice paddle

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash the rice

   Wash the rice in several changes of cold water, stirring lightly with your fingers and draining each cloudy batch. Stop when the water runs almost clear, not perfectly clear. You want to remove loose surface starch so the grains cook cleanly, but not scrub away the rice itself. Drain in a sieve for 20 minutes.

2. 2

   Make the dashi

   Wipe the konbu with a damp cloth, but don't wash it. Put it in 3 cups cold water and warm it slowly over low heat. Pull the konbu just before the water boils, when small bubbles climb the sides of the pot. Add the katsuobushi all at once, take the pot off the heat, and leave it for 2 minutes. Strain through a cloth or fine sieve and let it drip without squeezing.

   Boiled konbu turns the stock bitter and slick, and squeezed bonito flakes push oily harshness into the dashi. Clarity is not fussiness here. It is the taste.
3. 3

   Simmer the octopus

   Put the sliced octopus in a small pot with 1 cup dashi, sake, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and half the ginger. Bring it just to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook gently for 20 to 25 minutes, until the octopus is tender when pierced. Keep the surface quiet. A hard boil tightens the muscle, and octopus has enough stubbornness without your help.

4. 4

   Measure the broth

   Lift the octopus out and set it aside. Strain the simmering liquid into a measuring cup. Add enough remaining dashi to make 2 1/4 cups liquid total. Taste it. It should be savory and a little stronger than soup, because the rice will soften it. If it tastes flat, add a small pinch of salt now.

5. 5

   Cook the rice

   Put the drained rice in a donabe or rice cooker. Add the measured octopus broth and dashi, then scatter the simmered octopus over the surface. Do not stir it into the rice, or the grains cook unevenly. Cook as you would plain rice: in a donabe, bring to a steady boil over medium heat, cover, lower the heat, cook 12 minutes, then rest off the heat 15 minutes.

6. 6

   Rest and fold

   After resting, open the lid and let the first rush of aroma pass. Add the remaining ginger, then fold from the bottom with a rice paddle, cutting and lifting rather than mashing. This loosens the grains and spreads the octopus without breaking the rice. Serve in small bowls with mitsuba and sesame if you like.

Chef Tips

• •Buy boiled madako from a fishmonger you trust, and ask when it was cooked. It should smell clean and faintly sweet, never sour or strongly fishy. Sourcing first, always.
• •If you start with raw octopus, clean it well and simmer it separately until tender before beginning this recipe. The rice pot is not the place to tenderize it.
• •A donabe gives wonderful bottom heat and a faintly browned edge, but a rice cooker is a sensible stand-in. Measure the seasoned broth carefully and the dish will still be honmono.
• •Do not add extra soy sauce at the end to make it louder. If the rice tastes thin, the broth was weak. Next time, strengthen the dashi or reduce the octopus simmering liquid a little before measuring.

Advance Preparation

• •The dashi can be made one day ahead and kept refrigerated.
• •The octopus can be simmered up to one day ahead in its broth. Chill the octopus and broth together, then measure the broth cold before cooking the rice.
• •Cooked tako-meshi is best the day it is made. Leftovers can be shaped into small onigiri and gently toasted the next day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 310g)