April 13, 2021 2 min read 0 Comments

The same sweet, thoughtful Korean mom from my earlier Simply Delicious Korean Pork Chops post (also the owner of The Ban Chan) showed me how to make simply delicious octopus sashimi.  I have never cooked an octopus before so the whole process of cleaning, preparing, cooking and plating was so fascinating to watch.  You are in for a nice treat!

Simply Delicious Octopus Sashimi

All you need are as follows (the most complicated part is probably making the sauces ; )

  • a handful of chopped white radish (this will tenderize the octopus)
  • 5 heaping tablespoons of flour
  • one package of thawed whole octopus (around $8/pack)
  • Sauces:
    • Dark:  soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, finely chopped green, white onions and green hot pepper, sesame seed
    • Red:  Korean red hot pepper paste, soy sauce, vinegar, plum juice (optional), sugar, minced garlic, sesame seed

pack of whole portuguese octopus mar nobre

Bring a pot of water to boil, add chopped white radish:

Boiling pot of hot water to cook octopus

In the meantime, clean the octopus as follows:

  1. Rinse octopus with water:
    Cleaning Octopus for making sashimi
  2. Twisting it this way and that, drain:
    How to properly wash an octopus
  3. Rinse with fresh water, drain again:Rinse and wash Octopus thoroughly
  4. Add 5 heaping tablespoons of flour onto the drained octopus.  Work the flour into the octopus.  The flour acts like a cleaning/scrubbing agent.  Make sure you work the flour all over the octopus, it is especially effective getting the suckers super clean.Lily Daily - washing octopus suckers
  5. Work it!!

Lily Daily - washing the suckers of an octopus6. Find the eyeballs and remove them by using a pair of scissors:Cut away Octopus' eyeballs7. The other eyeball Remove Octopus' eyeball8. The eyeballs look like this:eyeballs of Octopus9. Rinse throughly with fresh water Octopus Sashimi - Rinse away the flour 10. Make sure you turn the octopus' head inside out and wash the insides:
Wash the inside of the octopus' head11. Rinse the octopus legs and suckers throughly:  Rinse the Octopus legs and suckers thoroughly12. And the body, of course:Wash the body of the octopus13. Rinse, wash, change water until the water runs clear:
Octopus Almost ready to be cooked

14. Look how clean the suckers are!Clean octopus suckers!

15.  Squeaky clean, ready for the hot bath!  Note:  if you prefer the octopus sashimi to be less salty, you can let it sit in fresh water overnight before proceeding to the "hot bath".Clean Octopus ready to be cooked

Boiling pot of water with white radish:

Hot bath for octopus

Place octopus into the pot:

Octopus going into the hot tub

Cook until it reboils again:

Ready to go into cold bath!

Get a tray of ice cubes

tray of ice cubes

Prep a cold bath for the octopus, so pretty!

Cold bath for octopus

Once the octopus totally cools down, drain it:

Drain octopus

Separate the legs from..

Slicing octopus by separating the legs from the rest of the octopus

..The head and body:

Octopus head and body

Cut into thin slices:

Octopus sashimi thin slices

Plating as you slice:

plating as you slice the octopus

All done!

Simply Delicious Octopus Sashimi

Mmmmmmmmm you must dip into the two sauces separately.  The sauces make this dish.. Red, black, both taste so different yet so very delicious!

Best Octopus Sashimi Ever

Here are some highly recommended high end sushi restaurants that are worth checking out.

'Till next time,

xox Lily.

2016-2-19