Scaring my mother with groceries is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s one of the few avenues of resistance left to a humble citizen of the People’s Republic of Food. I’m also a big fan of the works of H. P. Lovecraft. So when I passed the frozen fish section this week and spotted a package of baby octopus, I couldn’t resist.
I perhaps should have mentioned that I’ve got a gold medal in leaping before looking.
A few internet searches later, I knew a few things. One: baby octopus is better than full-grown octopus (apparently the adults are a bit stringy). Step ahead, as usual. Two: either way they’re tough little sods and have to be tenderized. The best way to do this is freezing them. Step ahead again. I mucked about on the Googles for a bit until I found the dish I was looking for. One of the Korean restaurants in our neighborhood serves this dish, and I altered the online recipe somewhat to match what I recalled eating there.
When I brought said little sods out of the freezer this afternoon and left them into the sink to thaw, the Gastronomic Gestapo threw a hissy fit. What the hell were those horrible tentacle monsters in her sink, get them out of there, oh god, o god, there were horrible tentacle monsters in her sink. “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,” I gurgled as best I could, but I don’t think the reference went through.
I had assumed when I bought the suckers (sorry) that they came cleaned. Oh how wrong I was. Now, mind, I’m not squeamish in a general way. I’ve gutted many fish, squirrels, and other sundry critters without turning a hair. But I hate eyeballs. Eyeballs freak me out. Octopus eyeballs are apparently worse than other sorts of eyeballs. I gritted my teeth and cut around them.
My father, to my surprise, begged to try it when I brought it to the table. I guess it provided a persuasive alternative to the bean soup we seem to live on most of the time. I’ve been expecting my mother to yell “This! Is! Sparta!” any minute for a year. He liked it, even though he’s no great seafood eater.
Mum wouldn’t touch the stuff with the bow of a steam yacht.
- 1 lb baby octopus, frozen (about six of the buggers)
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 2 fresh green chilies
- 1 small red bell pepper
- 4 to 6 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon sesame cooking oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 5 cloves fresh garlic or 2 tbsp crushed garlic from a jar
- 1 tbsp sesame cooking oil (usually a mixture of sesame oil and some kind of vegetable oil)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 green onions
Prep Time: 30-40 minutes
Thaw the octopuses by running water gently over it and then letting it sit for a few minutes in a lukewarm bath. Cut tentacles from head. In the center of the tentacles will be the beak. Pop it out and take care not to cut your fingers. Cut tentacles into two-tentacle sections. Open head and remove the insides. Discard guts, beak and eyes. Cut head into equal sized strips (quarters or eighths).
Cut onion in half from top to bottom, then thinly slice (about 1/8 inch thick). Remove stem from chili/jalapeño peppers, cut in half from top to bottom, and slice into thin slivers. Cut bell pepper in half from top to bottom, then thinly slice into strips. Thinly slice mushroom caps. Discard stems. Crush or mince garlic into a medium mixing bowl. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, and gochujang. Mix well. Let stand at least fifteen minutes. Add octopus to sauce and let stand for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Heat a stir fry pan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium. Quickly add sesame cooking oil, onion and peppers. Stir fry for one minute. Add all other ingredients and stir fry for about five minutes. Octopus sections should curl up when thoroughly cooked. Garnish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions. Serve with rice.
Serves 2 with rice. Riceless, I devoured the whole shebang myself.
In his house in my stomach dead Cthulhu lies dreaming.
It looks delicious!
Seems pretty amazing! I’ll try to cook it tomorrow!!
I don’t think I could have done that. Good for you! I’m not that adventurous with touching raw meat. But I would have loved to try some!
Look, can I be brave and say that I’m with your mum and don’t like octopusl? Or maybe (like your mum) I’m not brave enought to try it. But given the ingredients on offer, if I tried your recipe with some other seafood, I think it could turn out to be yumm.
I think it might be good with calamari (you can get it already cleaned and chopped so it isn’t scary) or maybe shrimp.
Thanks for that tip, your recipe looks really good, but I have never had success being able to find octopus at the market, but calamari is one I can get.
Calamari would substitute in just fine. You lose some of the visual (nice purple color, tentacles…) but the texture is almost identical and the taste is near enough as makes no matter.
[…] Nakji Bokum, Or, Old Ones In The Sink: Ugh, I hate when I get Old Ones in the sink. Nyarlathotep makes an awful strainer. […]
And Shoggoths really do clog up the garbage disposal.
I love the texture of octopus & squid, they’re kind of similar to me. It did take me a while before I dared to try it (back in the day). Great-looking recipe!
Whaat? your texture is similar to octopus and squid? scary! are you any relation to the deep ones?
Now, now. Don’t judge. Fishmen are always welcome here. Glub-glub.
Horrible tentacle monsters in the sink! Lol. I remember when I first saw a batch of baby Octopus at a Chinese Buffet. Of course my daughter had to get one for her plate just to stare at it and make references to Squidward. I love this post and your food bravery.
My daughter does the same when she eats calamari lol!
Sounds wicked. I have been looking for something new to cook, by new I mean novel, and cooking octopus will be a first. Challenge accepted.
O.O that looks delicious……………
Does soaking them in milk tenderize them like calamari?
I don’t know, but it’s worth trying.
Sounds like this was even better than the nakji bokkeum from the famous Mugyo-dong restaurant in Seoul! What is the next thing you are going to make?
I have bulgogi beef somewhere back in the queue, I believe.
Can wait to see that! http://www.segmation.wordpress.com
this looks good and authentic. baby octopus can also be eaten raw, which is a pretty awesome sensation. the season started yesterday, but i haven’t had it in quite a while. kudos for slicing and dicing the octopus. I can’t even imagine how they do it while the thing is still alive.
I love the bright colours of the dish! I am the same in the kitchen, ended up with squid ink all over myself 🙂
Usually you can find already prepared squid in the frozen section, which is great unless you’re planning to use the ink in a sauce.
I love squids~ octopuses are okay too. I just bought 3 squids yesterday on sale and it’s my hubby’s job to clean them and individually wrap them in zip locks to freeze them. I take them out individually to either blanch it to eat it with a simple korean chilli sauce or make a squid bokum like you did. I might actually eat that tonight when I get home~ yum
Oohhh this is so yummy!! 🙂
So interesting! I’d love to try this.
Reblogged this on Student Recipes.
“That cannot die which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die..”
I enjoyed that! Thank you!!
That looks so good, now all you need is some really good Kimchi to go with it 🙂
Alas, kimchi will probably not happen till the summer when I have more time.
I use to love eating fresh, responsive squid when I lived in Fukuoka, Japan. Then I learned how smart squid and octopus are and that made them harder to swallow. The dish looks wonderful. Any thoughts on how tofu or seitan might work with the basic recipe?
I think either of those would do very well if marinated for a while in the sauce. I might try it myself sometime.
This recipe looks delicious, although I would substitute shrimp for the octopus. I must try it. Thanks!
Hilarious reference to Cthulu! Still won’t eat Octopus….for same said references and fear of offending an Elder God…
Given that they plan on eating us I don’t see that we shouldn’t respond in kind.
Oooh, good point. Might even be a requirement to join the cult too…..but wait….not going to eat us literally, just our sanity right?
True, true.
wow! yummy!
I think that is delicious .. yumyy yupss .
Enjoyed reading your post! I tried san nakji once (freshly chopped up baby octopus that wiggles around as you eat it). That’s enough for me!
I’ve always wanted to try that, but I don’t know if it’s available in the US.
Wow! If only we could taste through the pictures. Looks awesome!
Ooooooh! just what I was looking for. Thanks for this.
Reblogged this on Vanille amère.
this is possibly my favourite korean dish. if you ever do this again and don’t want to go through the shebang of freezing and prepping the octopus, you could get the bags of tentacles they sell in korean minimarts!
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately the market near my house does not sell the bags of tentacles, but I can get pre-frozen baby octopus.