Japanese Octopus Salad (Tako to Kyuri no Sunomono)

Prep Time12

Cook Time3

Total Time15

Author Yuto Omura

Servings portions

Ingredients

▢ 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
▢ 2 tsp mirin
▢ 2 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu) not seasoned "sushi" vinegar
▢ 1 tbsp dried wakame seaweed
▢ 1 Japanese cucumber Persian or mini cucumber is the closest stand-in
▢ ½ tsp salt
▢ 80 g boiled octopus preferably buy it pre-boiled, or shrimp/imitation crab
▢ toasted white sesame seeds optional garnish

Instructions

Add 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tsp mirin and 2 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu) to a small pan and heat on medium. Let the mixture bubble for 30 seconds to 1 minute to burn off some of the alcohol, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Once cool, chill in the fridge.
Submerge 1 tbsp dried wakame seaweed to a bowl of cold water and soak it for a few minutes to rehydrate.
Cut 1 Japanese cucumber into thin slices, place them in a bowl and sprinkle ½ tsp salt. Rub the salt over the cucumber until evenly covered and rest for 5 minutes.
Cut 80 g boiled octopus into small bitesize pieces, or thinly slice according to preference.
Wash the salted cucumber sliced under cold water and thoroughly squeeze out the excess liquid. Squeeze the wakame too, and add everything to the bowl with the octopus.
Pour in the chilled sauce and mix well.
Transfer to serving bowls and sprinkle with toasted white sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Notes

Use unseasoned rice vinegar and do not swap it: This is the one line that decides sunomono versus a Western pickle salad. Cider and wine vinegars walk in with loud fruity aromas and take over, while rice vinegar's mellow acidity lets the octopus and cucumber stay the stars.

Salt the cucumber and squeeze it hard: Cucumber is about 95 percent water, and skipping this turns the dish into a watery, bland puddle. Salt the slices, rest 5 minutes, rinse, then wring with both hands until no more water drips out.

Dress it at the very last minute: The salt and vinegar keep pulling water from the cucumber, so a salad dressed and parked for an hour weeps and goes flat. Bring the squeezed cucumber, wakame, octopus, and cooled dressing together only when you are about to eat.

Cool the dressing before it meets the octopus: Simmer soy, mirin, and vinegar 30 seconds to 1 minute to cook off the raw alcohol, then take it off the heat and let it cool.