Octopus three ways 鮹、三種類

Recently I saw a rather good looking boiled (probably previously frozen and thawed) octopus leg (see the second picture, below) at our Japanese grocery store. So, that evening, I served octopus three ways. I may have been influenced by watching episodes of “Yasuko Kuramoto” 倉本康子 in “Onna sakaba hourouki”  女酒場放浪記 in which she always orders “tako” たこ or octopus if it is available.
1. Deep fried octopus たこの唐揚
The octopus leg I purchased is shown in the picture below, upper left. I cut the middle portion of the leg into sizable chunks or “butsugiri” ぶつ切り and marinated in a sake and soy sauce mixture (1:1 ratio, shown below upper right) for 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator. I removed the octopus pieces from the marinade, blotted them dry with a paper towel and dredged them in potato flour (below, lower left). I then simply deep fried them in hot oil for 4-5 minutes (below, lower right).
I served them with a wedge of lemon. The pieces had a nice crust but they were sort of chewy. I do not mind “chewy” but my wife was not particular fond of this dish.

2. “sumiso-ae” たこの酢味噌和え (below right) and
3. “sashimi” たこの刺身with soy sauce and wasabi (below right).

I posted sumiso-ae previously. I used mostly the tip portion of the octopus cut into small chunks. The dressing is a mixture of saikyou-miso 西京味噌, Japanese hot mustard, rice vinegar or “karashi sumiso” からし酢味噌.

For the sashimi, I used the thickest portion of the leg, cut very thinly diagonally with a wavy pattern (action). Of course, I used freshly thawed “real” wasabi. (They must have changed something with the tube wasabi because the current ones are much easier to squeeze out).
I think this was enough “tako” for one evening. We finally can use our own “perilla” leaves or “aojiso” 青じそ since it is growing profusely in our herb garden now.