Spicy Octopus with Black-ink Noodles

Name: Spicy Octopus with Black-ink Noodles
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 1 punnet onion cress (rock chives), snipped; 2 tablespoons mitsuba leaves; 1 stick celery, shaved into tissue-thin slices on the diagonal; 70 ml sunflower oil; 2 teaspoons shellfish oil; 1 teaspoon chilli oil; 2 teaspoons shichimi togarashi; 400 g large octopus tentacles, thoroughly rinsed under cold running water; 2 tablespoons sea salt; ½ punnet shiso cress, snipped; ½ long red chilli, finely sliced; 1 tablespoon chopped chives; 1 teaspoon minced garlic; 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely shredded; 2 tablespoons finely shredded daikon radish; ½ punnet enoki mushrooms, trimmed; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 small red chilli, minced; 25 ml fish sauce; 50 ml shiro (white) soy sauce; 25 ml fresh lime juice, strained; 2 teaspoons yuzu juice, strained; ½ punnet daikon radish cress, snipped; 120 g cooked Black-ink Noodles; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 teaspoons Ginger Juice

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fire

By Christine Manfield

Published 2008

About

Here I have adapted the principle of the Japanese sunomono (a salad dressed with rice vinegar), made it a more elaborate affair with the addition of noodles and turned up the heat a notch with a gently spiced dressing.

Ingredients

400 g large octopus tentacles, thoroughly rinsed under cold running water
2 tablespoons sea salt
2

Asia
Japan
Starter
Fish course
Pescatarian
Tokyo
Spicy
Pasta

Method

To cook the octopus tentacles, add the salt to 2 litres of boiling water and slowly lower the octopus tentacles into the water. Bring back to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer over very low heat for 30 minutes. The surface of the water should be gently ticking over, not rapidly boiling. Turn off the heat and leave the octopus in the water to cool.

To make the spicy lime dressing,