{octopus balls}

I know it looks crazy you guys, but listen to this. So yesterday, a giant sea monster from the abyss showed up threatening to suction all of humanity into oblivion. Luckily for mankind though, I’m not the squeemish type. I *was* scared of the tentacles but who’s bigger, huh? Who?! Basically he attacked me, so I chopped his head and legs off and then ran for my life. That’s how it went down. After our battle, it was quite empowering to devour him. …Mumble, mumble, …mess with me! (swallow)

1 boiled octopus, chopped
pickled ginger, chopped
green onion, chopped
1/2 oz dried bonito flakes
1 – 1 1/2 c flour
1/2 ts baking powder
2 eggs
2 c water
cooking oil
dried green seaweed
takoyaki sauce
wasabe mayo

Just kidding, that’s not really what happenned. This is the octopus I needed for the third and very special Cooking Mama installment. Special because it’s one of the few items I have gotten a gold medal in (Mama doesn’t just hand them out to anyone you know. What do you think they grow on trees? I said chop faster!), plus I ordered a special Takoyaki pan for this specific purpose. I know, it’s very exciting – aaand it comes with these cute little takoyaki tools of the trade:

Once you manage to subdue your octopus, the rest is a easy. The bottom line is that you want chopped boiled octupus so if you can buy that, do. If you are presented with a whole raw octopus staring you down with that one creepy eyeball, behead him immediately and throw him into a boiling pot. It only takes about 10 minutes to cook; remove the menacing creature when firm after poking at him from afar with a 10 foot skewer. Then cut his extremeties off and quietly dispose of the body.


Boil water with the bonito flakes for 2 minutes then strain out all flakes, let the broth cool. Stir in 1 cup of flour, baking powder, and eggs. Gradually add more flower untill the the consistency is like pancake batter. Oil the pan and heat over a high flame. Add a few pieces of octopus, green onion, and ginger to each one, pour the batter over until full and cook so the surface is golden all the way around. Using a skewer to turn each ball over so they cook evenly. Serve with dried green seaweed sprinkled on top and any sauce you like. Wasabi mayo and ketchup was my favorite. Dont they look delicious?

{tags takoyaki cooking mama DSlite octopus balls recipe}