tako pupu
David C. Hurd
Back in the days when young Hari Kojima was only a side order on the
Bruce Carter "Let's Go Fishing" show, he (Hari) used to give great recipes
and actually cook things himself. The following is my poor recollection of
one of his mother's tako recipes...
Tako (octopus) Pupu
Catch or obtain octopus, he'e or tako (all same...), several pound
size ok, if smaller then several. Let's assume 3-4 lbs.
Clean by turning head(s) inside out and removing what does not appear
to be edible; no hard and fast rules here. Rub outside of animal with coarse
salt until obvious sliminess has disappeared. Pre-freezing will accelerate
this process.
In large enough pot, place creatures, cover with moderately salted
water and cook until the point of a moderately sharp Japanese chopstick will
just penetrate the nether portions of the body with some effort. Inexpensive
red hashi (chopsticks) seem to work well in our household. These same
instruments are also excellent for removing fish from nets.
Remove partially cooked object from pot and wash well, then cut into
circa 1" pieces.
Place pieces back into cleaned pot and add just enough beer to cover.
Simmer until 2/3 of liquid is gone. Tako should now be more tender and the
cook might be as well depending on the amount of beer applied to same.
Add rounded tablespoon ko chu shang (sp?) a Korean hot bean paste,
1/4 cup chopped green onions, 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, glug of
cheap gin (seems to figure frequently in our recipes...) and simmer while 3-4
tablespoons of sesame oil are being heated separately to point of smoking.
Add smoking hot sesame oil to simmered mixture (careful, may spatter
slightly) and serve immediately with hot rice and cold beer. Gin & tonic may
be substituted for cold beer.
aloha,
Kawika
David Lumpkins
In article <4u1ske$j...@mochi.lava.net>, kaw...@ilhawaii.net (David C.
Hurd) wrote:
Again, Mahalo, Kawika, for what sounds like a grandly ono recipe! You
know, the Italians and most other folks around the Mediterranean pound
their octopus before cooking. This tenderizes them, according to the lore
I know. In the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, they do the same thing with
the foot (edible part) of the conch. Any tradition of this practice with
tako in the Pacific?
Pounded or not, I love tako and conch, fried, poached, or grilled
(careful!), it is da bes!
Aloha,
David
Nathan P Yuen
David C. Hurd (kaw...@ilhawaii.net) wrote:
: Catch or obtain octopus, he'e or tako (all same...), several pound
: size ok, if smaller then several. Let's assume 3-4 lbs.
: Clean by turning head(s) inside out and removing what does not appear
: to be edible; no hard and fast rules here. Rub outside of animal with coarse
: salt until obvious sliminess has disappeared. Pre-freezing will accelerate
: this process.
Ahh yes... turning the head inside out. A time honored tradition in
catching tako. Gotta bite the eyes and then turn the head inside out when
you catch 'em in order to kill 'em. You know what's really cool about
catching tako? Several hours after catching 'em, the skin continually
flashes different colors. Apparently the cells in the skin which permit
the octopus to change color to blend in with the surroundings go into
overdrive after the creature is dead. Simply amazing to see the colors
flash.
--
o o __ __
\ / ' ` Mai hehi ia'u (Don't Tread on Me!)
Chirp! |/ / __ \
Chirp! -- (` \ ' ' \ ' Nathan Yuen, Ewa Beach, Hawaii
\ \| | @_/ |
\ \ \ /--/ ny...@lava.net, ny...@aloha.net
` ___ ___ ___ __ '
Nathan P Yuen
Wayne Sniffen (sni...@pnn.com) wrote:
: Which reminds me of a story about my father and his friends and a He'e
: expedition of theirs. It seems that on a particular day they got a
: little carried away spearfishing and speared about 35 He'e. Realizing
: that they had a big job ahead of them pounding all of their catch, my
: father came upon the idea of using my friends washing machine to
: tenderize all of these squid. ( You know the old fashioned washer with
: the wringer on top) Needless to say that his wife hit the roof when
: she found out what was happening. After promising to clean it out real
: good she calmed down a little but was still fuming.
Hoy! Mama was huhu, yeah? I understand that in addition to using washing
machines to lomi-lomi the he'e, cement mixers can be used quite
effectively to tenderize the meat.
Wayne Sniffen
dlum...@super.zippo.com (David Lumpkins) wrote:
>Again, Mahalo, Kawika, for what sounds like a grandly ono recipe! You
>know, the Italians and most other folks around the Mediterranean pound
>their octopus before cooking. This tenderizes them, according to the lore
>I know. In the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, they do the same thing with
>the foot (edible part) of the conch. Any tradition of this practice with
>tako in the Pacific?
>Pounded or not, I love tako and conch, fried, poached, or grilled
>(careful!), it is da bes!
>Aloha,
>David
As a Hawaiian youngster in the late 40's our family spent almost
every weekend harvesting food from the ocean. Whenever we caught some
He'e it was my job to pound the He'e in a pot with rock salt until the
tentacles curled up, definitely not an enjoyable job.
Which reminds me of a story about my father and his friends and a He'e
expedition of theirs. It seems that on a particular day they got a
little carried away spearfishing and speared about 35 He'e. Realizing
that they had a big job ahead of them pounding all of their catch, my
father came upon the idea of using my friends washing machine to
tenderize all of these squid. ( You know the old fashioned washer with
the wringer on top) Needless to say that his wife hit the roof when
she found out what was happening. After promising to clean it out real
good she calmed down a little but was still fuming.
Wayne!
David Lumpkins
In article <4ub97c$q...@mochi.lava.net>, ny...@lava.net (Nathan P Yuen) wrote:
> Wayne Sniffen (sni...@pnn.com) wrote:
>
> : Which reminds me of a story about my father and his friends and a He'e
> : expedition of theirs. It seems that on a particular day they got a
> : little carried away spearfishing and speared about 35 He'e. Realizing
> : that they had a big job ahead of them pounding all of their catch, my
> : father came upon the idea of using my friends washing machine to
> : tenderize all of these squid. ( You know the old fashioned washer with
> : the wringer on top) Needless to say that his wife hit the roof when
> : she found out what was happening. After promising to clean it out real
> : good she calmed down a little but was still fuming.
>
> Hoy! Mama was huhu, yeah? I understand that in addition to using washing
> machines to lomi-lomi the he'e, cement mixers can be used quite
> effectively to tenderize the meat.
Well now, friends, we're getting down to business here. Just got
confirmation the other night from someone on Moloka`i that a washerette
there had to forbid the above practice. I guess it isn't too
aesthetically appealing, but I doubt if that was the real problem on
Moloka`i. People also use coarse salt while the lomi-lomi is in
progress. Seems that might have been what was causing damage to the
washing machines. Otherwise, I see no reason that tako would do it, at
least if they're dead when you put them in there. If they're still alive,
you might get all sorts of interesting effects. If you do a really big
one, da buggah might just implode your machine! <g>
David Lumpkins
In article <4ub6ir$r...@mochi.lava.net>, sni...@pnn.com (Wayne Sniffen) wrote:
Hi Wayne,
> As a Hawaiian youngster in the late 40's our family spent almost
> every weekend harvesting food from the ocean. Whenever we caught some
> He'e it was my job to pound the He'e in a pot with rock salt until the
> tentacles curled up, definitely not an enjoyable job.
There you've got it! Definitely not enjoyable, and I have had this
response from several people from several oceans over the years. Okay,
folks, we need automation in this area! So we get things like the
following paragraph:
> Which reminds me of a story about my father and his friends and a He'e
> expedition of theirs. It seems that on a particular day they got a
> little carried away spearfishing and speared about 35 He'e. Realizing
> that they had a big job ahead of them pounding all of their catch, my
> father came upon the idea of using my friends washing machine to
> tenderize all of these squid. ( You know the old fashioned washer with
> the wringer on top) Needless to say that his wife hit the roof when
> she found out what was happening. After promising to clean it out real
> good she calmed down a little but was still fuming.
And I don't blame her. But hey! your father had an industrially big lot
of he`e to process. And it worked, didn't it? And nobody even had to get
his hands all funny smelling, except to lift those buggahs outta deah and
put 'em away.
And you didn't have to resort to the local washerette!
Progress comes in small dollops. At least that is how I have experienced
it most of my life. Lately, progress drives me a bit bonkers, but as you
can see, I am at least dealing with the Web. Dat's one trip, folks.
Love to all of my friends in Hawai`i, and special regards to you, Wayne,
David