Tako (Octopus) Sausages
Now for the name, these are Japanese pork sausages, NOT octopus sausages, although octopus sausage does sound intriguing, but I don't think I will be making that. When I lived in Japan (13 years), I absolutely loved Japanese sausage. This comes from a good friend who is Japanese. These are typically made for bento (lunch) boxes, but for this, think of these as a side to a good pasta dish. Oddly enough, we buy these in local 7-11's in town, never seen them in the large grocery stores like Tesco or Tops in the city.
Ingredients
- 4-6 links Japanese sausage
- cooking oil, as needed
Instructions
- Japanese sausage is typically about 3 inches long in a natural sheep gut casing. To prep, first thing is to make a cut halfway down the sausage, straight through to the other side, this results in '2 legs'.
- Rotate the sausage 90 degrees, and make another cut through the sausage to the other side, this results in '4 legs'.
- Optionally, you cut each 'leg' in half, resulting in '8 legs' but I found 4 legs to be perfect. Now we can cook them.
- Heat some cooking oil in a non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the sausages, as the sausages cook, the 'legs' will open and curl.
- Cook until the sausage is cooked through, keep in mind these are raw pork sausages so they must me cooked through.
- Drain on paper towels, serve as a side with any pasta or rice dish or as a snack or appetizer. Enjoy.
Notes
One package of 4 Japanese sausage is about 42 Baht. Figuring 2 per serving, this is about an additional 66 cents per serving for a side dish, if serving with a pasta, the overall dish will be less than $1 per serving.
This recipe for Tako (Octopus) Sausage inspired by Just One Cookbook.