Spicy small-octopus rice bowl (Nakji-deopbap)

A saucepan, a large frying pan, kitchen scissors and a sieve. Use a kitchen scale for these metric quantities. Rinsing, soaking and steaming water is additional where stated.

Use food-grade small octopus. Remove innards and ink sac from the head, eyes and beak; a fishmonger can do this. Gently rub with the 10 g flour, rinse it off and drain. The original 500 g amount is before cleaning.

Slice the onion 5 mm thick, both chiles diagonally 5 mm thick and the green onion diagonally 1 cm thick. Mix 16 g gochujang, 18 g gochugaru, 24 g soy sauce, 12 g sugar, 30 g water, 11 g rice wine, 18 g garlic, 6 g ginger, 6 g sesame oil, 1 g salt and 0.4 g pepper for the sauce.

Bring the separate 500 g water to a boil. Blanch the octopus for about 10 seconds, then drain, rinse briefly under cold drinking water and pat dry with clean paper towels. This only firms the surface; it does not cook the octopus through. Cut the tentacles into 4 cm lengths and halve the head. Mix with the sauce.

Heat 12 g neutral oil in a large pan. Cook the onion over medium heat for about 1 minute, until starting to turn translucent. Raise the heat, add the sauced octopus and stir-fry for about 1 minute; add chiles and green onion and continue for about 2 minutes or until the octopus is fully cooked and opaque throughout, reaching 63 C / 145 F. Do not stop at the source partly-cooked intermediate stage.

Divide 920 g hot cooked rice between four plates. Add the octopus and vegetables and distribute the 2 g sesame seeds over the four portions. Serve immediately.