Ika Meshi

Ingredients

• 4 small squid, about 150 g each, bodies around 15 cm long
• 150 g glutinous rice (mochigome)
• 50 g short-grain rice
• 400 ml water
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 5 cm piece of kombu
• 8 cocktail sticks

Before you cook

• Rinse both rices together, cover them with cold water and soak for 1 hour, then drain well.
• Pull the head and innards out of each squid body in one piece and set the tentacles aside.
• Cut the tentacles away from the head just below the eyes, and squeeze out the hard beak.
• Pull the clear quill out of each body and rinse the insides under cold running water.
• Chop the tentacles into 5 mm pieces and stir them through the drained rice.

Steps

1. Spoon the rice mixture into each squid body until it is only two-thirds full, since the rice swells and the squid shrinks.
2. Pin the opening of each squid closed with two cocktail sticks pushed through like a stitch.
3. Put the water, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar and kombu into a pan just wide enough to hold the squid in one layer.
4. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil over a medium heat.
5. Lower in the stuffed squid and put a lid or a circle of baking paper directly on the surface.
6. Simmer very gently for 20 minutes, keeping the liquid at a lazy bubble so the squid stays tender.
7. Turn each squid over carefully with tongs and simmer for another 20 minutes.
8. Pierce a squid with a skewer and check the rice inside is soft, giving it 10 minutes more if it is still chalky.
9. Take the pan off the heat and leave the squid to cool in the liquid for 15 minutes, which is when they take on their colour.
10. Lift the squid out, pull out the cocktail sticks and cut each one across into 2 cm rounds.
11. Spoon a little of the reduced simmering liquid over the slices before serving.