How To - Sausage Octopuses With Eyes

I hope this pic didn't give you a scare. But it sure gives me the creeps though!

This is how you make the octos:

With pork cocktail sausages, use a sharp fruit knife to cut down the length of the sausage to about half its length. That's two legs. Then use the knife to split each (fat) leg into 4 legs, that makes a total of 8 legs. It's ok if the legs are unevenly sized - practice makes perfect.

Using the tip of the knife blade, make two tiny slits in the head part of the octo for the eye sockets. How far apart they are from each other or how slanty they are is entirely up to you. For evil eyes, cut the slits in a V.

Dip the sausages into gently boiling water for about 30 secs. The legs will curl up immediately, but cook them the full 30 secs so the head gets entirely cooked through. Take them out and let cool till you can handle them.

Using a pair of chopsticks, pick up a black sesame seed and gently push it into a slit so that only part of it is showing. Repeat for all the slits.

For the "dead" octopuses featured in this post, cut two thin strips of nori per eye and "glue" them down with a little water, if your sausage is dry.

I know. My octopuses don't have siphons, but that is easily explained. Ninja octos!