Cook Your Own Okonomiyaki!
Okonomiyaki is one of the most popular Japanese food especially in Osaka prefecture.
Okonomiyaki is a savory, non-sweet version of Japanese pancake. Okonomi means ‘as you like’ and yaki means ‘pan-fry’.
You can make delicious okonomiyaki easily at home!
The basic ingredients are flour, egg and cabbage. You need to shred cabbage and will be amazed at the amount of cabbages.
TWO top secrets of deliciousness are
- Using not water but ‘dashi’
- Mixing grated Japanese long yam to make it fluffy texture
Draw a pattern with Japanese mayonnaise and watch dancing katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) are the last fun steps.
INGREDIENTS (makes 1 large okonomiyaki / 3 small okonomiyaki)
*If you are new to making okonomiyaki, I recommend you to make 3 small okonomiyaki because it’s easier to flip.
- Flour 50g
- Baking powder 1/5Tsp (can be omitted)
- Dashi 100ml
- Egg 1 (medium size)
- Cabbage 150g
- Tenkasu (tempura bits/scraps) 10g
- Pork belly 2-3slices (about 50g)
- Japanese long yam (naga-imo) or mountain yam (yama-imo) 25g. If you don’t have it, you can use yam powder instead.
- A handful amount of katsuobushi
- A little bit of salt
other ingredients 50g such as
- Finely chopped green onions
- Finely chopped beni shoga (pickled red ginger)
- Cheese
- Chikuwa (fish cakes)
- Shirasu (whitebait ホワイトベイト)
- Sesame
You can try other ingredients such as
- Octopus
- Shrimp
- Calamari
- Scallops
- Sakura ebi(dried small shrimp)
- Mochi (rice cakes)
- Kimchi and more…
Toppings
- Okonomiyaki sauce
- Japanese mayonnaise
- Aonori (dried green seaweed)
- Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
How to make an Osaka style okonomiyaki
METHOD
Cooking preparation
- make dashi
- weigh all the ingredients
- shred cabbage
- cut the pork belly slices in half
- peel and grate Japanese long yam / mountain yam
Making the batter
Put flour, baking powder, dashi, salt, egg and grated yam in a large bowl, mix well all together.
Add shred cabbages, tenkasu, katsuobushi and other ingredients whichever you like, mix well until well-combined.
Then, the batter is ready to bake / pan-fry.
Cooking okonomiyaki
Make sure an electric griddle is heated 180-200℃, spread the batter on an electric griddle and shape it into the circle. Put pork belly on top of okonomiyaki and leave for 3-5 minutes.
When the bottom side is sufficiently cooked, flip it onto the other side. This is the most difficult but also funniest part of cooking okonomiyaki!
Lower the heat and cook for 4 minutes with cover.
Uncover, flip again and cook for another 3 minutes.
When both sides of the okonomiyaki are nicely cooked, additional egg as below is highly recommended!
Finally, apply okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, sprinkle aonori, katsuobushi and pickled red ginger on top for garnish.
Please enjoy!!