Okonomiyaki is often described as a Japanese savory pancake. But it’s thicker than a pancake. The ingredients for the batter are relatively basic (flour, eggs, cabbage) but it may be a bit more complicated with the topping, which is quite important part of okonomiyaki.
What Is Okonomiyaki?
Okonomiyaki is quick, easy, and we could also say a cheap food. In Japan, okonmiyaki is popular street food from Osaka. You can find restaurants that serves only okonomiyaki. The batter is very easy to make and you don’t need any special ingredients for it. In the recipe below you will see dashi powder and baking powder but when we make okonomiyaki at home, we often omit these ingredients and we use only flour, eggs, cabbage and water.
Okonomiyaki is also very adaptable dish. The name litteraly means “grilled as you like it”. Traditionally okonmiyaki should be prepared on an iron griddle. There are restaurants where they will prepare the batter for you and you can grill it on your own on a built-in iron griddle in the table.
What Ingredients You Can Use for The Batter?
Anything you like or anything you can find in your fridge. But I would suggest:
- Any kind of seafood (shrimps, cuttlefish, octopus)
- Corn
- Mushrooms
- Green onion
- Cheese
- Whole egg (when it’s already done, crack an egg on one side and cook it for few seconds)
- Pickled red ginger
- Moyashi (mungo bean sprouts)
- Shiso leaves
Key Ingredients for Topping
In order to get as close as possible to the authentic taste of okonomiyaki, these three ingredients are important – okonomi sauce, bonito flakes, aonori (seaweed), and Japanese mayonnaise.
To get these ingredients you will most probably need to visit a store that sells Asian groceries or order them online but it’s worth the time and effort.
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Okonomiyaki Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 g all-purpose flour
- 3 g dashi powder
- 200 g cabbage
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 140 ml water
- Prosciutto or other kind of ham
- Fresh ginger
- Salt
Topping:
- Okonomi sauce
- Aonori (nori flakes)
- Bonito flakes
- Japanese mayonnaise
Instructions
- Finely chop or mince the cabbage.
- In a bowl, mix chopped cabbage, eggs, dashi powder, plain flour, baking powder and water. Add a pinch of salt and grated ginger.
- Mix well and you can start baking. If the batter seems too thick, add more water.
- Heat oil in a pan. Spread the batter evenly on the pan. I always keep a few spoons of the batter in the bowl and first I will put prosciutto (or ham) on top and then cover the prosciutto here and there with the rest of the batter so that it doesn't burn when the okonomiyaki is baked from the other side.
- Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook on a low heat. When the bottom is a little toasted, I add a little water. It depends on how thick/thin the okonomiyaki is. When the water evaporates, turn the pancake to the other side and let it bake.
- To serve: Spread the okonomi sauce on top, drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise, and sprinkle with dried bonito flakes and aonori.
Itadakimas! [itadakimasu]
