okonomiyaki お好み焼き

I'm currently in the middle of my vacation, but I had to tear myself away to let you know that the blog will be quiet for at least another month and to make this super quick post about my sister's okonomiyaki.

My sister made okonomiyaki because of an okonomiyaki recipe from a local japanese magazine. Her husband then kept asking her to make some. It's moderately healthy with loads of cabbage and spring onions, but not so healthy with the carbs from the flour.

I thought about substituting the okonomiyaki flour with self-raising flour, but it probably won't taste the same.

The okonomiyaki flour packet says the ingredients contained within are: wheat flour, sugar, salt, dried fish flake, kelp extract powder, dried small fish powder, bonito extract powder, powdered kelp, maltose, and lots of seasonings. I guess you can attempt to make the flour mixture yourself, but I'd suggest you spare the hard work and buy a packet of the flour from the nearest japanese store.

Here are the ingredients, some have been pre-chopped the night before.

Since my sister have chopped the spring onions and sliced the cabbage thinly the night before. I can only show her chopping the bacons.

She whisked up 180g of the flour with 550mL of ice cold water and 2 eggs.

I'm totally not showing the steps I just said, but my sister, she is not one to wait for me to take pictures. I gotta be faster, but sometimes I'm not.

Anyways, to that she added the chopped up spring onions.

Also, we bought this okonomiyaki flour that came in small 180g packets, hence the 180g measurement. There may be slight differences in the size of the packet, if that's the case, you should add extra water or deduct water from the recipe. The flour mixture should be quite runny.

Add the bacon.

Add one tablespoon of canola to your medium heat non-stick frying pan, you must use one that has a lid as you will be using that lid, my dear. Turning the heat down to medium-low, she then added the cabbage.

And straight away she added the ice-cold flour mixture she whisked up earlier.

Run your spatula along the edges and flatten the ingredients slightly.

Put the lid on. I wasn't lying.

After 4 minutes, the flour mixture will start to look gooey. With your spatula check the underside of your new best friend, the okonomiyaki. If it's brown and delicious, it's time to flip.

Flipping the okonomiyaki requires a bit of muscle, if you're not as strong as my sister, you'd probably need some help. You have to first transfer the par-cooked okonomiyaki onto a plate larger than your frying pan.

Then, you place the frying pan on top of your plate.

And flip both the plate and frying pan together, so that the frying pan is at the bottom and plate is at the top.

Voila! Okonomiyaki flipped! I seriously don't know how to do it faster or easier. I mean, if you're a masterchef, you could probably just flip it by flipping the handle of your frying pan, but I am not and my sister is not.

Then with your spatula, push the okonomiyaki so that it's centred and flat.

Put the lid back on and cook for another 4 minutes or until that side is also brown and delicious.

Transfer the cooked okonomiyaki onto a plate. Sprinkle some chopped japanese pickled ginger on top, it should've been beni shoga, but we could only find gari.

Using a criss-cross pattern, squeeze japanese mayo on top, followed by the japanese bulldog sauce.

Top with delicate katsuobushi shavings before serving the okonomiyaki. It's most deliciously gooey when it's warm.

Okonomiyaki

by my sister

Makes 2 okonomiyaki (depending on the size of your frying pan)

Ingredients:

• non-stick frying pan, with lid
• plate that is larger than said frying pan above
• 180g flour
• 2 eggs
• 550mL iced water
• 3 spring onions, roots removed and chopped
• enough cabbage to cover the surface of your frying pan, for us it was about a quarter of a large cabbage, chopped
• 2 strips of bacon, sliced
• 1 large packet of katsuobushi shavings
• 2 tbsp of chopped pickled ginger / beni shoga, but if you can't find it, gari (japanese: ガリ) is also fine
• Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie brand is best)
• Japanese bulldog sauce

Method:

1. Chop up the cabbage, spring onions and bacon, if you haven't already.
2. Mix well the flour, iced water and eggs. Add the bacon and spring onions to this flour mixture.
3. On a medium heat frying pan, add a tablespoon of canola, before adding half of the cabbage strips (we reserve the other half of the cabbage, to make the second okonomiyaki, because the size of our frying pan allows us to make two okonomiyakis).
4. Turn the heat to down medium-low and add half of the flour mixture. Flatten the ingredients slightly so that most of them is submerged in the flour mixture. Place the lid on your frying pan.
5. After about 4 minutes or until the surface of the okonomiyaki is brown, flip the okonomiyaki using a large plate.
6. After another 4 minutes or until the other side of the okonomiyaki is brown, set the okonomiyaki aside on a plate.
7. Now, top the okonomiyaki with all the toppings. First, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the chopped pickled ginger on top. Then, squeeze mayonnaise using a criss-cross pattern. Followed by the bulldog sauce. Finish with as much katsuobushi shavings as you like. Serve while warm
8. Repeat the process above with the rest of the flour mixture, cabbage and pickled ginger to make another okonomiyaki.