Okonomiyaki - お好み焼き

Girl glancing at a stack of okonomiyaki. Generated with craiyon.

In my opinion one of the best japanese street foods, pancakes with stuff. This dish is well-fitted for using up ingredients you may have left.

Also this is one of the recipes I just throw together, so the amounts given are only a rough orientation.

Ingredients

  • 250g Flour
  • 1 egg (if not usable, see 1)
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 150g Cabbage (thinly sliced)
  • ~5 Shiitake (If using dried keep the soaking liquid!)
  • 20g Pickled Ginger (fresh ginger is also nice, if your ginger is older slice really thin)
  • 20g Pickled Vegs (Corn, Cucumber, Radish, Cabbage, ...)
  • 1 sheet of Nori (finely chopped flakes)
  • Mayonnaise (Kewpie or Umami-Acidy-Vegan-Reproduction2)
  • Okonomiyaki Sauce (Important, can also be reproduced )
  • 375ml Thin Shiitake Stock (half stock, half water) (if not using shiitake simply use water here)
  • 2 spring onions

This ingredient list is also not set in stone switch out for whatever you have on hand. The only semi-essential part for me is the cabbage and shiitake for flavour.

Other ingredients you can add:

  • Fried Tofu
  • Radish (Also really good when just throwing in pickled)
  • Kimchi
  • Yakisoba (Fried Noodles)
  • Again whatever you have in your storage

Instructions

  1. Sieve the flour and mix with egg, baking powder and the Thin Stock together until there are no clumps. The result should be liquid but rather thick batter.
  1. Preheat a large pan on medium heat.
  1. Mix in the vegetable ingredients. Start with the largest amount and continue with the next smallest.

You can also add meats like pork in the mix. I personally just use vegetables.

  1. To season the ready batter add 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp sichuan or japanese pepper (optional), 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, and any other flavours you feel like.

You can pick whichever flavours you want, chili flakes, seaweed, and so on. Really, go whereever you like this is your dish.

  1. Pour a thick layer of batter in an oil panned.3
  1. Wait until the top of the pancake starts becoming slightly firm, then flip. The easiest is just a quick toss as they have enough weight to be relatively stable mid-air but a skilled usage of a spatula also does the trick if your risk avoiding.
  1. Wait for 1-2 mins for the other side to brown to an equal level. Then remove from the pan to the final plate.
  1. Drizzle over first the mayonnaise in zig-zag pattern for extra fancy points. Rotate 90 degrees and do the same with the okonimiyaki sauce. Sprinkle on some Nori flakes for taste and some sesame seeds for looks.
  1. Eat while hot! I like to just eat one and occassionally go back to stove to flip and remove as the process is rather streamlined at this point.
1

For a vegan alternative you can also replace this with nagaimo (grate to a slimy mass) or use flax seeds and soak them with water.

2

There are some things you can do here, the easiest is: Take vegan ready-made mayonnaise, add some rice vinegar, salt, and most importantly a pinch (1ml4) of MSG. You can also use a pinch of Kala Namak (Sulphur Salt), to emulate some of the eggyness of japanese mayonnaise, but keep in mind that it is much creamier and mouth coating than most of the vegan mayonnaise basis you can readily buy. If you have any idea how to reproduce that in a better way without using eggs write me an email!

4

Yes this is not a liquid, but its a volume so. Get some of these measuring spoons.

3

If you have some troubles with your stove to cook the cabbage through add a lid about a minute before flipping.