Moscow Food Co-op Recipes

Okonomiyaki

by Jackie Miyasaka, from the February 2004 newsletter

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese-style savory pancake or pizza. “Okonomi” means “as you like it” and “yaki” means “grilled.” Okonomiyaki is made from flour, water, eggs and cabbage. To this is added anything you like. Common things to add would be thinly sliced pork, thinly sliced beef, chopped onions, squid, mushrooms, scallions, shrimp, etc. Like pizza, you usually pick one or two things to add. The ingredients are mixed together to make a batter and then poured on a griddle or frypan to cook like a pancake. When one side is done, two spatulas are used to flip it over and cook the other side. When it’s finished, it is topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), and aonori (dried seaweed flakes).

The okonomiyaki style of cooking originated in Osaka and Hiroshima, but is popular throughout Japan. In Osaka-style okonomiyaki, the ingredients are mixed with the batter and cooked, while in Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, noodles are added to the ingredients, which are cooked separately between two thin pancakes. At many okonomiyaki restaurants, the grill is at your table and you make it yourself. The waiter or waitress brings a bowl containing the batter ingredients that you choose, turns on the grill at your table and brushes the surface with oil; after that you’re on your own.

You can make okonomiyaki at home using a portable griddle set up on the dinner table. Everyone can have fun participating in cooking this quick, inexpensive, and healthy meal.

Okonomiyaki (adapted from Hiroko Shimbo’s The Japanese Kitchen)
Serves 4

Batter:
2 cups flour
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons potato starch (if available)
1/2 pound (about 1/4 small head) cabbage, shredded
4 eggs

Mix and match any of the following four ingredients:

1/4 pound beef sirloin, cut into thin strips
1/4 pound pork sirloin, cut into thin strips
8 medium shrimp, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup scallions, sliced thinly into rings

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 tablespoons toasted and finely crumbled nori
1/2 cup bonito flakes (optional)

Sauce (can also be purchased in the Asian section of supermarkets as “Tonkatsu sauce”):
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce

In a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients. Bring to the boil, and cook over low heat for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Sift flour into a bowl. Add water, salt, and potato starch, and stir to mix. Divide the batter between four bowls. Put 1/4 of cabbage and each chosen ingredient into each bowl, and make a depression in the center of each. Break one egg into the center depression of each bowl. Heat a skillet or griddle, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil to coat the entire bottom. When the oil is hot, pour out the excess oil and reserve it. Reduce the heat to low. Mix the batter and other ingredients in one of the bowls. Raise the heat to medium, and pour all of the batter in that bowl into the skillet. Spread the batter into a disk about 6 inches in diameter. Cook over medium heat until the bottom of the okonomiyaki is golden. Turn the okonomiyaki over with two spatulas, press it to flatten the bottom, and cook until the other side is golden. Spread some of the sauce over the surface of the okonomiyaki. Sprinkle 1/4 of the nori and bonito flakes on top, and transfer the okonomiyaki to a plate. Prepare the remaining three pancakes in the same way as the first, using the reserved vegetable oil. Cut each okonomiyaki into six pieces, like a pizza, and serve hot.

Jackie Miyasaka works as a Japanese-English translator in Pullman.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes, and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective authors, except were otherwise noted.

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