Okonomiyaki, fuck yeah
There's not a whole helluva lot I can say about okonomiyaki besides it is the ultimate awesome-leftover killer. With a base of the disgusting-sounding batter with cabbage (added to flour, baking soda, dashi, water), this stuff is really quite amazingly good. Of course, at the end, it's covered in sauce and mayo, so who doesn't like that? Some important stuff to remember: the dashi really does make this stuff work. I had some homemade stock I made from leftover yellowtail tuna, bonito, and seaweed. My house stank for 3 days, but the stock is indispensible in Japanese cooking. You can pick up tiny bottles of the dry stuff, but I can't vouch for it (though that's what I do use for my tamagoyaki). I have not used the mountain yam, which is supposed to make this stuff extra-good, because I have been too lazy to have someone pick it up for me at one of the myriad of Asian food markets within a 2-mile radius my my house.
Back on track, if you like Japanese food, especially fried Japanese food, such as takoyaki or sukiyaki, you will like this. Plus sides? This is so easy to make, there is no reason not to make it. Anything you might have left over from weekly meals that would be yummy - extra sliced veggies, ground or sliced meat, probably not fruit, lovely little pickled things (like ginger), and misc (leftover mochi - yum!) will likely work well on top of the base. Round One at my house last week included (made especially for the okonomiyaki) matchstick carrots, lots of spring onions (fresh from the farmers' market), leftover ground meat (pork, lamb, and elk with fennel and 5-spice), caramelized purple onions, and sprinkles of panko on top. Second round had mushrooms and the bulb-ends of spring onions, caramelized on the griddle. Oh, that's another thing - I made these on my electric non-stick griddle at 425F - I had to use very little oil, but got the crispiness around the perimeter and the middle as I liked from using my misto. If you need to use a stove-top pan, I suggest a non-stick unless you want to use a lot of oil to keep the batter from being a pain in the arse. Once you have this down, feel free to work with it - the batter is still a little too thick for me, so next time I'll thin it down a bit.
Okonomiyaki (base)
Feeds 2 hungry Americans
(The measures here are approximate, as this is somewhere between baking and cooking, so feel free to add liquid if the batter feels too thick - it should be slightly thicker than crepe batter, just enough to keep the cabbage together, but spread out)
~Heat griddle/pan to med-hot stage~
200g Flour
110ml Dashi
1g Baking powder
1 egg
2C thinly sliced/shredded green cabbage
Mix first 3 ingredients together until pasty. Feel free to grate some mountain yam in at this point. Add 1/2 the cabbage, and then increment to the point where the cabbage is well-coated by the batter, but not drippy. Spray or pour some oil on your preferred method of conduction and divvy the cabbage mixture into two rounds, and flatten with your hand. Don't burn your hand.
*This is the way I have found most easy for the okonomiyaki-making. If you prefer flipping a cabbage-pancake with toppings with 2 turners, feel free.*
These take a little while to make - you don't want the okonomiyaki to be doughy in the middle, so wait until the bottoms of the rounds are a good golden brown, then stack your "toppings" in your pan next to the cabbage rounds. Once the cabbage rounds are dark brown on the bottom, flip them on top of the "topping rounds" and press them down so they sizzle. Cook another 5-10 minutes, depending on your toppings (they should be a lovely dark brown as well) and flip them back topside carefully. Top with okonomiyaki sauce (or takoyaki sauce - it's very similar) and Kewpie mayonnaise (more eggy and lemony than normal store-bought mayo). Eat hot with a fork, or feel free to slice into triangles.
Some other "traditionally Japanese" toppings include:
- Bonito flakes/katsuboushi
- Seaweed flakes/aonori (I added these - yarm!)
- Green onion (These are fantastic)
- Corn (Yes indeed)
- Mochi squares (can't wait to try this one)
