Okonomiyaki

A cabbage pancake bound by grated yam and dashi batter, pressed once and then never again.

Pork, Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish, pork.

Ingredients

600 g white cabbage, finely shredded
200 g plain flour
200 ml dashi, cold
100 g nagaimo, grated
4 eggs
8 rashers thin pork belly
4 spring onions, sliced
2 tablespoons oil
okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, katsuobushi and aonori, to serve

Method

PRESSED ONCE WHEN IT GOES IN, AND NEVER AGAIN. One gentle shaping press to set the round, and after that the spatula does not touch the top. Pressing a cooking okonomiyaki squeezes the air and the juice out and gives something dense and wet -- it is the single commonest way this goes wrong.
GRATED NAGAIMO IS THE BINDER and it is why the inside stays soft while the outside browns. It goes slimy and strange on the board, which is correct. Without it the pancake is heavier and more like a fritter.
SHRED THE CABBAGE FINE, 3 mm, and do not salt it. Salted, it weeps and the batter goes soupy; fine shreds collapse enough on their own.
Mix the flour with the COLD dashi and the grated yam into a smooth batter and rest it 30 minutes in the fridge.
Fold in the cabbage, spring onion and eggs only when the pan is hot. Mixed early, the cabbage starts weeping.
There should be barely enough batter to coat -- it is a pile of cabbage held together, not a pancake with cabbage in it.
Oil in a wide pan over a medium heat. A quarter of the mixture in, shaped into a round about 2 cm thick and 18 cm across. Press once.
Pork rashers laid over the top, overlapping.
5 to 6 minutes, until the underside is deep brown and the edge looks set. Turn in ONE confident movement, pork side down.
6 minutes more, then turn back for a final minute. Sauce, mayonnaise in lines, katsuobushi and aonori at the table.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes