Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory pancake that is sometimes also called a Japanese pizza. The name literally means cooked as you like which means you can substitute or add anything you like. The base is a batter mixed with cabbage. To this you can add other vegetables, meat and fish. I made my version with bacon and topped it with a wakame seaweed salad.
Usually grated nagaimo root is added to the batter. It has a slimy consistency and gives a gooey center to the pancake. As I’m unable to get nagaimo and wasn’t able to find a okonomiyaki flour with nagaimo powder I used baozi flour which is a very finely milled wheat flour.
For the dashi I mixed 5 grams of dashi powder with 160 ml of water. You could substitute this with vegetable or chicken stock or just use water.
Traditionally okonomiyaki is sprinkled with aonori which I also wasn’t able to find and just omitted it.
- Ingredients for 2 okonomiyaki:
- 100g flour, baozi flour or okonomiyaki flour
- 160 ml dashi, stock or water
- 2 eggs
- 300g green cabbage, in thin strips
- 2 green onions, cut into rings
- 100g carrot, finely grated
- 6 streaks of bacon
- Okonomiyaki sauce
- Kewpie mayonnaise
- Katsuobushi / bonito flakes
- Optional: wakame seaweed salad
- Flavorless oil for frying
Use a non stick frying pan with a lid for frying the pancakes.
Take a large bowl and mix the flour with the dashi and eggs. Make sure there are no lumps and add the cabbage, carrot and onion.
The okonomiyaki mix looks more like coleslaw than a batter. Most of the wet mix will run to the bottom of the bowl.
Heat the frying pan with some of the oil. Stir the okonomiyaki mix and scoop some into the pan. Spread it evenly and cover with the bacon.
My pancakes are about 20 cm in diameter and 1.5-2 cm thick. Don’t make them too large or they will be difficult to flip.
Cover with the lid and turn the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for 5 minutes.
Gently shake the pan and check the bottom of the pancake. When it’s nicely firm and golden you can carefully flip the pancake. Place the lid on top and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove the lid. Turn up the heat to medium and fry until golden brown and crispy on both sides.
I served my okonomiyaki bacon side down and topped it with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, wakame and bonito flakes.
This is a version without bacon and with okonomiyaki sauce, wasabi Kewpie mayo and bonito flakes.
Make a vegetarian version by using vegetable stock or water and omit the bonito flakes. Experiment with different toppings and fillings. Using shrimp inside the pancake is also very nice!
Recipe adapted from: Okonomiyaki World
