Easy and authentic Okonomiyaki

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Hi sorry for the long wait it's because I'm on holiday and have only just arrived for a few days so have been settling in and before I was busy packing and sorting things out :D

Do you love Japanese food? Do you wish you could eat Japanese food more often? Did you answer yes to them because if you did...Well I'm going to try grant your wish by sharing a simple yet authentic recipe for OKONOMIYAKI :)

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake where

Okonomi: "what you want"

Yaki: "grilled"

I'm sure you've heard of things like yaki soba or takoyaki 

Anyway this famous Japanese savoury pancake is sold in many different places in Japan and with each different area, there are different varieties of the pancake because they want to make theirs more unique so include different ingredients.

However, the main ingredient of the pancake and which I think is used in every type because it's the staple is cabbage. Usually the cabbage is shredded and mixed in the batter and when it cooks the cabbage becomes softer so therefore there's no need to cook it beforehand.

Eating okonomiyaki at restaurants is a really fun experience which I really want to try as well because often they just bring you the ingredients to the table and you can cook it yourself. This is great because then you're definitely choosing what you want and it seems super fun to cool it yourself.

This recipe I got from a friend of mine who lent me a Japanese cookbook unfortunately I don't have it anymore but it was an edition of the Australian Women's Weekly magazine.

This recipe is super simple which I love and you can always chop and cut up the ingredients beforehand if you're too busy at night :) 

Ill write out her recipe for you just so you have the guideline and then can choose yourself what you want/don't want to add

This is a page from the book which teaches you how to make primary/secondary dashi or instant dashi. I used instant dashi 

Ingredients

2 cups/300g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups/375ml secondary dashi

1 egg beaten lightly

2 large cabbage leaves

125g minced pork

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup/125ml Japanese Worcestershire sauce

2tbsp red pickled ginger

1 tbsp dried shredded seaweed

1/4 cup dried bonito flakes

I made mine without meat so the cooking process was much much quicker as I just simply had to make the batter mix in the cabbage and could then start cooking the pancakes. However even with the meat, it doesn't take very long so don't be put off :D

Okonomiyaki is always served with a dark sauce and mayonnaise and then most of the time it's topped with bonito flakes which are slightly salty. I love the sauces that mix in with the pancake as it makes it super flavourful and ultimately just really delicious.

This is a super basic okonomiyaki because we just wanted something simple to try out the recipe so we just had the pancake mix, prawns, cabbage and sauces. I didn't buy a bottle of the okonomiyaki sauce so had to make it myself, I got the recipe from: 

And I think it was very nice but I changed some of the quantities because of personal taste I guess. When you make the sauce make sure that you keep watching it and keep swirling the pot because it'll burn very quickly. I burnt mine first time round -_- so if you too want to make the sauce then check out this recipe and we also don't have japanese mayonnaise so I just simply substituted it with our regular mayonnaise. :D 

Method to make the okonomiyaki 

1/ sift together the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl, gradually add the dashi along with the egg and mix until the batter is smooth. Leave to stand for 30mins.

2/ remove the hard core from the cabbage and cut the cabbage into thin strips then add to the mixture along with the pork.

3/ heat some oil in the pan and then spoon the batter into the pan. Flip it over when bubbles appear on the surface. 

4/ Brush the cooked side with Worcestershire sauce and when the other side is done flip back over. Brush the other side with Worcestershire sauce and flip again. Make sure to do this quickly so that it doesn't burn. 

5/ remove from heat squirt over the sauce and add toppings of your choice :) 

My file card for okonomiyaki: sorry I don't have the icon for the bowls so ill just have to write numbers :3

Simplicity: 3.5

Taste: 4.5

Appearance: 3.5

Cost: 3.5

Healthiness: 3.5

Hope you liked it and will try it!!! Bye