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 

Clothes Haul and lunch

*3*

Hi. everyone,

Hope everyone's been treating themself and enjoying life because I know that I have :D because I've finished all of my exams I no longer have to go to school, so I've just been out and about.

I went shopping yesterday because there are HUGE sales everywhere, for jewellery and clothes as part of the summer sale. These are great becuase on some items you get up to 70% off!!! That's loads!!! This means you can stock up on a new wardrobe without hurting your piggy bank.

I know that I get super excited when I see really good sales because sometimes I notice items that I love but are overpriced but a sale means I can run back to the shop and see if the price has been reduced. Also, it means I can buy lots of different things that I want for the future or now for the same price as a few originial pieces, so it's a really good bargain.

Therefore, today's post is all about my shopping haul where I bought lots of summery items practical to wear with many things that I already have at home. I went to shops including Topshop, New Look, H&M, Zara, Miss Selfridge and Bank but I didn't purchase items from all the shops. Some stuff was still pricey so I thought about how much I actually loved them and whether I really should get it. ^_^ And so the ones that I couldn't bear to part from were these...

I got a handful of new tops because I wear more blousy style shirts rather than t-shirts because I think they are comfier, prettier and cuter. Two of these tops of peplum styles, something which I don't actually own, but they weren't too puffy and were a nice length so I purchased them.These three tops were from H&M at 7 pounds each.

 I love the colour of this top, a dusty pink and look at the back, a little bow. Anything with bows really pull at my heart strings ~ ~ ~

 

Another top, a pretty grey colour, and I adore the lace on the sides, it's not too big and see through which I like, so it's not revealing. The detail is gorgeous, simple but sophisticated. Actually, my mum bought this and the other two but because she's like the same size as me, she said we could share :P

                                 More bows, the pattern just won me over and because it's cute and girly.

 A cardigan, grey again but this time if you look more closely, you can see there are mini multi-coloured dots on it, as if sometimes flicked paint on to you in an organised and not messy may. The subtle pop of colours really lifts this cardigan from being too plain .Plus, it has pockets and the length is perfect. It's a long cardigan that would cover shorts and it tightens slightly at the wrists making it more practical.

 Shorts!!! baby pink colour, aah I adore it. I bought these from zara for 15.99 pounds (I think it was 1/2 price) and was so happy they had my size because I'm quite small (156cm) so it's hard to find the correct size. BUT the gods were on my size and there was one size 6 :3 Yayaah The colour is so pretty with many other shops not selling shorts in a colour like this. Therefore, it's unique! And, once again it's a good length because I don't like shorts which are too short but these cover perfectly :D

Finally, this light blue coloured jacket thing that ties together. I have been looking for one of these for a while after seeing lots of ulzzangs and korean fashion featuring it. Typically, I see the girls wearing it over a dress, short skirt or shorts and it looks adorable. Once again they had a size 6 and it costed 12 pounds :D Bonus point- It's light coloured I prefer a lighter blue than a darker denim blue so it's really idea for me. It's shorter than usual so sits perfectly at my waist.

Through these bargain buys, I was able to save A LOT of money which I', very pleased with and now I can wear these with loads of different things and now my summer wardrobe is complete! Go check out sales need your area to find some good buys because it's often when you're not looking for things that you find them ;)

 So the day out was with my sister and my mum and we had japanese food for lunch, I think Japanese is my favourite cuisine. We ate Japanese pancake known as Okonomiyaki, it was filled with seafood and shredded cabbage before being topped wtih japanese mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce and bonita flakes. It was super yummy!!! Which is why, when I'm older and have the chance to go to Japan, I'll definitely make sure that I try out the real okonomiyakis. My sister and I will be making a version of this so I'll post the recipe if it's successful. We also ate vegetable gyoza....mmmm <3

 Oh and I stayed hydrated drinking this. It was a little sour so i wasn't too big on it, but I love drinking baby coconuts! It's very refreshing.

 I hope you enjoyed my long post and will come back soon, I will be writing my next post on a Loreal gel eye liner and a recipe for the perfect japanese sponge cream cake with fresh fruit!!!

Hope you find lots of bargain buys too <3