Japanese Street Food Recipe - Okonomiyaki - Japanese pancake

"Okonomi" means favourite or as you like it and "yaki" means grilled so you can really add whatever you like to this savoury pancake recipe (i.e. vegetables, seafood, meat etc). This is a popular Japanese street food and I remember eating it at Japanese festivals with ingredients like octopus and shrimp in it. It's a popular Japanese street food.

I'm sharing this basic okonomiyaki recipe with you but please add your favourite ingredients or whatever you have at home in the fridge!

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

250g savoy cabbage (finely shredded)

2 spring onions/ scallions (finely cut diagnolly)

200ml dashi stock or 200ml water with 1 tsp of hondashi (instant fish stock granules)

4 eggs (preferably free range or organic)

6-8 slices of bacon/ rashers (depending on size)

For the okonomiyaki sauce/ tonkatsu sauce
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp water
3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sake or red wine
1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

To garnish

Okonomiyaki sauce/ tonkatsu sauce

Mayonnaise

Milled nori or dillisk seaweed, optional

Beni shoga (pickled red ginger), optional
Katsuobushi (dried fish flakes), optional

Vegetable oil (for frying)

Instructions:

1. Put all the ingredients for the tonkatsu sauce in a saucepan and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes until it thickens to the same consistency as tomato ketchup. Then set aside and allow to cool.

2. Place the shredded cabbage and spring onion in a large bowl and completely coat in flour.

3. Whisk the eggs and dashi together in a jug. Pour over the cabbage and mix well together.

4. Heat vegetable oil in a non stick frying pan on medium to high heat.

5. When the pan is hot completely cover the base of the frying pan in one single layer of bacon slices and fry for a few minutes.

6. Carefully place the cabbage mix on top of the layer of bacon until completely covered (depending on the size of your pan you may use most of the cabbage mix or only half).

7. Fry for a few more minutes then if you are not confident to flip the pancake do the following. Place a large plate over the frying pan and turn the pancake onto the plate. Now, slide the pancake with the uncooked part facing down onto the frying pan.

9. Continue to fry for less than 5 minutes on medium to low heat. When ready place on a serving plate with the bacon side of the pancake facing up.

10. To garnish, using a spoon/ brush cover the top of the pancake with tonkatsu sauce. Decorate with lines of mayonnaise and milled seaweed as shown in the picture on the left below. Finally top with katsuobushi and beni shoga (optional ingredients) as shown in the picture on the right below. 

Mini okonomiyaki pancakes:
You can make mini pancakes if you prefer. Simply place one slice of bacon on the frying pan and after frying for a few minutes carefully place a few tablespoons of cabbage mix on top of the bacon. Fry and garnish in the same way as the instructions for the large pancake above. 

Tips:
Traditionally a Japanese type of potato called nagaimo is grated and added to the batter to help make it lighter. This vegetable can be found in Asian stores.