I'm a little intimidated by Japanese food, or at least by the thought of preparing Japanese food at home. I've got quite a few cookbooks--some of them very good--but I've never been very confident about piecing together the right components to make a good meal. So most of the Japanese cooking I do at home is quite simple (like tonight's meal) or an attempt to replicate a meal I had in a restaurant.
Tonight we had okonomiyaki, which often gets called Japanese pancakes or (shudder) Japanese pizza. (I hate calling anything that lacks cheese and tomato sauce "pizza".) It's basically a savory pancake batter filled with cabbage and whatever else you like (the name translates as "as you like") and topped with a rich sauce, fish flakes, and mayonnaise.
The recipe I use is for a Kansai version of okonomiyaki and comes from our local supermarket, Co-op. I collect recipe cards from them nearly every week, and although my kanji skills are pretty damn weak, I can usually parse out the ingredient list and get the basic gist of the technique section. So here's my attempt to translate one of Co-op's recipes.
The amounts listed here are for each serving. I tripled the amounts here to feed two adults and two kids.
Okonomiyaki
50g flour
1 tsp ground sesame seeds
1/4 tsp salt
40ml milk
1 egg
1 or 2 green onions, sliced
100g cabbage, sliced thinly
2 or 3 strips of bacon (or other fatty cut of pork)
Toppings:
Okonomiyaki sauce
Katsuobushi flakes
Aonori powder
Mayonnaise
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together the milk and egg, and then combine with the dry ingredients. Add the chopped cabbage and green onions and stir together.
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan. Add the batter and form into a round pancake-shape. Lay strips of bacon on top. Once the first side is browned, flip over and cook second side as well.
Remove from pan and place on a plate. Brush on as much okonomiyaki sauce as you like (be careful, it can get overpowering pretty quickly), decorate with thin lines of mayonnaise, and sprinkle a generous amount of katusobushi over the top. Finally, dust a small amount of powdered nori over the top.
2 comments:
Ok, I was with you until the part about mayonnaise. I'll use it as long as it's not a major ingredient. Can it be substituted or left out?
Not in Kansai, the area around Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. At least it seems like a necessity. But then again, in restaurants they often ask you if you want mayo or not. I've never said no--but I love mayonnaise. Somehow, the flavor meshes really well with the sweet sauce and the fish flakes.
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