Okonomiyaki

[Hiroyuki]

Healthy, low-cost, low-fat, and high-protein okonomiyaki

Ingredients:

Finely sliced cabbage

2 eggs

Boiled corn

Small dry shrimp

Tofu (momen)

Flour

All ingredients in a bowl, except flour:

Add flour (I didn't have to add any water) and mix well

Pan-fry

Pizza-style (put cheese and sesame seeds on top, sprinckle soy sauce, pan-fry, place on plate, and sprinkle bonito flakes)

This is how my wife and chidren ate it (mayo, ketchup, and tonkatsu sauce mixed together and bonito flakes

Not the greatest in the world but one of the healthiest... No?

Edited October 1, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Palladion]

Alright, I survived okonomiyaki day! This is perhaps the 4th time I've made this dish, and it's probably my best attempt so far. I used a okonomiyaki mix and shredded cabbage and naganegi (Japanese long onion / dividing onion).

I just cooked up a single, small okonomiyaki:

Here it is, undressed. I topped it with a single strip of pork and some additional egg. The egg worked really well, I though, I wish I had used more. You can tell from the picture that I undercooked it. I'll practice again tomorrow -- I still have a lot more of all of the ingredients left over.

And then here it after I dressed it. Very simple this time: I just used okonomiyaki sauce and fish flakes. I actually like a touch (just a small touch, really) of mayonaise on my okonomiyaki, but I don't use it nearly often enough to justify keeping it in my (small) refrigderator.

It was nice, but I'll do a number of things differently tomorrow: Definitely more toppings (more pork, more egg) and longer cooking. Maybe look into adding a little bit of a few extra ingredients like carrot or ginger. Maybe I'll steal some ideas from other people who post their own okonomiyaki day experiences here.

-------

Alex Parker

[torakris]

Hiroyuki,

do you often use tofu in your okonomiyaki? I have never seen that before, but it sounds good!

pictures coming soon!

[torakris]

I normally like pork on my okonomiyaki, but pork was expensive yesterday and these shrimp just looked too good. So I addded shrimp, lots of negi (Japanese scallion), nagaimo (mountain yam), cabbage, along with flour, eggs, water and some salt, normally I add some powdered dashi for more flavor but was out.

the finished product (1 of 3)

topped with mayo (Kewpie 1/4 = quarter the fat/calories ), okonomiyaki sauce and katsuo-bushi

[tejon]

Didn't get a chance to get pictures as I was cooking (small persons got in the way), but here is the end result:

I added green onion, shredded daikon, and pork belly. Topped it with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, and some benishoga. Five minutes later and it's all gone.

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki,

do you often use tofu in your okonomiyaki? I have never seen that before, but it sounds good!

←

Tofu is a special ingredient that I used for this very special occasion. (I would have felt guilty if I had used premade okonomiyaki flour.) Actually, this is the very first time that I have put tofu in the mixture. It turned out very good. No one didn't notice that tofu was in it.

[smallworld]

Just finished our Okonimiyaki Day. My husband, from Osaka, fancies himself an okonomiyaki expert, so he did all of the actual cooking.

We did four kinds, but were full by the third, so we'll be brunching on okonomiyaki tomorrow. This is not a problem.

Here are the ingredients:

We made a basic kiji (batter) of flour, baking powder, egg, sakura-ebi (tiny dried pink shrimp), dashi powder, grated yama-imo (mountain yam), and water.

For each okonomiyaki, we'd mix this kiji with finely sliced cabbage and whatever extras we felt like, including beni-shoga (red pickled ginger), cheese, chopped kimchi, age-dama (little deep-fried balls of tempura batter), and chopped negi (green onion).

The batter is then cooked with pork, and for the modan-yaki, yaki-soba noodles; then the okonomiyaki is topped with whatever seasonings we feel like: okonomiyaki sauce, soy sauce, katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes), and more chopped negi. We usually also use ao-nori (seaweed flakes) but we forgot to buy it. Mayonnaise is banned in this house.

First up is kimchi-cheese okonomiyaki.

This was hands-down the best okonomiyaki of the day. I think the cheese we used was key- we used an aged New Zealand Cheddar, which really stood up to the kimchi. I think regular Japanese grated cheese would have been underwhelming.

This okonomiyaki had such a strong flavour that we didn't need to add any sauce- just a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkly of katsuo-bushi.

This will become a regular item on our okonomiyaki menu.

Next, modan-yaki:

This is a regular okonomiyaki topped with plain yaki-soba noodles. Topped with lots of the usual sauce and katsuo-bushi.

Here it is ready to go:

Next, tompei-yaki, an item only found in a few down-market Osaka okonomiyaki houses.

Very very simple- just a flour and water batter pancake, fried egg and pork , cooked seperately and then stacked into one.

Topped with sauce, negi and katsuo-bushi.

The last two were regular okonomiyaki with age-dama, beni-shouga and pork:

A bit burnt, but we weren't really paying attention. These are just for leftovers.

Edited October 3, 2004 by smallworld (log)

[torakris]

that tompei yaki is interesting, I have never seen anything like it.

kimchi and cheese is one combination I just haven't been able to try yet......

[melonpan]

id like to start out by thanking torakris for such a great thread... its nice to be able to participate in this kind of a way...

last night i made two types of okonomiyaki... actually one kind. the other might not quite qualify...

raw ingredients: flour and eggs (both not shown), shredded cabbage, chopped shrimp, nagaimo, leftover spam, kimchi and scallions.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041003okono1.jpg"></center>

this was my first time using nagaimo and i did not expect the texture to be like jicama. for some reason i was expecting more of a potato or perhaps carrot like texture. instead as i sliced it it turned out to be crispy/slimy (i knew it should be slimy, but somehow i forgot that). instead of the cheese grater i was going to employ, i ended up using my radish (daikon) grater and that turned out to be the right instrument. fun!

i used the same basic batter for both types of okonomiyaki: flour, eggs, some water, nagaimo, dashi and some extra salt.

for the first type of pancake, i added shredded cabbage, spam and shrimp.

for the second, i decided to make something called pa-jeon (which many japanese seem to call chijimi, which is a korean word i do not recognise). i made kimchi pajeon, which is my favourite kind. the "pa" in pajeon means "scallions". lots of scallions and kimchi, extra kimchi juice and some spam. no cabbage. come to think of it, kimchi is cabbage!

both turned out well if i may say so myself. hubby seemed to like them too, but i think he liked the kimchi one more... i topped the japanese style okonomiyaki with okonomi sauce, some mayo, some babystar (kristin, do you usually add the babystar to the batter? i was wondering that as i was sprinkling them on top), and a little bit of aonori.

the pajeon was eaten plain, as is the usual style. because of the dashi and the kimchi, there wasnt any need for the usual soy sauce/vinegar accompaniment.

<center>okonomiyaki

<img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041003okono2.jpg"></center>

<center>pajeon

<img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041003okono3.jpg"></center>

thank you again, kristin for a great idea!

[helenjp]

A day late and a dollar short, as usual...and no pix, sorry! Son1 was in charge of taking photos, but somehow, there's nothing on the camera.

We made three types...all using the same batter. I think I used about 1 lb flour, a slightly smaller volume of dashi, 3 beaten eggs, and a ridiculous amount of naga-imo - about 10" length, grated. I had a large cabbage, so half of that shredded made a huge bowlful - added that to most of the batter, along with some chopped red pickled ginger, 1 finely chopped naganegi, 1 bunch of scallions, chopped, and a generous pack of ten-kasu (fried scraps from tempura). We fried up a little under 1lb of pork slices, and dropped the batter onto them in spoonfuls - the reverse of the normal procedure, but it works...

For the second type, we dropped plain batter on to the fried pork, then fried a little shredded cabbage and onion separately, and turned the pancake over on top of that. This normally works well, but this time round, the huge amount of naga-imo made the batter very cohesive, so it didn't run down into the cabbage enough. The naga-imo does stop the batter getting too floury and stodgy though.

We topped ours with the stanadard tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, ao-nori, and katsuo-bushi.

Third type...drumroll...canned fruit fried on the hotplate with a dollop of plain batter on top. Our sons were the only takers for this version, but they thought "dessert okonomiyaki" was pretty good! I suggested mayonnaise with it, but they wisely ignored me.

[dougery]

Sorry folks, no pics for me either. I decided to make my Okonomiyaki yesterday since I couldn't do it on the first.

Pretty basic: batter, cabbage, scallions, ika, gobo, with side pork on top.

topped with bonito, and nori (no mayo or okonomiyaki sauce for me).

I think I'll have it again today as well!

Thanks for initiating Okonomiyaki day Kris! Our new annual celebration! I'm going to try to get my family to celebrate this day as well.

Kompai!

[albiston]

Back from vacation, very little stuff in my fridge: eggs, scallions and cabbage among the few items bought imediately after coming home. I would have never thought of mixing the three together to be honest.

Then I start browsing eGullet again, looking around till I stumble on this thread. Mmmh... okonomiyaki... I heard about these before but I have no clue about what they are. I read this thread throughout, then the older threads too and I'm totally hooked. I must make some.

So, following dougery's recipe from a previous thread I mix the batter. Topping is hard, very little there, but I manage to scrape some gari, some bonito flakes and some sesame seeds together.

And here it is, my first take on okonomiyaki. Not on time but I hope I'll be excused .

No sauce available, but very satisfying nonetheless.

Thanks to all you guys for your intriguing posts that made this japanese-food ignorant Italian hooked on okonomiyaki. I'll be making these again. And thanks to Kristin for coming up with this great thread.

[dougery]

WOW! That looks fantastic! My first attempt at okonomiyaki looked like a blob, yours looks like a work of art!

Now that you have the basics down, it's time to expiriment! There is a photo earlier in the thread with Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (w/noodles), definitely worth trying. There are sooo many possibilities when it comes to okonomiyaki... just remember, anything goes!

I've got to leave this thread, your photo is making me too hungry

Happy okonomiyaki day!

[Jason Perlow]

Jhlurie and I had our first okonomiyaki at the food court Mitsuwa asian mart in Edgewater, NJ a few days ago whilst on a okashi shopping frenzy.

I would probably closer equate it to the korean "pajun" than Pizza -- it was quite tasty and I could probably get hooked on them. The one we had was a veggie/beef combo, and the top had drizzed tonkatsu sauce and mayonaisse on it -- as well as bonito shavings, which both of us removed since they were smokey and fishy tasting (a flavor neither of us likes) and "fluttered" due to the thermodynamic effects of pancake to topping heat transfer, which kind of freaked us out.

[growpower]

Can someone tell me what the okonomiyake mix that I get at stores contain besides flour please? From what I can read of the Japanese, it seems to have flour, egg powder and a bunch of other artificial flavorings, which I am not found of.

My friend gave me an Osakan style okonomiyake recipe that I love, but it uses the mix. So actually, I guess my real question is if I don't want to use the mix, what can I use in place of it, and in what proportions? I notice a lot of people are using Nagaimo, is that a requirement?

Here are the ingredients from my friend's recipe if it makes any difference.

Two cups of Okonomiyaki flour

A cup of Japanese fish broth (or water plus Dashinomoto (instant bouillon))

Two eggs

half a cabbage

1/2 bunch of green onion

squid (shrimp)

1/2 cup of tenkasu (tempura crumbs)

150 gram of sliced pork

1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese

Okonomiyaki sauce

Mayonnaise

Katsuobushi (dried bonito flake)

Nori (green powdered seaweed)

-thanks

[torakris]

I haven't used an okonomiyaki mix for a long time and I can't for the life of me remember the major brand that is on all of the supermarket shelves, but I did look at the ingredients of a couple brands I found for sale on the net and the ingredient lists are similar.

Basically they were a mix of flour and corn flour with powdered yamaimo (mountain yam), powdered katsuo, salt, sugars, msg, etc, one had baking powder and an other had spices like paprika and tumeric....

My recipe is similar to your friends except I use regular flour and add grated nagaimo/yamaimo and I don't add the cheese.

[torakris]

some great pictures of okonomiyaki, includes shots of an okonomiyaki restaurant:

http://daveahlman.com/daveinjapan/foods/fo...okonomiyaki.htm

[Carolyn Tillie]

some great pictures of okonomiyaki, includes shots of an okonomiyaki restaurant:

http://daveahlman.com/daveinjapan/foods/fo...okonomiyaki.htm

←

Oh, Kris, you wicked, wicked woman! Now I want Okonomiyaki!

I sadly missed the communal Okonomiyaki Day back in October due to my Mother's passing -- I had been saving up some of the batter to make for her and was sad she never got to taste mine, passing away the day before we eG'ers were to cook our's...

[lambretta76]

First off - I'd like to introduce myself. I'm a member of eGullet from NYC and you'll be hearing a lot from me in the next few months as I'll be on my way back to Japan for a short vacation.

Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite Japanese foods, and I was lucky enough to have some great versions in Yokohama and Kobe on my last trip to Japan during the World Cup.

However, I'd like to try some of your favorites, and was wondering if anyone could recommend great places for okonomiyaki in Tokyo and Kyoto. Of particular interest would be Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which I am not sure is available in the States.

Many thanks!

[torakris]

However, I'd like to try some of your favorites, and was wondering if anyone could recommend great places for okonomiyaki in Tokyo and Kyoto. Of particular interest would be Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which I am not sure is available in the States.

←

Don't bother trying to find Hiroshima-style in Tokyo, stick to what they do best and go for monjyayaki/monjayaki instead!!

The best place to get this is in Tsukijima, Tokyo were there are somehing like 60 shops in 500m block, lots of okonomiyaki as well.

Here is some information on how to eat monjyayaki

as well as information about the all-you-can-eat monjyayaki boat cruise in Tokyo Bay.

[Culinista]

We just had our first Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.

Mitchan was closed the day we visited, so we took our taxi driver's recommendation of Henkutsuya, across the alley from Okonomimura. (A note here: I have never seen such aggressive shilling in Japan.) We squeezed in at the counter and ordered one Special Deluxe with soba and one without noodles but with pork, egg, and squid. We found that the one with noodles was much better balanced, even if it was heavier. We ate it right off the teppan with little spatulas. I noticed most people attacked only half at a time, but some cut it into pie wedges and others into little squares. I found squares easier. The sauce was outstanding.

Hiroshima-style seems to take a little more skill to construct than the way I make it. (My house version: a thin, crisp crepe with lacy edges, which I fill only on one side with ginger, green onion, chikuwa, scallops, shrimp, squid, shredded cabbage, and bonito flakes. I drizzle a little more batter over the pile and then flip it over, using 2 spatulas to press the pancake as flat as possible. Bulldog tonkatsu sauce is always in our house for these moments.) I saw one grill man in Okonomimura expertly make thin egg crepes the exact size of the noodle and filling rounds, all cooked separately. He then stacked them together and proceeded to press the edges together in a perfectly sealed seam.

I'd love to get those little half-moon-shaped individual spatulas.

Also available from hotels and tourist info in Hiroshima: an Okonomiyaki Map.

[easternsun]

i decide to make okonomi for dinner and wanted to make my own sauce. the thing is - i want it to taste like the sauce at the little hole in the wall shops we frequent

i do have a recipe for sauce but i thought i would put it out here for you all - what is the best store bought sauce? what is the best sauce recipe? sauce with dijon or sauce without dijon (i cant decide)

one more thing, why do tokyoites say age-dama and osakans say tenkasu for the little tempura bits? i asked dh (who is trying desperately to reform my osaka-ben speaking ways into a polite lady who uses teinei ) but he just said tenkasu is not polite - then why is it on the packages

[torakris]

this is currently my favorite sauce

sesame tonkatsu sauce by Bulldog

I prefer karashi (Jaapnese mustard ) on mine.

[torakris]

one more thing, why do tokyoites say age-dama and osakans say tenkasu for the little tempura bits?  i asked dh (who is trying desperately to reform my osaka-ben speaking ways into a polite lady who uses teinei ) but he just said tenkasu is not polite - then why is it on the packages

←

this sounds like a question for the Kanto vs kansai thread

[easternsun]

well, i made the okonomiyaki last night and i did make my own sauce (3 of them actually ).

what i learned: lea and perrins Worcestershire Sauce is not the same as japanese sauce! that never occured to me until this little experiment.

i basically used a 4 tbsp of shoyu and 2 tbsp of everything else approach and then added some extra worchestershire at the end of the cooking process.

out of the three batches i added dijon to the second and karashi to the third. the original sauce won and was used on both the okonomiyaki and the yaki soba.

the funny thing is that it really tasted different once applied - in the bowl it just did not taste "right". on the okonomiyaki it was just great!

dh was honest enough to tell me that he had his doubts and wondered why i didnt just buy sauce like "everyone else" but in the end, dinner received the seal of approval and five stars (a game we play every night - how many stars always preceeds gochisousamadesu!)

now what am i going to do with the other two batches of mustard flavoured sauces