The Takoyaki Topic

[prasantrin]

A Japanese friend of mine was telling me that her sister, who now lives in Israel, has opened a takoyaki business. However, since most (all?) people in Israel can't eat octopus, she has had to modify her recipe. Instead of using octopus, she fills her takoyaki with chocolate! Obviously it isn't really 'tako'-yaki anymore, but it seemed like a neat idea. What other fillings can one use in place of tako? I'm thinking jam, fruit, chicken...pretty much anything would be good. Are there any places in Japan that serve alternatives to tako in their takoyaki?

Perhaps I should bring my takoyaki grill back to Japan with me (even though I lugged it all the way back to Canada and never used it) and experiment!

[Pan]

Octopus is treyf (not kosher), so Jews who keep kosher can't eat it. A lot of Israeli Jews don't keep kosher, but enough do that your friend's sister did well to take them into account.

[torakris]

Interesting, but I don't know if I would consider them takoyaki any more......

They sound almost closer to taikyaki or imagawayaki but with a round shape. I am assuming she is not adding onions as well and definitely not topping them with sauce and bonito flakes....??

Other takoyaki variations??

I saw cubes of mochi in them once.

[ankomochi]

Choco-Yaki? Very interesting! I guess it would be totally different from "takoyaki." I am curious about the ingredients. Probably, flour, eggs, milk?

In NY, Takoyaki place offers three types of takoyaki -- standard Tako filling, Cheese filling, and no filling takoyaki.

[torakris]

A quick search on yahoo Japan and it seems there is some variation here, some places have menus that offer various kinds one such menu read

Takoyaki Japanese style (regular I am assuming?)

cheese

cheese and mochi

cheese mochi and corn

(these all include octopus as well)

shrimp (instead of the octopus)

Other menus had no variation in the takoyaki themselves but you have a choice of sauces, they have soy sauce, spicy sauce or sweet sauce.

Other places advertised themselves as Kansai (Osaka area) style and others as Kanto (Tokyo area) style, though have no idea what the difference is.

[helenjp]

Hmmm...son got a long-coveted takoyaki grill for Christmas, so we have had quite a few takoyaki sessions since then!

We also used them to make Dutch-style poffertje -- worked well, but the texture could not be considered a variation of takoyaki, where the dough is supposed to remain gluey in the middle, and the "fillings" are supposed to add texture, preferably chewy.

So...chopped up konnyaku seems the favorite budget-stretcher addition in Japan.

We've also used corn and cheese with chopped scallions as noted, plus chopped-up sausage, and shrimp. Some of us considered offsetting the "glue" with herbs and/or chewy dried tomatoes, but some of us were voted down...

[torakris]

My new hot plate with a takoyaki grill came about 2 hours ago. I have only made takoyaki once in my life, though I have eaten it many times.

Any favorite recipes?

what about akashiyaki (aka tamagoyaki)?

Akashiyaki are a specialty of Akashi City in Hyogo prefecture and there they are referred to as tamagoyaki. They are softer than takoyaki and are eaten dipped into dashi rather than covered in sauce. Like this.

[Hiroyuki]

I'm not much of a takoyaki fan, but last year, I bought an electric takoyaki maker because my daughter suddenly said that she wanted to make takoyaki at home. This is the third time we have made takoyaki at home with this maker, and it came out really nice. In fact, it is the best takoyaki we've ever had.

Photo: Leftover takoyaki, takoyaki maker, and some of the foodstuffs we used:

Most of the foodstuffs we used, such as the takoyaki mix, beni shoga, tenkasu, ao nori, sakura ebi, and takoyaki sauce, were what I bought at the 100-yen shop.

We're going to have Takoyaki Day at least once a month from now on.

As for the fillings, we used cheese, wiener sausage, and kani kama (fake crabmeat).

[helenjp]

They look great!

By the way, did you use less liquid (Kanto style) or more liquid (Kansai style)?

I had a small takoyaki maker, because my kids were keen, but found the dryer style much easier to make. However, my new hotplate came with a takoyaki plate on it, and I discovered that the more powerful element made Kansai-style takoyaki just as easy to eat!

A favorite cheap ingredient of ours is canned corn (with lots of scallions).

Edited February 28, 2006 by helenjp (log)

[Hiroyuki]

By the way, did you use less liquid (Kanto style) or more liquid (Kansai style)?

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WHAT?? I didn't know there were such things as Kanto and Kansai styles of takoyaki! I had just assumed that takoyaki was basically an Osaka thing.

I just followed the instructions on the pack, 900 ml water to 300 g mix, if I remember correctly. Sorry, too lazy to go downstairs to check if I'm right.

[Catherine Iino]

Could someone explain, for the uninitiated, what takoyaki are? What is the batter, normally? They look a whole lot like eibeskivers (I have no idea what the correct spelling is), the spherical Danish pancake, which is, in fact, often filled with sweet fillings. There could be some interesting cross-cultural uses for the pans.

[_john]

I recently went to a takoyaki party where we made many variations. Most included the standard beni shoga, sakura ebi, a little cabbage, and tako. notable variations included: cheese mochi, kimchi pork, and kimchi cheese (really good). As the night went on we tried many experimental takoyaki fillings, we attempted a "sauce in" version with the sauce in the center that was interesting (it would have worked if we used frozen cubes of sauce).

I often see vendors making something sweet smelling in what looks like takoyaki molds, I think it involves walnuts? It smells just like taiyaki but is in balls, haven't tried it yet.

I am considering picking up a stovetop takoyaki grill to experiment at home.

[BarbaraY]

We had takoyaki at the street fair in San Francisco last Spring. I'm not sure what the meat was but it tasted like ground beef to me. Just didn't have the chewiness of octopus.

It was really good anyway.

[Hiroyuki]

Could someone explain, for the uninitiated, what takoyaki are? What is the batter, normally? They look a whole lot like eibeskivers (I have no idea what the correct spelling is), the spherical Danish pancake, which is, in fact, often filled with sweet fillings. There could be some interesting cross-cultural uses for the pans.

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To make takoyaki, you need a special takoyaki griddle.

Here's a general description of takoyaki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

A recipe can be found here:

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/ref/tako/tako.html

As the title of this thread suggests, you don't necessarily have to put a piece of octopus in each takoyaki ball, although "tako" means octopus.

I don't put beni shoga (vinegared ginger) in the batter because my daughter doesn't like it.

[Catherine Iino]

Thank you, Hiroyuki. This is like uncovering a culinary Kantian category: little pancake spheres. I think the depressions in the aebiskever pan are a bit larger than the ones in the takoyaki griddle, but it should work fine, I think. I'll let you know.

[jkonick]

Thank you, Hiroyuki. This is like uncovering a culinary Kantian category: little pancake spheres. I think the depressions in the aebiskever pan are a bit larger than the ones in the takoyaki griddle, but it should work fine, I think. I'll let you know.

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I've made aebelskiver in a takoyaki grill with great results! In fact, my aebelskiver tend to turn out better than my takoyaki...

[Chufi]

This is like uncovering a culinary Kantian category: little pancake spheres.

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spherical pancakes of the world, unite.. see here in the Dutch Cooking thread for a pictorial on poffertjes.

I think I'm going to try octopus poffertjes next.. now that's fusion cuisine..

[Anna N]

This is like uncovering a culinary Kantian category: little pancake spheres.

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spherical pancakes of the world, unite.. see here in the Dutch Cooking thread for a pictorial on poffertjes.

I think I'm going to try octopus poffertjes next.. now that's fusion cuisine..

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Also interesting:

Denmark and Thailand use similar pan for different "pancakes"

[Catherine Iino]

Remarkable. My own guess would be parallel evolution, however. (Or maybe intelligent design?)

I just wish she'd included a recipe for kanom krok in the article.

[racheld]

I saw just a few minutes of the Bourdain travels last night, and the takoyaki cooking was like magic!! It seemed to be a great square pancake spread out on the pan with layers of minced bits scattered over. I could not imagine how that liquid, solid mass would shape itself into the round golden balls they were eating.

And then, all of a sudden, with four pairs of chopsticks dabbing and pinching and arranging, there they were, and just beautiful. Like a more sophisticated version of everybody round the hotpot. I'm looking forward to watching the whole two hours tomorrow.

And I loved all the octopi logos and toys and demos nodding and "cooking" in the shop windows. I can see SUCH possibilities. Fried dough with STUFF in it!! Gotta order a pan NOW.

[Sencha]

I saw just a few minutes of the Bourdain travels last night, and the takoyaki cooking was like magic!!    It seemed to be a great square pancake spread out on the pan with layers of minced bits scattered over.  I could not imagine how that liquid, solid mass would shape itself into the round golden balls they were eating.

And then, all of a sudden, with four pairs of chopsticks dabbing and pinching and arranging, there they were, and just beautiful.  Like a more sophisticated version of everybody round the hotpot.  I'm looking forward to watching the whole two hours tomorrow. 

And I loved all the octopi logos and toys and demos nodding and "cooking" in the shop windows.  I can see SUCH possibilities.  Fried dough with STUFF in it!!  Gotta order a pan NOW.

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I happened to catch that show last night too! It was rather interesting to see him give nothing but praise to Japanese cuisine, rather than complain, as I had seen him do a couple times with some other countries (I've only seen his show a few times, and he was rather blunt about things before).

To get back onto the subject of takoyaki though, you're mistaken about the pan they had. The pan, called a takoyaki-ki, is of special design, which has round cup indentations in it, which along with turning the batter when it's cooked enough, forms the balls of takoyaki. It's not surprising to make that mistake, considering how much batter was all over the pan though!

A quick google search came up with the following web page, which has some pics of it being made! Note the pan.

http://www.okinawajoho.net/cooking/pages/kids_takoyaki.html

Watching that last night really gave me a craving for some takoyaki!

[racheld]

To get back onto the subject of takoyaki though, you're mistaken about the pan they had. The pan, called a takoyaki-ki, is of special design, which has round cup indentations in it, which along with turning the batter when it's cooked enough, forms the balls of takoyaki. It's not surprising to make that mistake, considering how much batter was all over the pan though!

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[Sencha]

Yes, I saw the little indentations---my first thought was that it was an ebelskivver pan.  And the artistry of the rolling and the forming!!--that was just magic.  All that batter oozing across the flat part, then corralled into those golden nuggets--yum.  And the pan upthread has that cheery little octopus waving, just like the big one in the shop window on the Bourdain show.

Now I have the craving, for something I've never even tasted.

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Oh! There is a picture upthread! I feel silly for not checking first!

Well, if you get the chance, you should try to make them! They're really rather easy to make, and ever so tasty!

[duckduck]

I have a question about the cheese ones. What type of cheese is commonly used for takoyaki? I suppose just about any cheese would do, but I'm curious what people do actually use.

For chocolate, it's my understanding that you make a ganache and freeze it first and push it down into the batter so it melts slowly and doesn't leak out of your abelskiver (or takoyaki) and burn in the pan.

Edited March 29, 2006 by duckduck (log)

[Hiroyuki]

I have a question about the cheese ones. What type of cheese is commonly used  for takoyaki? I suppose just about any cheese would do, but I'm curious what people do actually use.

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Processed cheese. I think natural cheese is no good because it melts so easily. Has anyone tried natural cheese?