Akashiyaki

[jkonick]

I have heard about this variation on takoyaki and seen pictures, but I haven't been able to find a recipe. I think it has more eggs in it than takoyaki? Does anyone have a recipe, or a rought estimation of one?

[Hiroyuki]

I once tried to make akashiyaki (also known as tamagoyaki), but I gave it up because it requires a special ingredient called jinko (wheat starch), which is essential for giving it a soft texture.

Anyway, here is one recipe in Japanese.

I'm a little busy right now, so I'll provide a rough translation of the ingredients only now.

Ingredients:

25 g flour

10 g jinko*

1 egg

250 cc dashi

octopus

*If jinko is not available:

35 to 45 g flour

1 egg

250 cc dashi

octopus

Dashi ingredients:

500 cc water

4 to 8 g kombu

3 to 4 g katsuo bushi

Suger

Soy sauce

If you want to use make dashi from instant dashi powder:

300 cc water

2 to 3 g instant dashi powder

Soy sauce

*Shimaya's dashi powder is no good because it gets scorched; Ajinomoto's Hondashi is better.

[jkonick]

Hiroyuki: thanks for the recipe! I will have to search for some jinko flour. I tried it with regular flour and it turned out pretty well, although I don't really have anything to compare it to other than regular takoyaki. I do like the dashi dip though, it almost reminds me of a Japanese version of matzo ball soup!

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki: thanks for the recipe! I will have to search for some jinko flour. I tried it with regular flour and it turned out pretty well, although I don't really have anything to compare it to other than regular takoyaki. I do like the dashi dip though, it almost reminds me of a Japanese version of matzo ball soup!

←

Do you think you can find jinko in your area?

It's hard to come by even in Japan (unless you live in and around Akashi, of course).

I found a recipe for making jinko from wheat flour:

http://www.tohtani.com/akashiyaki.jinko.htm

- Making jinko

Ingredients:

30 g wheat flour

1 tbsp water

Small amount of coarse salt

300 cc dashi

Add water and salt to flour, knead well, let it sit for one hour at room temperature.

In a bowl with dashi in it, rub the dough for 15 minutes (or use a whisk to shorten the time).

About 10 g of rubbery chunk remains. Remove it. Strain the dashi.

Add 20 g wheat flour and 1 egg to the dashi, then you can make akashiyaki.

You can also eat the remaining chunk (gluten), called fu in Japanese.

I have no intention to follow such a time-consuming recipe, and how about you?

[jkonick]

Hiroyuki,

Thank you for the recipe! I actually DO have quite a bit of free time on my hands, and spend a large amount of it cooking Japanese food

So tonight, I decided to try the recipe for jinko. It was not too much fun squeezing the dough in dashi for 10 minutes (I couldn't make it the whole 15), but the result was definitely worth it!

They Akashiyaki were crispy on the outside and had a soft, almost custardlike inside. I think I even prefer these to regular takoyaki!

I'll have to look for jinko at Uwajimaya, which is a large Japanese grocery store in Seattle. They carry a lot of otherwise hard-to-find products there. If not, maybe I can find some non-Japanese wheat starch to use as a substitute.

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki,

Thank you for the recipe! I actually DO have quite a bit of free time on my hands, and spend a large amount of it cooking Japanese food 

So tonight, I decided to try the recipe for jinko. It was not too much fun squeezing the dough in dashi for 10 minutes (I couldn't make it the whole 15), but the result was definitely worth it!

They Akashiyaki were crispy on the outside and had a soft, almost custardlike inside. I think I even prefer these to regular takoyaki!

I'll have to look for jinko at Uwajimaya, which is a large Japanese grocery store in Seattle. They carry a lot of otherwise hard-to-find products there. If not, maybe I can find some non-Japanese wheat starch to use as a substitute.

←

You must be the first non-Japanese that has ever tried that recipe!

Hope you find real jinko or a good substitute. They say that cornstarch and potato starch are not suitable for akashiyaki and that what's good about jinko is that it won't harden when heated.

[Cheeko]

Is it possible that jinko is the same as the wheat starch they use to make some of the Chinese dim sum items like har gao? I'm guessing that it probably is very similar, just doesn't have the dashi influence??

[Hiroyuki]

Is it possible that jinko is the same as the wheat starch they use to make some of the Chinese dim sum items like har gao?  I'm guessing that it probably is very similar, just doesn't have the dashi influence??

←

Ah, you are right! Another name for jinko is ukiko (浮き粉), which is used to make translucent gyoza skins, etc. Thanks for your comments, detective Cheeko!