Okonomiyaki- Japanese Savoury Pancake

This my friends, is Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake that usually comes filled with cabbage, green onions, pork or seafood. This is super quick to make at home and while it might require a trip to an Asian supermarket you can make this without the harder to find ingredients and it will still be delicious.

You will need:

Roughly 2 cups of flour Roughly 2 cups of water Japanese or regular chili powder Bonito (dried fish flakes) 1 or 2 eggs Nordic shrimp A head of Chinese cabbage Green onions Sliced pork cutlets 1/2 of Panko Tonkatsu sauce or BBQ sauce Japanese or regular mayo Furikake or seaweed flakes  

 

To start off you mix 2 cups of flour with 1 cup of water or dashi stock (Japanese stock). I actually used chicken stock but plain water is fine.

As you can see it?s not the smoothest dough at this point. Since you?ll be adding a lot of wet ingredients it is better to leave it on the dry side at this point.

Next you add in your shrimp.

The panko. This is actually a substitute for tenkasu which are little fried bits of tempura batter since I couldn't find them.

One head of Chinese cabbage, chopped.

Japanese chili pepper.

For four portions I used 4 thin pork cutlets cut into strips.

At this point you mix everything together. You will need to add more water to get everything to stick; the batter should glue everything together and shouldn?t be too runny. I actually ended up adding a bit too much water and had to add a little more flour.

I cooked this in a crepe pan. If you don?t have one try to use a low sided pan. Cook it on medium and put a lid on it. This helps the inside cook since you want to make sure that your pork is thoroughly cooked.

After 8-10 minutes remove the lid and check the bottom to see if it is browned.

I use the ?cover the pan with a plate and flip method?. I?m always scared I will drop something but it generally works. At this point cut two slits in the pancake and do not cover it so it won?t get soggy. In another 10 minutes it should be done.

The toppings: bonito flakes, furikake, tonkatsu sauce and Japanese mayo. If you can?t find these products just use some BBQ sauce, regular mayo and crumble some seaweed on top.

Layers of toppings.

This is one of my favourite Japanese meals. The toppings really make the meal and it is really filling with the shrimp, pork and cabbage. This would make fun party food with an electric griddle. You could have everyone cook their own pancake and customize them. This recipe make enough to feed an army so you will have plenty of leftovers.