Okonomiyaki
As close cousins, takoyaki and okonomiyaki are two of the most loved Osakan dishes, both in Osaka and around Japan. They use many of the same ingredients, and can be adapted to played with to create new flavour combinations. This recipe shows my favourite combination of fillings – pork, prawn and shredded cheese – but you can use just about anything. Experiment!
Ingredients
½ a head cabbage, finely chopped (about 500g)
2 tbsp benishouga (red pickled ginger)
½ cup tenkasu (tempura batter bits)
Okonomiyaki batter
2 cups plain flour
½ cup potato flour (or cornflour)
1½ cups bonito stock (see page XX), chicken stock, or water
2 eggs
Fillings
1 cup raw prawn meat, roughly chopped
200g pork belly, skin removed, cut into 1cm pieces
½ cup grated cheese
Toppings
1 cup Otafuku sauce, to serve
½ cup Japanese mayonnaise, to serve
1 cup bonito flakes (katsuoboshi), to serve
2 tbsp aonori, to serve
Method
For the Okonomiyaki batter, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and stand in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.
Mix together the cabbage, tempura and benishouga in a large bowl with the pork and prawns, and mix through the batter. (Alternatively, you can make a few different flavours of okonomiyaki by dividing the cabbage, tenkasu, benishouga and batter mixture equally between 4 bowls and mixing different fillings into each bowl separately.)
Lightly oil a hot teppanyaki plate or large frying pan, scoop one eighth of the mixture onto the pan and gently spread out to a circle of about 15-20cm diameter. Add the cheese on top and top with another eighth of the mixture. Do not press the mixture down. Repeat the process 3 times to create 4 okonomiyaki. (I will often do one okonomiyaki at a time in two separate frying pans, and then repeat that process.) Fry on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes, moulding the cake around the edges to create a circle until the bottom is browned. Flip the okonomiyaki over, press it down firmly and poke a few holes in the top of the pancake to allow steam to escape. Fry for a further 5 minutes until the thick pancake is cooked through, then transfer to a serving plate.
Brush the each pancake liberally with Otafuku sauce and drizzle lots of mayonnaise over the top. Scatter with aonori and bonito flakes and serve.
Tip
- To create an attractive pattern with the mayonnaise, cover the okonomiyaki with Otafuku sauce first, then squeeze the mayonnaise from the bottle in parallel lines about 2cm apart. Draw a chopstick across the top of the okonomiyaki in long strokes 2cm apart, perpendicular to the lines of mayonnaise.
You can find this recipe and more like it in my book, Destination Flavour: People and Places published by Hardie Grant.
Check it out HERE.
Hi there. Can you substitute potato starch for potato flour?
Yes. Both are the same.
Corn flour is made by finely grinding whole corn kernels, whereas cornstarch is made just from the starchy part of corn. As a result, corn flour contains protein, fiber, starch, vitamins, and minerals, whereas cornstarch is mostly carbs.
Adam’s in New Zealand. There “corn flour” is corn starch. You are referring to the Americas masa, ground whole corn, for tortillas and tamales.
Australia not NZ
Adam is an AUSTRALIAN. Cornflour here (and in NZ and UK) is an almost flavorless refined starch derived from either wheat or corn.
Is this recipe for 1 person?
It is not! Me and my wife just tried making this (delicious!!!) and it’s *a lot*!
This looks like a standard size for Okonomiyaki. This can be shared, but if you’re really hungry, can be for 1 person 😉
Sadly this recipe was terrible..no seasonings, and waaay too much flour. I prefer Smitten Kitchen recipe that I’ve used for years, light on the flour, seasoned well. Hope you can refine the recipe Adam.
Tastes just like the okonomiyaki I had in Osaka unlike the Smitten Kitchen recipe which is OK but called Japanese vegetable pancakes because it certainly isn’t okonomiyaki.
You have to be joking. Smitten Kitchen’s recipe has nothing to do with Japanese cooking.
This is far more authentic than the smitten recipe. Personally I like to stick to real Japanese (and other countries’ food) but if you prefer the Americanised version then go for it.
This was DELICIOUS! The addition of the cheese was the game changer. I halved the recipe for 2 adults and a child – making 2 x 20cm ‘pancakes’. Didn’t have dashi, so mixed mirin and water. Didn’t have any fancy toppings – only spring onion, bbq sauce and mayo.Thanks for sharing from your book.
Is the pork raw or precooked ?
After mixing I noticed this is for 4 persons. Probably should mention it above the recipe.
It was a good okonomiyaki. Although I prefer the Hiroshima version, which is less floury.
But, damn, Japanese food is good. Hope to go there soon, again.
This is awesome!! made the size smaller…of course for cooking but the children loves it! CHEEESE idea is a hit–thanks Adam!!
When i mixed the dry and the wet. 1 1/2 cups of dashi was not enough. I had to keep adding dashi till it was a wet consistency.
Yep I found the batter was like porridge. Had to add more liquid to it.
But maybe that’s why I had the problem of it being soggy in the middle while crisp on the outside.