Okonomiyaki & Sauces

Hardware

• The traditional method is on a teppanyaki, but a large omelette pan (~12″), or Wok works fine for the home-cook.
• Whisk
• Large mixing bowl
• Squeezie bottle (i.e. FIFO bottle)
• A Sharp Knife 🙂

Ingredients

• 1C okonomiyaki flour
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 C water or dashi
• 2 C Napa cabbage, sliced thin
• 1C green onions, stemmed and topped, sliced thin on the bias
• Four strips of mostly cooked bacon or pork belly (optional)
• 2-3 Chinese sausage, sliced thin (You can substitute thin maple sausage)
• Peanut, refined safflower, or vegetable oil
• 1-2T Ebi Furikake (or some other similar rice seasoning)

Directions

Batter

1. Whisk flour and water together until smooth
2. Then cover and rest in fridge for ~10min or more
3. After the batter has rested, take it out and…
4. Add Furikake
5. Add eggs, mix lightly
6. And cabbage and mix lightly, do not over-mix

Cooking

1. Preheat oiled fry pan to ~400F.
2. Pour batter mix into a circle about 2-3 cm thick.
   • Don’t worry, the cabbage will flatten out a lot as it cooks
3. Add meat items to the top
4. Cook, meat side up, for about 5 minutes or until bottom is golden brown.
5. Flip and Cook for about 5 min or until completely cooked.
   • Golden brown is good, burned is not.
6. Transfer to a plate and top with one or a combination of the following sauces:
   • Mayonnaise, tonkatsu or okonomi sauce, katsuobushi, Japanese mustard… etc.

Sauces & Toppings

Okonomi Sauce

• Ketchup: 3 TBS
• Soy sauce: 1 tsp
• Worcestershire sauce: 1 TBS
• Mix the above together and store up to a month (FIFO bottle recommended)

Tonkatsu Sauce

• Ketchup: 1 TBS
• Oyster sauce: 1.5 tsp
• Worcestershire sauce: 2-3 tsp
• Sugar or honey: according to taste
• Mix the above together and store up to a month (FIFO bottle recommended)

Okonomiyaki Toppings

• Okonomi Sauce
• Mayonnaise (Kewpie is the the name of the Japanese stuff)
• Aonori
• Katsuobushi (aka Bonito)
• Furikake

Notes

There are two main styles of Okonomiyaki...

1. Osaka Style: the ingredients are all mixed into a batter and then grilled.
2. Hiroshima Style: a small crepe-like pancake is grilled and then other ingredients are layered on top. It’s a bit of a hot mess and not as easy to eat.

“Okonomi” means “your way” or “as you like it” so you can add pretty much whatever. This recipe is for Osaka style, which often mixes cooked Udon noodles in their batter, but I usually don’t.

Love, Jimi

This is one of those dishes, that have literally hundreds of variations based on personal preference (okonomi = what you want, yaki = grill) and regional style.

More info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki