Friday, June 06, 2008

Okonomiyaki - お好み焼き

After my short trip to Japan, I couldn't really get the Japanese bug off me.

A brief explanation of what Okonomiyaki is from wikipedia...

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese dish consisting of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" ; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.

And since my fridge didn't have any thing I could not add in "various ingredients". I contemplated to add in chicken drums, but I reckoned that it would be a tad troublesome. I either had to peel the meat off the drums and put it in my pancake or I could just have them separate. Of course, as usual, I chose the easier option - Separate :)

My "cook without an oven" version of okonomiyaki (modified from daintybites)



Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp seasoning (I put in some miscellaneous seasoning, whatever that I had, and I can't even remember what it was)
1 lightly beaten egg
bacon bits (I added this as there was absolutely nothing in my fridge. Not even cabbage)
mayonnaise
okonomiyaki sauce
katsuobushi

Directions
1) Mix the flour, water, salt, seasoning
2) Add the egg, making sure the egg is well mixed into the mixture
3) Add in the bacon bits

* I thought the mixture was a bit too watery and so I added slightly more flour in the process

4) Heat up the pan with oil
5) Pour the mixture in and turn it over after it turns golden brown.
6) When ready to serve, drizzle heaps of okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi and its good to eat!!

I realised that it doesn't really matter what the proportions are, as the okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi is really where all the flavour of the pancake comes from! :)

I prepared a few drums of teriyaki chicken to eat together with the pancake.

R's verdict? Yummy! Can consider adding some ingredients in the pancake the next time round

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