Okonomiyaki
A Japanese pancake whose name means roughly "grill what you like" — the additions are free, but the ratio is not. Cabbage must clearly outweigh the batter: the batter is only a binder, not a base, and a pancake with more flour comes out heavy and dense. The second thing is never pressing it with the spatula — a compressed pancake loses the air between the layers of cabbage and turns rubbery.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Batter 10 min
- Resting 20 min
- Cooking 25 min
- Sauces 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneMake the batter and rest it
Whisk the flour, starch, salt and sugar with the cold dashi into a smooth batter and leave it 20 minutes. Resting relaxes the gluten and the pancake comes out more tender. The eggs go in later, just before cooking.
Ingredients: 150 g plain flour · 150 ml dashi · 3 pcs eggs · 2 tbsp potato starch · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp sugar
Shred the cabbage as finely as you can
Shred the cabbage into 2-3 mm strips. Thicker pieces will not soften inside the pancake and stick out hard. The quantity looks absurd against the batter — that is correct.
Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage · 4 pcs spring onions · 200 g raw pork belly · 3 tbsp oil
Far more cabbage than batter — the ratio is the recipe.Combine everything just before cooking
Beat the eggs into the batter, fold in the cabbage and spring onion and mix with your hands, lifting from the bottom. Combine only at the last moment — in contact with the salt in the batter the cabbage quickly weeps and thins it.
Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage · 4 pcs spring onions · 200 g raw pork belly · 3 tbsp oil
Shape the pancake and lay on the pork
Heat some of the oil in the pan and spoon a quarter of the mixture into the pan, shaping a round about 2 cm thick. Lay the pork slices on top — they stick to the raw mixture and, once flipped, crisp in their own fat. Cook in batches, one or two pancakes at a time depending on the size of the pan.
Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage · 4 pcs spring onions · 200 g raw pork belly · 3 tbsp oil
Cook covered, without pressing
Cook 7 minutes covered over medium heat. The lid traps steam, which softens the cabbage in the middle. Do not press with the spatula — a compressed pancake loses its air and turns dense.
Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage · 4 pcs spring onions · 200 g raw pork belly · 3 tbsp oil
Covered and unpressed — steam finishes the cabbage.Flip and finish on the pork side
Flip the pancake decisively with two spatulas and cook another 6 minutes, now uncovered, so the pork crisps. Uncovered, because steam would soften the pork instead of browning it. Cook the remaining pancakes the same way — all four take about 25 minutes.
Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage · 4 pcs spring onions · 200 g raw pork belly · 3 tbsp oil
Add the sauces and bonito
Brush the pancake with okonomiyaki sauce, pipe the mayonnaise in thin criss-cross lines and scatter with aonori and bonito flakes. The flakes start waving in the heat — not a special effect, just thin shavings reacting to steam.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp okonomiyaki sauce · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 15 g bonito flakes · 2 tsp aonori
A criss-cross of mayonnaise, then seaweed and bonito.
Before you start
Okonomiyaki sauce from the cupboard
Mix 3 tablespoons of ketchup, 2 of Worcestershire sauce, 1 of soy sauce and 1 of sugar — very close to the original. Bottled sauce is sold at Asian grocers.
The Hiroshima version
Hiroshima layers okonomiyaki instead of mixing it: a crepe, a mountain of cabbage, pork, fried noodles and an egg on top. It is taller and harder to flip, but a separate and equally respected school.
Yamaimo gives lightness
In Japan grated yamaimo (mountain yam) often goes into the batter, making the pancake almost fluffy. The potato starch here partly stands in for it — it won't give the same fluffiness, but the pancake comes out more tender than with flour alone.
