Okonomiyaki Recipe

[soc_puppet]

Okay, posting the Okonomiyaki recipe I used for ysabet Keep in mind that my cooking skills are passable, but not the best, and that I substituted a whole lot of stuff in here ^^; So take this recipe with a grain of salt... but not literally.
Taken from the AnimeIowa Otaku Cookbook. (I remain skeptical of the recipe -_-)

Ingredients:
1/2 large head cabbage
8 raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 lb squid
2c flour
1/2 t baking soda
4 pinches salt (o_O?)
2T vegetable oil
10 oz pork, thinly sliced
2T finely chopped red vinegared ginger
Hot yellow mustard
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Dried bonito powder or flakes
green seaweed flakes

(Note: I made do without the cabbage, shrimp, squid, and pretty much anything after the Vegie Oil ^^; and the cabbage, shrimp, squid and pork are all toppings that (I think) you can exchange for other toppings for the as-you-like-it way.)

Chop the cabbage coarsely. Cut the shrimp in half lengthwise. Cut the squid into 1/4 x 1/4 x 1 1/2 inch spears. Divide all the ingredients into 4 portions and mix to make 4 seperate bowls* of cake batter; combine 1/2 cup flour, 1/4c water**, baking powder*** and a pinch of salt in a bowl and the mix in the finely chopped cabbage. Add an egg and mix well. Finally, add the squid and the shrimp, and mix again. Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with vegetable oil# and saute one quarter of the pork over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, pour 1 bowl of batter in over the pork and shape it into a round pancake about 1 inch thick and 8 inches in diameter. Top with the red vinegared ginger and cook until the bottom begins to brown--the center should be still somewhat loose. Turn and brown the other side. When cooked through, brush on a generous amoung of oknonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise and sprinkle with bonito and green seaweed. Transfer to a plate and serve with mustard. Make 3 more cakes, serving each as soon as it is done.

* I only used one fourth of pretty much anything in here, as I was only making one for myself ^^; and skipped the 'divide into 4 seperate bowls' thing. Anyway, this seems quite useful to do if one member of your party is, say, allergic to shellfish or is a vegetarian or something. (My mom's both ^_^;)
** Okay, here's where I may have screwed up royally ^_^; When I poured the 1/4c water into the dry ingredients and tried to mix it, it kinda turned into a paste ^^; So I ended up using another quarter cup of water. It was much thinner then, though it was still lumpy -_- I don't know if it was a mistake on my part or on the part of the recipe, though, so I'd advise maybe looking through a few recipes online before making a final decision.
*** I know it only says 1/2t baking soda for the whole recipe up there. It does in the book, which is why I typed it up that way ^^; I ended up using the 1/2t of baking soda in my single-serving mix, because that was the only way I could make sense of the recipe. Again, I warn you, I probably don't know what I'm doing.
# Only used 1/2T vegie oil for my pan. Didn't have any idea whether it was 2T of vegie oil per Okonomiyaki or not ^^; Also, I went ahead and used an 8 inch pan for this. It seemed to do the trick, and that way I didn't have to worry about shaping it into a circle of roughly the right size or anything. 'Course, for all I know, the irregular shape is the heart and soul of Okonomiyaki or something... And yes, it really is supposed to be that thick.

That's all there is, really. I used finely chopped leftover chicken and cooked ramen noodles in mine ^^; and topped it with hoisin sauce :D (yum!). It probably could've used some carrot or something, but we only had the big kind, and I didn't want to only use a little bit of carrot and put the rest back in the 'fridge.

Will be going mushroom hunting later on today ^_^v Will be taking along a trowel, too, in case we see any more of those orchids growing up in them thar hills ^_^ We tried to get one last year, but I don't think it made it ;_; (God, I hope it wasn't/isn't endangered or something >_>...)

Oh yeah, and my Bojutsu test went really well ^___^ *happy*

Comments

[summercloud.livejournal.com]

I've made okonomiyaki a few times at camp with a group of kids, as well as for a house of college students. Basically I make a simple batter of flour/water/egg, add scallions and cabbage, and cook. I make okonomiyaki sauce out of ketchup, soy sauce/worchestire sauce, and mustard (just a little!) and also eat it with mayonaise. Yum.

Also good is homemade sushi: carrots, cucs, avocado, roll it yourself with sushi rice. More yum.