Author: Lucy Seligman

Okonomiyaki: Japanese Savory Pancakes
The Japanese savory pancakes known as okonomiyaki are fun, inexpensive, and make a ﬁlling meal for all seasons. Okonomi means “as you like it,” and being able to mix just about any meat or vegetable you want into a batch of them is a great incentive to clear out your refrigerator. Another of okonomiyaki’s charms is that you can make them right at the dining room table on an electric griddle.

Okonomiyaki ﬁrst became popular in Osaka after the Meiji period (1868-1912) and eventually spread throughout Japan. Osakans also call them yoshokuyaki (Western-style pancakes) since they use ﬂour, an import. Whatever they’re called, okonomiyaki are still an enormous favorite in that city: there are close to 50,000 okonomiyaki restaurants in Osaka alone.

Japanese Savory Pancakes Recipe

After the Meiji period, small candy shops in downtown Tokyo used to have a heated iron plate in front of their shops where children could make their own okonomiyaki (or monjayaki as they’re called in Tokyo).

Up until the early thirties, soy sauce was used as the primary sauce for okonomiyaki. After that, a thick sauce similar to that used on tonkatsu (pork cutlets) became popular. Depending on the region, this sauce can be on the sweetish side (Hiroshima) or have a slightly spicy kick (Osaka). Hiroshima is also a renowned okonomiyaki center. I tasted them for the ﬁrst time there in a small back-alley restaurant during my college days. The generous volume of the Hiroshima pancake exceeds even that of the Osaka variety.
Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki

Lucy Seligman

No ratings yet

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups water
4 pinches each of salt and freshly ground black pepper or to taste
1 tablespoon grated yamaimo mountain yam, optional
13 ounces 37Og cored and shredded green cabbage
Chopped green onions to taste
4 tablespoons katsuobushi dried bonito flakes
4 very thin slices about 7 oz. or 200g of well-marbled pork
Vegetable oil as needed
Garnish:
Okonomiyaki sauce*
4 fried eggs
Beni-shoga pickled red ginger, coarsely chopped and to taste
Additional green onions to taste
Ao-nori green seaweed flakes, optional

Instructions

Prepare the batter first, sifting the flour into a bowl and slowly adding the water, salt, pepper, and yamaimo, whisking well. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the cabbage and other ingredients, including the fried eggs, and set them on the table on serving platters. Preheat the electric skillet or griddle at the table until very hot (at least 400 degrees Fahrenheit). Divide the chilled batter into four bowls and place one in front of each guest. Coat the griddle lightly with the oil. Then have each diner pour in half the batter from his or her bowl and shape it into a round pancake. Place a handful of cabbage on it, then sprinkle with green onions, katsuobushi, and top with the sliced pork. Pour the remaining batter on top. Turn the okonomiyaki over when the bottom starts to turn brown. When the pancake is cooked through, spread a thick layer of sauce over it, place a fried egg on top, and sprinkle generously with more chopped green onions and beni-shoga. Eat immediately.
Note: Other suggested ingredients include cleaned and halved shrimp, pieces of skinned squid, bean sprouts, tiny dried shrimp, ground beef or pork, tenkasu (fried tempura batter crumbs), sliced boneless chicken, cooked udon noodles, and yakisoba (pan-fried soba noodles).
*If okonomiyaki sauce is unavailable, mix equal parts of tonkatsu sauce and ketchup with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, or mix 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce, 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar (or to taste), 1 tablespoon low- sodium soy sauce, and 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Leave a note in the comments section (see below) if you make this dish!

Get FREE Japanese Recipes by Email! Sign Up Now!

Get Lucy’s ebook, “How to Make Traditional Japanese Salad Dressings” FREE when you subscribe.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
Bamboo Shoots: A Kyoto Spring Specialty
Bamboo shoots are often seen as a seasonal treat so it’s worth having recipes on hand to know what you’re going to make should you come into fresh shoots. (Don’t forget to check out my other equally popular bamboo shoots recipe too Bamboo Shoot, Chicken and Fried Tofu Mixed Rice Japanese Recipe.)

Boiled Bamboo Shoots Recipe

“Kye no kidaore Osaka no kuidaore.” If we’re to believe this old adage, the people of Kyoto go bankrupt because of their love of fine clothes, while Osakans spend all their money on food. The saying also implies in passing that Kyoto’s cuisine is less than spectacular – an assessment that clashes with all my dining experiences in the city.

Kyoto, after all, was the capital of Japan for 1,000 years. Along the way it developed a rich array of culinary offerings, including yusoku ryori (“imperial food”) and a singular vegetarian cuisine called shojin ryori that was a mainstay at the city’s Buddhist temples. Kyoto was also the center of the tea ceremony, so we can credit the genesis of dishes for tea ceremonies – known as kaiseki ryori – to the city as well.

By the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867) the lower classes in Kyoto were better off financially and could afford to vary their diets as the upper classes did. The special dishes served to high society became the inspiration for obanzai, the Kanzai style of home cooking.

We can trace the term obanzai to a book entitled Nenju banzairoku, published in 1849. Ban here means “poor” or “unsophisticated”; for example, a low-quality green tea is called bancha. Banzai came to mean poor-quality side dishes in Kyoto. Perhaps to compensate for this, the ordinary people of Kyoto commonly celebrated many yearly occasions and events with better-quality dishes. For example, on the first day of the month, they would eat herring with kelp and red beans mixed into rice. Every day that had the number eight in it, for instance, would be feted with something special like seaweed with fried bean curd. On the fifteenth of each month, beans and rice with potato and dried cod would be eaten, and so on.

Takenoko no kakani

In the spring, freshly dug-up bamboo shoots are sold everywhere in Kyoto, and remain a special seasonal treat. For the following obanzai dish, precooked or canned bamboo is an acceptable replacement if fresh bamboo is unavailable.
Takenoko no kakani (Boiled Bamboo Shoots with Dried Bonito Flakes)

Lucy Seligman

No ratings yet

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

A 4-inch 10cm square of konbu (kelp), wiped with a damp cloth and lightly slashed to release its flavor
18 ounces 500g takenoko (bamboo shoots), boiled* and cut in half lengthwise, then into thick, half-moon slices
2 ¼ cups water
1/3 ounce 10g katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
2 tablespoons mirin sweet rice wine
1 to 2 tablespoons white sugar or to taste
3 tablespoons soy sauce

Instructions

Place the kelp, prepared bamboo shoots, water, and dried bonito flakes in a deep saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add the mirin and sugar, and continue to coil over medium-high heat a further five minutes. Next, add the soy sauce and continue to boil until the liquid has reduced to half – approximately eight minutes.
To serve, place the bamboo shoots and remaining liquid in a decorative serving bowl. Sprinkle with either additional dried bonito flakes, a few sprigs of kinome, or both. Serve hot or at room temperature.
*If using canned or precooked peeled bamboo shoots, drain and rinse them thoroughly in cold water before preparation. If the shoots are fresh, cut off the hard bottom part and boil them in their husks – water left over from washing rice or rice bran is best for this – with a dried red pepper for about one and a half hours to remove bitterness. Let cool, then peel off the husks. Wash well in cold water and continue with preparation.

Notes
Garnish: Additional dried bonito flakes to taste, sprigs of kinome (Japanese prickly ash) or both

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Leave a note in the comments section (see below) if you make this dish!

Get FREE Japanese Recipes by Email! Sign Up Now!

Get Lucy’s ebook, “How to Make Traditional Japanese Salad Dressings” FREE when you subscribe.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.