Thursday, July 28, 2011

As You Like It



Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) has the kanji for "like" and "heat through" (grill, fry, fire up; that kind of thing). It is as to a pancake as an omelet is to a fritata. You make a better, have cut things small, and fry it up. This dish has about a billion recipes online.

I used a cheater method and used *gasp* an instant dough mix. I just didn't know where or how to find the "mountain potato" used to make the dough have the right consistency. Perhaps it's easily found in Japanese markets, but I don't have any locally. Despite being from instant, the resulting fritter was very delicious.

I used previously sauteed onions, katsuo (flaked fish used in lots of Japanese cooking), tenkasu (little bits of deep fried batter), finely shredded cabbage and bacon.

The method is drawing a disc of batter onto something hot and slick (I used my favorite cast iron) and to layer your ingredients with the meat on top and covering with a lid to let it steam cook the top while frying the bottom. The two video tutorials suggested brushing the batter on top of the bacon, but this seemed bothersome (http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifI only have one food brush). Instead, I scooted the okonomiyaki over, drew another disc of batter, and flipped it into the new batter disc. This worked well. While it's still on the griddle, you brush okonomiyaki sauce on top.

I don't have specific okonomiyaki sauce, so I used "Bull Dog" brand "fruit and vegetable sauce, medium sweetness". It's kind of like a Japanese barbeque sauce. Once I plated it, I tried to make an attractive pattern with squeezes of mayonnaise and sprinkled it with sesame seeds.

I wouldn't say that I'm up to "Okonomiyaki no Ucchan"'s standards, but I make a mean okonomiyaki.

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