If you are tired of the usual dishes that have already filled your teeth, we recommend that you diversify your diet with an unusual dish called okonomiyaki. As you understand, it comes from traditional Japanese cuisine. The okonomiyaki recipe for cooking at home is completely uncomplicated and quite simple. But before we list the necessary ingredients and talk about how this overseas miracle of cooking is being prepared, we will understand what okonomiyaki is.
Japanese pizza
In fact, okonomiyaki is a Japanese "pizza", fried flat cakes with various fillings. True, it is not prepared in the same way as the Italian yummy familiar to us. From Japanese "okonomiyaki" translates something like this: "fry what you want / love." This gives great scope for imagination.
In the restaurants of the Land of the Rising Sun, these cakes are fried on special stoves (teppan). These flat metal plates are usually mounted directly on the table at which visitors sit. Visitors choose a filling, and the cook prepares an order right before their eyes. There is a cafe where people can make okonomiyaki on their own, like Asian "samovars" with boiling broth and many ingredients in individual bowls.
This dish is quite popular in Japan and is affordable fast food, as we have the ubiquitous shawarma.
What is a
Traditionally, a tortilla consists of water, eggs, flour and cabbage (sometimes also noodles). When it is browned on a teppan in the form of a pancake (fried on both sides), okonomiyaki are greased with a special condensed soy sauce and sprinkled with shavings or powder from dried tuna and seaweed.
A dish came from the Chugoku and Kinki regions. With the spread throughout the country, the traditional okonomiyaki recipe has become overgrown with various variations, depending on which food is popular in a particular province.
Cooking okonomiyaki at home
Okonomiyaki's recipe is quite simple, and the necessary ingredients can be bought at any nearby store. It is unlikely that you have teppan at home, but this is not critical. You can cook Japanese pizza without this plate. For this, you just need a flat cast-iron frying pan or an ordinary crepe maker. So, there are cooking options in the oven when okonomiyaki is baked like an open cabbage pie, but more on that later.
We will need
To prepare an adapted version of the Japanese "pizza" for a more, so to speak, Western okonomiyaki recipe, you must:
- One chicken egg.
- 200 grams of squid meat.
- 200 grams of fresh white cabbage.
- A small onion.
- 200 grams of egg noodles.
- Glass of water.
- Shrimp
- Three tablespoons of wheat flour.
- 100 grams of ham.
- 50 grams of hard cheese (any grade will do).
Getting started cooking
A step-by-step recipe for okonomiyaki with a photo will help you quickly navigate the cooking process and get an excellent result.
You should start with the preparation of seafood. Sprinkle squid carcass with boiling water, peel and cook in boiling salted water for no more than two minutes, so that the meat does not become hard and "rubber". Cut it into small strips. Then cook the shrimp and clear them of the shells. Choose the size and quantity of these mollusks yourself, depending on what you prefer.
Boil the egg noodles until cooked, and then cut it into several parts so that it is not too long. We shred the cabbage, cut the onion into small cubes, and the ham into small strips.
In a large roomy bowl, spread the noodles, squid meat, shrimp, cabbage and onions. Salt and pepper to taste, then mix thoroughly. Cabbage can give more juice than necessary, so it can be prudently drained.
In another cup, beat the egg with water, and it needs to be poured in about 2/3 cups. Gradually introduce the flour and mix until the dough turns out uniformly thick. After that, combine it with the ingredients from the first bowl and mix thoroughly.
We spread the resulting mixture in a portioned portion on a hot frying pan, leveling it to the same size with a spatula. Do not forget to put the ham on top, then fry on both sides until fully cooked (as in the photo). When served, okonomiyaki are sprinkled with grated cheese and fresh chopped herbs. As you can see, the okonomiyaki Japanese pizza recipe is really unpretentious.
Classic recipe
If you manage to get chips or powder from dried tuna, as well as seaweed, then you can cook a classic Japanese "pizza". Reviews about the recipe okonomiyaki with tuna people leave the most diverse. But many find it special and authentic.
For this, nothing but cabbage is added to the dough. Pancakes are fried on both sides until tender, and then smeared with a specially thickened soy sauce. To make it like this, you just need to add starch to it until its consistency resembles melted chocolate. And then sprinkle with chips or powder.
Okonomiyaki in the oven
Okonomiyaki does not have to be fried at all, this Japanese pizza can also be baked in the oven. Then we get a kind of open cabbage pie. Mushrooms, chicken and bell pepper as an additive are ideal for this.
Dry white mushrooms are needed, they should be soaked. When they get wet, drain the water, leaving a glass - it will come in handy for the dough, the taste of which will turn out mushroom.
Finely chop cabbage, mushrooms, chicken and bell peppers. In a large bowl, mix the egg with flour and mushroom juice, where we add cabbage and a spoonful of soy sauce.
Now let's get into the filling. In a hot frying pan for five minutes, fry the mushrooms, chicken and pepper, after which we spread it on a greased baking sheet in the form of a square, leveling it with a spatula. On top we form a layer of cabbage dough and send the "pizza" to the oven for thirty minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees. Thirty minutes later we take out okonomiyaki and divide with a spatula into 8-9 portioned pieces, each of which is carefully turned over and again sent to the oven for half an hour. Serve this version of okonomiyaki with soy sauce, mayonnaise and fresh herbs.
We hope that you like Okonomiyaki recipe with photos, and this dish will take its rightful place in your everyday home menu.