I know many anime fans appreciate Japanese culture and extend that appreciation to include certain Japanese snacks. Does anyone out there cook Japanese food as well as devour the ever-popular Pocky and such? Personally, I love Japanese food. It’s simple, tasty as hell and for the most part, damn good for you.
I think that there’s a mythos and an aura of expensiveness surrounding Japanese cookery that scares people away. Maybe people feel that to prepare Japanese food you need to have time, money, and access to exotic ingredients?
That might hold true for those that live in No-man’s Land (i.e. the midwest), but even in dinky old Carbondale, Illinois we had a decent international grocery store. I got turned onto Japanese food about three years ago after a trip to Chicago where I was introduced to sushi. After that, I got into Japanese food with a vengeance!
Since there’s so much good Japanese food that’s easy for an average Joe to make, I’ve decided to review a few Japanese recipes. I also want to help steer you - the culinary curious reader - in the right direction for ingredients and supplies.
Today I’m reviewing something I recently made: Okonomiyaki (otherwise known as Japanese pizza). This is good stuff if you like truly unusual food. The word ‘okonomiyaki’ translates into two words: okonomi, which means ‘as you like’, and yaki, which means ‘grilled’. Together, you get okonomiyaki: ‘grilled as you like’.
Okonomiyaki is not pizza in the way that Westerners think it. It’s referred to as pizza because you choose the toppings to make it and you cut it into individual slices. There are a variety of toppings you for Okonomiyaki. Some may seem more foreign than others, but all are worth trying once. Here’s the basic recipe for okonomiyaki:
Ingredients
For the ‘pizza crust’:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup fish soup stock (dashi, and if dashi isn’t available use veggie, shrimp, or chicken broth)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 of a small cabbage
Ideas for toppings:
- Thinly sliced pork or beef
- Chicken fillets shredded or sliced thin
- Squid
- Katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes)
- Fresh shrimp
- Imitation crab meat
- Canned tuna
- Salmon
- Sakura-ebi (dried shrimps)
- Beni-shoga (red or pink pickled ginger)
- Egg
- Green onions
- Mushrooms (button ‘shrooms are good but shitake are more “Japanese†if you have access to some)
- Ao-nori (green seaweed)
- Wasabi
- Okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce)
- Any kinda of sauce that will go with your choice of toppings is OK. Some people use BBQ sauce or ketchup
- Mayonnaise (I used Kewpie brand Japanese mayo but any mayo will do)
- Whatever you have around the house that sounds good…
If okonomiyaki sauce is hard to come by, here’s an easy recipe:
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
Preparation
- Chop the cabbage into tiny bits. Beat an egg in a bowl and add dashi soup, stock or water to it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add flour to the bowl and mix well.
- Combine chopped cabbage with the flour mixture.
- Fry meat/squid/shrimps (your choice of toppings) in an electric cooking pan or a frying pan (Don’t put the seaweed, ginger, or sauces in at this time!) Divide the ingredients up into thirds and leave 1/3 of the batch in the pan. Make an 8†circle with the ingredients, which is the size of the pancake crust, in the hot pan.
- Turn the heat to medium heat. Pour about 1/3 of the flour mixture, or 8†circle, over the toppings in the pan. (You could also mix the toppings straight in the mix and cook it that way.) Spread the batter into a circle, if necessary, with the back of a spoon or a spatula.
- Cook for about 10 min and gently flip with a wide spatula or slip two smaller spatulas under pancake and flip with those. Cook on flipped side for 6-8 min or till edges are golden. You really do NOT want to undercook (or overcook) the pancake, so watch it carefully.
- Place cooked okonomiyaki on plate.
- Squirt on however much okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise you like on top of the pan cakes, keeping in mind that both are VERY rich.
- Toss on the nori and bonito flakes if you have em’
- Slice like you would a pizza and enjoy!
When I made this, I cooked the squid for around 6 minutes in a teriyaki sauce until it absorbed enough sauce to color it brown. The teriyaki squid was super-tasty and I also threw in some dried shrimp and fresh green onion topping (to go with the squid). I had these ingredients around the house, so it was a good way to get rid of the little “this and that” - which wouldn’t make full recipes on their own.
To some people, okonomiyaki may sound kinda gross, but I assure you it’s incredibly tasty. I like it because it’s:
- Full of nutrients and vitamins and isn’t loaded with grease and lard
- Inexpensive to make and is a great way to get rid of leftovers
- Fairly simple to make, only taking about an hour and some change to make.
- Gives you a good sense of Japanese flavors and ingredients.
If I had anything bad to say about okonomiyaki, it would be that it’s:
- Difficult to tell when the pancake is done since it’s loaded with all sorts of stuff.
- Might seem daunting to some people because of all the Japanese ingredients that may or may not be easy to get.
- The fact that when you throw on the bonito and seaweed the “pizza†looks like it’s alive and moving…
For those of you who live in rural areas or don’t have access to an international grocery store, I listed the Western alternatives which will do just as well as the Japanese. You can get most of this stuff at the local grocery store. If you live in St. Louis, you can visit any one of the five or so Asian markets in the area to find all of the ingredients I’ve listed.
I usually go to East East in Chesterfield, MO for my one-stop Japanese food needs. It’s a little further away than the other Asian markets in my area, but I find that since they’re is so well stocked and have such a variety, it’s worth it to me to make the drive out there.
I recommend okonomiyaki to anyone who wants to try their hand at Japanese home style cooking or for those of you who have an adventurous streak that you’re itching to indulge.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time: 1 hour and some change
- Ingredient Availability: Easily to Moderately Available
