Okonomiyaki お好み焼き

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き or known as Japanese Savoury Pancake is widely available here in Malaysia, I used to have those sold in Jusco. I can't help to be a fan of Japanese food. If I am given a choice of Japanese food or any other local food, Japanese food will be my very first choice.

So, what's Okonomiyaki?
Kansai-or Osaka-style okonomiyaki is the predominant version of the dish, found throughout most of Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated nagaimo (a type of yam), water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally thin pork belly, often mistaken for bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and may be referred to as a "Japanese pizza" or "Osaka soul food".

In Osaka (the largest city in the Kansai region), where this dish is said to have originated, okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are fried on both sides on either a teppan or a pan using metal spatulas that are later used to slice the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include otafuku/okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger (beni shoga).

I will usually give a twist to the recipe to suit my liking. For this round, I have used marinated frozen prawns and sotongs. I even added some lettuce as the toppings. Once I have seen in a Taiwan Travelling Programme to Japan where they visited a famous local Okonomiyaki shop. The batter is first grilled on a teppan, then an egg is added. Lots and lots of cabbage, seaweed flakes, bonito flakes and okonomiyaki sauce are added! When the savoury pancake is served, it's a heapful of ingredient. How tempting it is!


As referred to Wikipedia, this will be the Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki : 

 


When served with a layer of fried noodles (either yakisoba or udon), the resulting dish is called modan-yaki (モダン焼き), the name of which may be derived from the English word "modern" or as a contraction of mori dakusan (盛りだくさん), meaning "a lot" or "piled high" signifying the volume of food from having both yakisoba and udon.

Osaka style Modan-yaki :

My version of Okonomiyaki:

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Savoury Pancake) 

• Cake flour/ Low protein flour -- 200g
• Eggs ( Big ) -- 2
• Water -- 250ml
• Cabbage
• Minced onion
• Minced garlic
• Soya sauce 

Any ingredients of your liking: pork slice, prawns, sotongs, mini octopus  
( it's optional for you to marinate them )
Toppings: Okonomiyaki sauce, Mayonnaise ( advisably to use Kewpie ), Bonito flakes, Lettuce

 Steps:
1. Sift the low protein flour into a bowl.
2. Beat the eggs into the flour with an egg beater and add in the water till you have a smooth batter.
3. Add your choice of ingredients, cabbage and mix well.
4.  Drizzle some oil into a non-stick pan over a low fire.
5. Scoop an adequate amount of batter.
6. When the sides of the batter are cooked, flip the pancake over.
7. Do check if the centre of the batter is thoroughly cooked.
8. Serve with the toppings and sauce. Enjoy!

For the Mandarin version of the recipe, refer here.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki