VEGETARIAN OKONOMIYAKI
“Grilled things you like”, these Japanese pancakes are a fantastic way to use up left over vegetables and make a super quick dinner. They’re also ridiculously tasty.
Lunch tip: These reheat brilliantly on a sandwich press. Just cook the full batch at home, wrap any extras in foil to keep together and then reheat/crisp up when you get to work using that trusty sandwich press.
Makes 4 small or 2 large
Ingredients
1 cup flour – usually spelt or buckwheat
1 cup dashi/water/stock (if using water add a tsp each of soy and sake)
1 egg
1/4 cabbage
1 small carrot, grated
1/4 cup spring onions finely sliced
1 tsp finely chopped chilli
1 Tbs finely chopped coriander stalks
1/2 tsp ginger, freshly grated
1 Tbs oil (rice bran works well)
ACCOMPANIMENT:
Kewpie mayo
okonomiyaki sauce/ kecap manis/ mushroom soy
4 Tbs coriander leaves
4 tsp spring onion finely sliced
1/2 red chilli, finely sliced
pickled ginger or finely sliced radish (12 small slices of either)
1. Mix flour and liquid together until smooth. Finely slice/ shred your cabbage and add this to the batter along with the carrot, spring onion, coriander stalks, ginger, egg and chilli. Mix well to combine.
1.Using a small frypan, ideally 15cm, pour in half the oil and put on a high to medium heat. Once the oil is hot and has spread evenly around the pan, add 1/4 (if you’re making bigger ones add 1/2!) of the vegetable mixture or enough to cover the base of the fry pan. You only want the pancake to be about 1-1.5cm thick so spread the mixture out until the base is covered. Press down using a spatula to make sure everything sticks together. Cook on this side for 3-4 minutes and then flip with the help of the spatula. NOTE: It should stay together. If it isn’t, press down firmly again and cook for another minute. It should be golden when you flip it. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes on this side and then slide on to a plate. Repeat with the remaining mixture until you have 4 pancakes. Add the rest of the oil before the 3rd pancake if you think you need it.
To serve:
Drizzle the okonomiyaki sauce(thick sweet soy – try miso? in a a zigzag across the pancake. Follow with the kewpie mayo (try sauerkraat?) trying to get in the spaces left from the sauce zig zag. Top with spring onion, coriander, chilli and the pickled ginger or radish. Dig in.