Easy Okonomiyaki Recipe To Make At Home

Many cultures around the world have different street foods. Today, you have to learn the okonomiyaki recipe.

The Americans have hotdogs while in Japan, there is a popular street food called okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake commonly sold as street food. The key ingredients in okonomiyaki are wheat flour batter and cabbage. Therefore if your okonomiyaki does not have these, it’s not really authentic. This Japanese pancake okonomiyaki is made with pork belly as a filling. However, if you don’t eat pork you can replace this with any filling of your choice for example shredded chicken breast or ground beef.

 

Ingredients for the Okonomiyaki recipe

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon each of salt, sugar, and baking powder
• 2-3 inches Nagaimo (This is a Chinese yam also commonly eaten in Japan)
• ¾ cup of dashi (Dashi is a Japanese soup stock)
• 1½ tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 4 tablespoons of ketchup
• 3 ½ tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce 
• 8-9 cups of chopped cabbage
• ¼ kg of sliced pork belly
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup tenkasu (These are crumbs of a deep-fried batter) 

Garnishing Ingredients

• ¼ cup of pickled red ginger
• Japanese mayonnaise 
• Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
• Scallions
• Aonori (dried green seaweed powder)

Steps to follow for the Okonomiyaki recipe

In a large bowl, pour 1 cup of all-purpose flour and add ¼ teaspoon each of salt, sugar, and baking powder. Whisk these ingredients very well. 

Peel off the cover of the Nagaimo and grate it in a small bowl. Add the grated nagaimo to the bowl of the flour mixture.

Add ¾ cup of dashi into the mixture.

Whisk until everything is well mixed and cover the bowl with cling film (plastic wrap) and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

 

In another small bowl, mix 1½ tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, and 4 tablespoons of ketchup until the sugar has dissolved. Add 3 ½ tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce to this bowl and whisk. 

Cut a large cabbage and finely chop it into 8-9 cups and set it aside.

Cut ¼ kg of sliced pork belly and set it aside.

Remove the batter from the fridge and add 4 large eggs. Put ½ cup tenkasu and ¼ cup of pickled red ginger into the batter and whisk very well.

 

Add ⅓ of the finely chopped cabbage to the batter and combine them with a spatula. 

It’s Cooking Time

On medium heat, preheat drizzles of vegetable oil on a large frying pan. When the oil has heated up a little, add the first batch of the mixture to the frying pan and form a circular shape. 

 

While it is cooking, add 2-3 pieces of the sliced pork belly on top of the okonomiyaki.

Cover the frying pan and cook for 5 minutes.

 

Flip the okonomiyaki onto the other side that is still uncooked and gently press the okonomiyaki to maintain the circular shape and cook for 5 minutes. Cover the frying pan with a lid during this cooking.  

 

Flip the okonomiyaki one last time and cook for 2 minutes as you keep the frying pan uncovered. 

 

Remove the okonomiyaki and put it on a plate.

Gently brush the okonomiyaki sauce we made earlier onto the okonomiyaki.

Garnishing okonomiyaki

Add Japanese mayonnaise in form of zig-zag lines all over the okonomiyaki to form the beautiful lines you see on the okonomiyaki in Japanese restaurants. However, Japanese mayonnaise is optional. 

Sprinkle Katsuobushi on top of the okonomiyaki and garnish it with a few chopped scallions. 

Lastly, sprinkle some aonori on top of the food and serve it. 

If you have been successful in making the recipe, please send us your okonomiyaki photos and we shall post them on our blog.

If you have enjoyed making this recipe, please check out our delicious tonkatsu recipe.