Ray and I had a lot of leftover homemade yakitori after New Year’s Day, and I’d been wanting to try making okonomiyaki, so we went for it. Unfortunately most of the recipes I found wanted some sort of special grated yam that I didn’t have and was too lazy to track down. Fortunately I found a Westernized adaptation that didn’t require yam, but the adaptation looked like it would have issues (based on my experience with making crepes), so I adapted it further.
First, what is okonomiyaki? It’s a savory crepe with leftovers in the middle, which is so tasty that people figured out how to make fancier versions of it. This is not the fancy version. This is Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, sorta, if you know what that means.
Most Western explanations of what an okonomiyaki is will call it a savory pancake, which isn’t wrong, but the batter is super thin, so I find it easier to think of it as a crepe–but it’s not really a crepe or a pancake.
This is a Westernized version of the dish that includes only what I had available in my kitchen. I have a lot of sauces, but I don’t have a lot of grated yam lying around, so I adapted. In an authentic Japanese recipe for okonomiyaki, you’d see grated yam added to the crepe batter; I replaced it with baking powder, since the yam is supposed to add “fluffiness,” and so does baking powder.
This concludes my lengthy pre-recipe preamble. Let’s get to it.
Ingredients
Makes 2 okonomiyaki.
Crepe ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 c. chicken broth (extra salty)
1 Tbs. hoisin sauce
1 Tbs. soy sauce
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. corn starch
2 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
Ingredients notes: use the good soy sauce for this if you have some.
Filling ingredients:
2 c. of yakitori
OR
2 c. of other starchy+veggies+protein savory leftovers (like fried rice), a bit on the dry side if possible
OR
5 c. shredded cabbage
1/2 c. cooked protein (chicken, shrimp, tofu, etc.)
1 pkg cooked ramen
Optional green stuff:
1/4 c. sliced green onions
1/4 c. sliced jalapeno
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
Cooking ingredient:
Vegetable oil, 2 Tbs. or so for the pan
Use a slope-sided saute pan, the kind you’d use to make crepes in.
Optional sauces for serving:
Hoisin
Black vinegar
Toasted sesame oil
Sriracha mayo (mayo with sriracha and a pinch of sugar)
Soy sauce
Steps
1. Make the batter.
Beat the eggs, broth, hoisin, oil, and soy sauce together. In a separate container, whisk to blend flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Whisk wet and dry ingredients until the lumps are mostly broken up. (Alternately, you can dump those ingredients in a blender and buzz them smooth for a few seconds.)
The batter will be very thin.
2. Heat the pan.
Add the oil to the pan and heat to medium high, or about the same level of heat you’d use to make a crepe or toast a grilled cheese sandwich.
3. Add 1/4 of batter to pan and swirl around to coat about a six-inch circle.
4. Add filling.
Add about half the filling and scatter with the optional green stuff, if using.
5. Add an equal amount of batter on top of the leftovers (1/3 of remaining batter).
The batter will sink in and may run off along the sides. This is fine.
6. Cook the first side until brown and toasty, like a crepe or like a good grilled-cheese sandwich.
7. Using a large spatula, flip the okonomiyaki.
I have not yet mastered this process. Fortunately this is not a dish dependent on the perfection of its appearance.
9. It’s done when both sides are toasty and the middle is cooked through.
To serve
Using a pizza cutter, cut in quarters, the purpose being to make sure there’s no long bits of veggies or meat that will drag all the way through the filling and make a sloppy mess of things.
Drizzle with sauces.
I served these hot but they’re probably really good cold, too.