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Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) is a savoury Japanese pancake that is an instant favourite with anyone who eats it. It consists mainly of batter, lots and lots of shredded cabbage, and a multitude of additional ingredients which suits its name perfectly – “grilled as you like it”.
Course Dinner
Cuisine Japanese
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 30 minutes
Total 45 minutes
Yields 4
Author Emi

Ingredients

Batter

  • 1 cup all purpose (AP) flour
  • 1 ½ cup dashi broth or more
  • oil for the griddle

Filling

  • 4 teaspoon katsuobushi 1 tsp per okonomiyaki
  • 4 cups cabbage shredded
  • 1 cup carrots shredded
  • 1 cup bean sprouts optional
  • green onion finely sliced
  • 8 pork belly or bacon thinly sliced, 2 slices per okonomiyaki
  • 2 package yakisoba cooked, ½ package per okonomiyaki
  • 4 tablespoon okonomiyaki sauce 1 Tbs per okonomiyaki
  • 32 cooked shrimp 8 shrimp per okonomiyaki
  • 4 eggs 1 per okonomiyaki

Toppings

  • okonomiyaki sauce
  • Japanese mayo
  • aonori dried green seaweed
  • katsuobushi
  • green onion finely sliced
  • benishoga (pickled red ginger) finely sliced

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot to boil, cook the noodles, drain, and reserve for later use.
  2. To make the batter, mix the flour with the dashi broth. You may need to add or reduce the amount of broth, ideally the batter should be thin but not super runny.
  3. Heat the griddle to medium and oil half of it.
  4. Spread a thin layer of batter (about 7 inches round) on a griddle. Sprinkle about 1 tsp of katsuobushi on top and cook for about 1 minute. (This base layer will act as a “lid” for the okonomiyaki mixture.)
  5. Add ¼ of the shredded cabbage and carrot mixture, a sprinkling of green onions, and layer on 2 strips of pork belly (or bacon). Cook for about 10 minutes, the bottom should be browned and slightly crispy.
  6. Add a little bit of batter over top the cabbage and pork, this will help keep the mixture together when you flip it.
  7. Oil the other half of the griddle, carefully lift up the okonomiyaki, and flip it onto the newly oil area. Sweep any loose cabbage into the okonomiyaki. Press down on the okonomiyaki with your spatula. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for another 10 minutes.
  8. Clean the other half of the griddle with a wet paper towel, make sure not to burn your fingers.
  9. After about 5 minutes (halfway through the cooking of the pancake), oil the other half of the griddle and add ¼ of the noodles to the griddle. Add about 1 Tbs of okonomiyaki sauce to the noodles and stir. (Alternatively you can sprinkle some of the yakisoba packet seasoning that came with the noodles.) Form the noodles into the same size as the okonomiyaki.
  10. Heat the shrimp on the griddle for about 1 minute. The shrimp is already cooked so it doesn’t need to be cooked for a long time. Place the shrimp on top of the noodles.
  11. Carefully lift the okonomiyaki and move it on top of the noodles. Sweep any loose bits back into the okonomiyaki. Press down on the okonomiyaki with your spatula. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  12. Clean the other half of the griddle with a wet paper towel, make sure not to burn your fingers.
  13. Oil the griddle and crack one egg on the griddle. Quickly with your spatula, spread the egg in a circular shape, it should be as big as the okonomiyaki.
  14. Carefully, lift the okonomiyaki on top of the egg. Sweep any loose bits back into the okonomiyaki.
  15. Repeat steps 3 – 14 for the other 3 okonomiyaki.
  16. Serve the okonomiyaki egg side up. Spread a generous amount of okonomiyaki sauce on top, drizzle on Japanese mayo, sprinkle on aonori (if you don’t have any on hand, the yakisoba package will have a packet inside) and katsuobushi. Add a generous amount of green onion and top with benishoga.