Osaka Style Cabbage Pancakes Okonomiyaki Food

KANSAI-STYLE OKONOMIYAKI

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, nagaimo and water.
• Slowly beat in the okonomiyaki mix until it is well incorporated with the nagaimo/egg mixture. This is your okonomiyaki batter.
• Mix the cabbage, kimchee, green onions and pickled ginger into the okonomiyaki batter. Set aside.
• Heat a large skillet over medium heat and grease lightly with Pam or vegetable oil.
• Fry the pork belly until it is just cooked (do not brown, it will be cooking more later) and set aside.
• Add the 1/2 cup of tenkasu to the okonomiyaki batter.
• Make a large pancake (or two smaller ones) in the skillet with the okonomiyaki batter - you will have to be turning this pancake over at some point, so don't make it so big that you won't be able to flip it.
• Place the cooked pork belly on top of the pancake and push it down a bit (gently) into the batter. Let the pancake cook for about 10 minutes. Keep peeking at the bottom - you want it to brown but not to burn.
• Flip the pancake over and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so until it is browned.
• Place the pancake on a plate and top with okonomi sauce, mayonnaise, and bonito flakes - the heat from the pancake will make the bonito flakes "dance"! It's pretty cool.

OKONOMIYAKI - HIROSHIMA STYLE

Steps:

• Cook the noodles and put aside (usually just have to drop them in boiling water for one minute).
• Mix flour and water/stock in a bowl 'til smooth.
• For one okonomiyaki pancake, heat the hotplate well and spread a ladle of the batter into a thin circle, brown on one side (only takes a minute or two) turn, and move it to side.
• Put two rashers of bacon side by side, cook a few minutes and then turn over. (Have them running across the hotplate rather than up and down as it makes it easier for lifting later).
• Put a handful of shredded cabbage on top of bacon rashers, followed by a handful of bean sprouts.
• Put pancake on top of sprouts/cabbage and press down firmly with the spatula.
• Drop one serve of noodles onto a different part of the hotplate, shape into a circle (about the same size as the pancake) and flatten a little with spatula. Cook for a few minutes.
• Slide a spatula (or two) under the bacon /cabbage /sprout pancake and carefully lift on top of the noodles. (Pretty easy as the two slices of bacon form a solid base.) Tuck any stray bits and pieces back under.
• Break one egg in a cup, add a little water, mix with a fork and then pour onto the hotplate and fry it. Try to keep it in a circle.
• Slide a spatula (or two) under the noodles and carefully lift the whole lot on top of the egg. (Pretty easy as the noodles should have crisped a little to form a solid base.) Again, tuck any stray bits and pieces back under. (So far so good, and no flipping required yet!).
• Time to put it on a plate, egg side up. Either flip it over with a spatula or two or do it my sneaky way - slide spatula(s) under the egg and lift the whole lot onto a plate, without flipping. Put a second plate upside down over the whole lot, hold them together tightly and then just turn the two plates over quickly so that the okonomiyaki is sitting egg side up on the second plate. Easy.
• Combine the barbecue sauce, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce together and spread thinly over the egg, or adopt the Osaka style of squeezing the mayonnaise and barbecue sauce out of squeeze bottles in a criss-cross pattern across the egg. Garnish with some chopped spring onions if you like.