Japanese Pork Pancakes

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き

I made these for my family last night and they were very well received. The name means "my favourite taste" so you can pretty much add or omit anything (aside from the basic batter and cabbage). 

I doubled the recipe (meant for four people) for my big eaters, cooked about 600g of separate veggies, and had only two pancakes and no veggies left over! This recipe was given to me by a Japanese friend.

An Australian friend asked for the recipe. So here it is. 

Batter

¼ medium cabbage (about 200-300g)

1 egg

2 Australian cups plain flour (2 ½ cups if you're using Japanese or American sized cups)

400ml water (Japanese people use dashi)

300g thinly sliced pork (you could use prawns or squid or some other meat if you wish)

70g grated potatoes (Japanese people use tororoimo)

chopped shallots

1. Cut up cabbage, shallots, and grated potato/tororoimo. Add all the ingredients except pork. 

2. Heat the pan and add a little oil. Put meat in first, cover with batter (don't make them too big or too thick). Fry over medium heat. 

3. Turn it over and cook the other side.  

Sauce

In Japan you can buy Okonomiyaki sauce, but here is an approximate recipe if you can't get that. 

30ml tomato sauce

15ml Worcestershire sauce

7.5ml sugar

To serve, top with mayonnaise and sauce. The Japanese way is to add ginger pickles and spring onion too. It is also common to garnish with bonito flakes (which wiggle from the heat of the pancakes, giving and interesting alive look to the whole dish). We just used sauce and mayo, so I guess it was a little Western flavoured.