Japanese Pancakes
Ingredients
- Plain flour (405 Weizen Mehl) - 100g
- baking powder - 3/4 teaspoon
- water - 160ml
- eggs - 2
- white cabbage - 300g
- spring onions - 2
- pickled ginger - 2 tablespoons
- Optional Extras
- bacon slices - to cover top
- raw prawns - handful
- Sauce
- bbq sauce - 2 tablespoons
- tomato ketcup - 2 tablespoons
- teriyaki sauce - 2 teaspoons
- To serve
- mayonnaise - drizzle
- bonito flakes - sprinkling
- dried seaweed - sprinkling
Instructions
- Start by making the pancake batter. In a large bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Make a hole in the middle of the flour.
- In a jug beat the eggs and mix together with the water.
- Gradually add the liquid into the flour stirring gently, continue adding the liquid and stirring gently until you have an almost smooth batter.
- Slice the cabbage into thin strips. Slice the spring onions. Finely chop the pickled ginger. Chop the prawns into small pieces (I used defrosted frozen prawns). Add all of these into the batter and mix.
- On a medium heat warm up a large frying pan with a little oil in it.
- Add the mixture to the pan and flatten in down till it has an even layer. Add the bacon strips, if using, to the top of the pancake and cover with a lid. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the bottom of the pancake is golden brown.
- Make up the sauce by mixing together the BBQ sauce, ketchup and teriyaki sauce.
- Flip the pancake over. I used a large chopping board to do this. Flipping the pancake onto the board, adding some more oil into the pan and then slipping uncooked side back into the pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the bottom of the pancake is golden brown. Remove from the heat, I used the chopping board again to do this.
- To serve cut into pieces. Serves a greedy 2 people or a less hungry 3. Drizzle with the homemade sauce and mayonnaise. Sprinkle with bonito flakes and dried seaweed.
We went on a great trip to Japan this Christmas. Tom and I tried a traditional version of Japanese Pancakes at the street food market at the Inari Shrine in Kyoto (First picture). The Japanese name for these is Okonomiyaki. The picture below shows how the professionals make them on a large griddle. Don’t be worried about the masks a lot of Japanese people wear them if they have a slight cold or are worried about getting one. We saw them being made in most street food markets and they are really tasty. We weren’t really sure what was in them but the large queues and the great smell convinced us to try them.
Apparently each region has there own twist on ingredients on what to include in their Japanese pancakes. Cabbage and pickled ginger is a must, and bacon is always good and if you want a surf and turf taste you can add some chopped prawns. Once they are cooked they are sprinkled with dried seaweed and bonito flakes and drizzled with mayonnaise and Okonomi Sauce. I hadn’t heard of Bonito flakes until I had visited Japan. They are dried fish flakes and look a bit like pencil shavings and are used as a seasoning. They are most commonly used in Dashi stock which is the basis for most soups. A Japanese supermarket will definitely sell them, for sprinkling try and get the smaller ones. The packet in the picture was imported from Japan but I have seen then in Dusseldorf around Immermann Strasse. I didn’t have any Okonomi sauce so I mixed together ketchup, barbeque and teriyaki sauce.
I took 1/3 of my pancake into work as a Japanese inspired Bento Box. If you need some further inspiration on great lunch ideas check out my Bento Box page.
Definitely a great alternative to the traditional European or US pancakes give these a try.
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