[30 Day Challenge] Something Fun to Make

Random Observation/Comment #383: “Okonomi” means “whatever you like” and “yaki” means “fried”, so I just fried everything I like. What a great idea.

Recipe: Something fun to make – Okonomiyaki

The only part I followed from the recipe was measuring out the mixture of flour, chicken stock, and eggs. I wanted to make sure to get the texture correct, but everything else was up to whatever I could find at the grocery store that looked good. In this case, I added cabbage, green onions, carrots, jalapeno, salami, and zucchini. I sliced all the vegetables thinly and threw them into a bowl. I fried it on a regular pan and made sure to add some toasted sesame oil and covered. 4 minutes on each side worked well.

Lessons Learned:

• Bring your creativity juices together and add anything you can slice thinly. Experiment with this and make sure the tastes come together. I chose a slightly spicier theme with the salami and jalapeno peppers.
• Be sure to keep he mixture thick and cover the pan when your’e cooking the okonomiyaki. I also would try to make it thicker.
• If you’re making this on a frying pan, you will need to at one point flip it over to the other side. Doing this with a spatula is pretty difficult without breaking, so you’ll need to learn how to flip with the flick of your wrist. If you’re doing it on a flat grill, you can control the size of the okonomiyaki better.
• While cooking, use a squeeze bottle to add more oil if you’re afraid it will stick after flipping. It will definitely steam up the place.

Final Thoughts:

I am pleasantly surprised at how well this turned out. The pancake experiment was quite savory and really delicious. There are so many other things I want to try to throw into this, but next time, I will probably follow the old school Japanese recipe. This whole cooking experiment just made me miss Japan 10 times more than I already do. Anyone up for a trip?

~See Lemons Eat Okonomiyaki