cook: okonomiyaki

When I was at the Japanese dollar store looking for containers and cups to make more plaster molds, I also bought food stuff like a box of okonomiyaki. I had bought another small head of cabbage and a bunch of scallions, and I'd leftover bean sprouts from my Vietnamese meatball noodle bowls. I knew I wanted to add chopped purple cabbage and julienned carrots for even more color in my Japanese savory pancake. But what to do for protein? I debated going to the Japanese grocery store down the street from me to buy a jar of oysters and defrosting some shrimp, but then I remembered the pork belly in the refrigerator drawer. Eureka! But I always love a variety of sides in a meal though this okonomiyaki had plenty of vegetables. I had needed to get more bonito flakes and powdered seaweed to sprinkle on the okonomiyaki and ended up also buying frozen tempura shrimp as well as tiny sets of salmon sashimi and California rolls.         

 

Before cooking, I had to put away my new ceramic enamel cast iron Dutch ovens, which that morning I oiled the cast iron edges and put into a 350 degree oven for an hour. I always consider whether I've enough storage room before buying any table or kitchenware. Once I moved the gallon of distilled vinegar into the food cupboard, I had room for the new cocktail shaker and glassware I had bought to host tiny happy hour gatherings or dinner parties for four or six. Patrick had stacked all my stainless steel pots, so I didn't have to move my canning pot. And there was room for my new Dutch ovens! It's little shit like fitting new cookware into my pot drawer that gets me excited about nesting and staying in for the winter.

Back to the okonomiyaki. I know that the next time I make this I won't be resorting to a box and instead I'll use this Food 52 Street Food winner recipe for okonomiyaki by Midge over Ivan Sorkin's basic one. I measured the half cup of water and put out two eggs called for in the recipe on the box, and noticed that the packets of sauce are likely the same as the bottle of Bull Dog or tonkatsu sauce I have in my cupboard. I chopped the green cabbage and scallions and added to the piles of vegetable red cabbage, carrots, and bean sprouts.

 

I knew I wanted the pork belly to be well-cooked and crispy in the okonomiyaki and got that frying on low in my largest nonstick pan, pondering all the while how was I going to flip such a large pancake ...      

...and if there was enough batter to bind a lot of vegetables. Onward, I folded in and kept folding the vegetables in the batter.

The pork belly (and it smelled smoky like bacon) was finally browned, and so I added the whole bowl of vegetable batter on top of the meat and let it fry at medium high to medium heat. I lifted one edge of the pancake and worried that it was almost burning, but no...it was beautifully caramelized and I got that motherfucker flipped! Here's how: I put my round cutting board on top of the frying pan and flipped the pancake on to the board and then slid the pancake, other raw side down on to the pan. I could have actually let the pancake brown even more though below on the picture to the right, it's GBD, and not have any batter leak on to the board and a bit of vegetables spill on to my kitchen floor.

I think I let it keep cooking another 16 to 20 minutes which was how much time was needed for the tempura to cook in the oven according to its package directions. Patrick started asking when's dinner, and so I slid the okonomiyaki back on to the cutting board and sprinkled the powdered seaweed on top (I'll have to remember to sprinkle this green stuff on my Japanese rice bowls).

Next I drizzled beads of Kewpie mayo, but not too much because I didn't want to gross the husband out too much. Next I squeezed out both packets of the semi-sweet fruit and vegetable sauce (which is really Bull Dog and which I figured Patrick would like a lot because tonkatsu sauce tastes to me just like Worcestershire sauce).

Next I sprinkled on a packet of bonito flakes and tried to see if the flakes were waving like I'd seen in restaurants (they did, a little).

 

And dinner is ready.

I still had tempura dipping sauce from the last time I cooked tempura shrimp and squash and sweet potato. Sigh. That would've been good with this meal, but moving on.

 

I'd had eaten okonomiyaki before in restaurants, and maybe I didn't care for my version of it because I wanted more mayo. No matter. I'll reheat leftovers in a nonstick pan and drizzle more mayo mixed with Sriracha. I was still hungry but not wanting any more tempura or okonomiyaki. I served myself sushi. 

It'll probably be some months and maybe even a year before I cook okonomiyaki again, but I'll be eating these leftovers over the work week.