Homemade Okonomiyaki Using Only a Frying Pan (Osaka-Style)

Many people think okonomiyaki is impossible to make without special flour. Actually, that's wrong. With just flour, cabbage and a few techniques, you can master Japan's ultimate comfort food at home in a frying pan. For a printable version of this recipe, visit my website. Just google okonomiyaki space that you'd find me. Let's start with our batter. In a large mixing bowl, we're sifting 100 grams of cake flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Now, I'm using baking powder instead of the traditional Japanese yam because, let's be honest, it can be tricky to find outside Japan. But if you live in Japan or have access to Japanese yam paste, definitely use that instead for the authentic light and silky texture. Next, we're whisking in 75 grams of cooled dashi along with 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of mirin, 1 teaspoon of milk and 1 egg until just combined. Whether you're using instant dashi, dashi packets or homemade dashi, make sure it's cooled before you add it. Hot dashi is the enemy here because it'll make the gluten develop too quickly, turning your mixture gummy and heavy. Room temperature or chilled, that's what we want. Now, here's something most people might skip. We're covering this bowl and chilling it for at least 30 minutes. An hour is even better. This resting time lets the moisture distribute evenly and gives the gluten network time to chill out. You'll get a thicker, easier to shape okonomiyaki that won't spread all over your pan. While that's resting, let's make our sauce if you want to. Mix 2 tablespoons of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce in a small bowl. Store-bought okonomiyaki sauce works too if you already have one. Also, feel free to tweak the ratios. More honey if you like it sweeter, more soy sauce if you want it saltier. Next, I've got about 150 grams of cabbage leaves. This is undeniably one of the most important ingredients and how you cut it actually matters. We want it roughly yet finely chopped. I start by rolling it up, cutting it into strips and then roughly chopping it in the other direction. Too thin, I'm fine and all that moisture starts leaking out, making your batter watery. We want small but rough pieces so you can actually taste the cabbage without it turning your batter too runny. And ideally, choose spring, green or pointed cabbage varieties. Basically, go for tender or dense. Tough ones like winter cabbages take a long time to soften and will weigh your batter down. Time to bring it all together. This recipe makes 2 small okonomiyaki so divide your rest of the batter into 2 bowls. One goes back in the fridge while we cook the first pancake. Working quickly to keep the cabbage nice and crunchy. Fold in half of your chopped cabbage. Then about 1 tablespoon of tenkasu or fresh plain potato chips if you're in a pinch. And 1 tablespoon of finely diced beni shoga pickled ginger but you can omit it if you don't have it. Then crack in 1 extra egg and stir just until you stop seeing streaks. If you over stir, you're toughening the gluten and knocking out all the precious air. And mix on the other hand, you'll get unstable pockets that collapse fast when you flip. What we want is a light 30 second fold after the egg. Now if you're feeling fancy and don't mind the extra work, you can separate your eggs, beat those whites to soft peaks and then fold them in. I don't usually bother but it does give you the souffle-like texture. Heat up a well-seasoned cast iron over medium-high heat. Add a thin layer of neutral oil and use kitchen paper to spread it into a thin even layer. Pour your batter right into the centre. Use a spatula to shape it into a circle about 14 to 16 centimetres wide and 2 centimetres thick. That's your standard size right there. Pan choice actually matters here. Cast iron retains heat beautifully, searing that crust before the centre overcooks. Nonstick works too but don't crank it too high because they don't love extreme temperatures. Now lay those thin pork belly slices right over the surface. I use about 50 grams for each okonomiyaki. If you can't get your hands on pork belly, streaky bacon works but you'll want to dial back on the sauce a bit to balance out the extra saltiness. When the edges look dry and the bottom is a gorgeous deep golden colour, it's flip time. Slide a wide spatula or two smaller ones if you're not feeling confident under the pancake and flip it in one smooth motion. I must say, I took too long to lay pork slices this time and it's slightly overdone but it's still ok. For troubleshooting like this, check out the link to my detailed blog post in the description below. Turn the heat down to medium-low, pop the lid on and let steam do its magic for 5 minutes. As that meat starts sizzling, the rendered fat is essentially shallow frying the batter, adding incredible smokiness and keeping those slices from curling up while the lid is trapping the steam and helping the centre cook evenly. After 5 minutes, take the lid off to re-crisp the surface and get rid of any excess moisture if there's any. Poke the centre with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, flip it one more time so the pork side is on top. Now, brush on half of that sauce, drizzle with a thin stream of mayo, then bonito flakes and aonori powder right before serving. The heat will make those bonito flakes dance like they're alive and that aonori sea aroma will absolutely pop when you add it last. Slice it into portions and enjoy it while it's piping hot. Just repeat the whole process with that second bowl of batter chilling in your fridge and enjoy your first batch while it cooks. Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description. Okay, let's go over the ingredients one more time and if you're ready to cook, grab the written instructions by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen. There we go, the link to the full recipe is on the screen for you now and if you want to watch more similar videos, don't miss my street food playlist popping up on your screen as well. Thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye!