Not your average pancake

Shortly after completing high school I spent an extended period of time in Japan as an exchange student. While it had its challenges, one of the things I learnt to love about Japan was its food, and especially the street and festival food. Some people may balk at the thought of octopus balls, or cabbage pancake, but if you can open your mind you'll find they are truly delicious.

A number of years back, I was perusing the aisle of an Asian supermarket when I stumbled upon Okonomiyaki sauce. For those who don't know what it is, Okonomiyaki is a savoury pancake traditionally made with meat, shrimp, and cabbage to bulk it out. But Okonomiyaki literally translates to "cooked things you like". Like I said, Okonomiyaki is one of the great street foods of Japan and, finding a bottle of the sauce, I decided I'd have a crack at making some for myself. I experimented and varied the recipe a little over time, but I've got it down to what I think is a pretty good dinner pancake. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Okonomiyaki

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs, lightly beaten

500 ml dashi*

2 cups savoy cabbage, finely shredded

2 shallots, finely chopped

300g chicken or pork mince**

Salt and pepper to taste

Okonomiyaki sauce

Japanese mayonnaise

Method

1. Heat a non-stick frypan over a high heat, add a splash of oil and cook your mince, breaking it up as you go. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl, then season with the salt and pepper. Add the eggs and dashi, whisk until a smooth batter has formed, and fold in the shallots, mince, and cabbage.
3. Place your non-stick frypan on a medium-high heat and add a little oil. I'll usually only use 1/2 to 1 tsp. Once the frypan has come to temperature, ladle in around 1/3 cup of the batter and spread until the pancake is about 1cm thick.
4. Cook for around 4 minutes on each side, then transfer to a plate in a low temperature oven to keep warm. Repeat for the rest of the pancakes.
5. To serve, cross-hatch the pancake with okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. If you want to go all out, top with some bonito flakes and shredded nori seaweed.

Notes

*Dashi is a Japanese stock made from bonito and kelp and has a uniquely Japanese flavour. The easiest way to get dashi nowadays is to use powdered or granulated dashi. For those of you in Australia, I get powdered dashi from the Asian foods aisle at my local Coles supermarket. It should be labelled as dashi or bonito soup stock. A 5g sachet is enough to dissolve into 500ml of hot water. 

If you can't find dashi, water will work just as well. Likewise, Coles usually stock Kewpie brand mayonnaise in the same aisle.

Okonomiyaki sauce can be more difficult to come across, and I've only ever found it in one or two specialty Asian supermarkets. If you find it, remember where you got it from, because you'll definitely need to go back to buy more of this delicious sauce when you run out. If you can't find it, you can substitute Tonkatsu sauce, or failing that, mix 3 parts BBQ sauce with 1 part Worcestershire sauce.

**Okonomiyaki translates as "things you like, cooked" so feel free to add other ingredients as you like. It's a great way to use up left-over meat, and once you've got the base ingredients in the pantry it's super cheap to make. I decided to make Okonomiyaki this week as I had left-over cabbage and BBQ chicken after having Chicken with Summer Slaw the other night.

Sergeant Slaw-ter

What-ho, interwebs! It's been a long time between drinks, figuratively speaking ;-), but I yet live and continue on my regular culinary adventures and mis-adventures. I've not published here for a while because, to be honest, nothing I was cooking was so uniquely out there that I couldn't remember what I'd tweaked by looking at the original recipe I'd worked from. But I do now have a recipe which was put together from my own thoughts and experimentation that I'd like to share.

Now, I'll let you in on a little secret. I've never liked coleslaw. It's just not been a thing that I did. But a couple of weeks ago we were hosting our first BBQ of the season, where we invite a bunch of friends over with the idea that they bring some meat for themselves, and we'll provide snacks and sides. Not wanting to redo the standard everyday garden salad, I started hunting for alternative ideas. Now like I said, I've never liked coleslaw, but after seeing recipes for a couple of alternative coleslaws I thought "What if I make a coleslaw with flavours that I like?" and so I set about looking at various coleslaw recipes for options. In the end, this is what I came up with. I like it, I hope you do, too.

Slats' Summer Slaw

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 cups red cabbage, finely sliced

2 cups savoy cabbage, finely sliced

1 Granny Smith apple, cut into matchsticks

1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks

2 tbs extra-light sour cream

1 tbs horseradish cream

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

Method

1. Slice the apple, cabbages, and carrot. Combine in a bowl.
2. Add the vinegar, and toss well.
3. In a small bowl, or jug, combine the sour cream and horseradish cream and mix well with a fork. Add to the salad and toss until evenly coated.

Serve as a side to a BBQ chicken or some tasty pork ribs, along with some chargrilled corn on the cob!

Note: I found it only took about 1/8 of each type of cabbage to get enough to make this slaw, but the smallest I've seen at the local fruit market is by the quarter. 

If you're looking to make the most of your food stocks, take the remaining savoy cabbage and about 300g of leftover BBQ chicken and make yourself some Okonomiyaki (Japanese Cabbage Pancakes) for another meal later in the week. That's another recipe I'll have to pop up here. 

I'd also look at braising the remaining red cabbage as a side dish for Bangers and Mash.