Comments on: Okonomiyaki: Osaka-Style Cabbage Pancakes

By: Japan Australia

Japan Australia — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:18:25 +0000

Okonomiyaki or Osaka soul food as it is also called in Kansai is a festival favourite and so easy to make at home yourself. Thanks for sharing this great recipe

Japan Australia

By: Shenji Lim

Shenji Lim — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:37:06 +0000

Why would you say “huh??” after someone says okonomiyaki is like pizza? If you can’t understand the analogy, you need to open your mind a little. But anyway, no matter what you compare it to, okonomiyaki is delicious.

By: kanako

kanako — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:00:01 +0000

Hi Louise,
first of all, if you don’t find Kewpie mayonnaise, you can just add a little bit of vinegar in normal mayonnaise. I’ve used that one for long time when I lived in Italy. It’s not the same as Kewpie mayo but I find it acceptable.
However, okonomiyaki sauce is really difficult to make yourself.

The result of batter with wheat flour before adding egg and cabbage is kind of liquid, but after letting it sit for a while it turns quite thick and heavy. However, when you add egg and cabbage, it turns back to the texture you want. It’s not too heavy but not too liquid.

Talking about dissolving dashi before using it in the batter, I always dissolve dashi powder in the water before using. I thought it didn’t dissolve well if you put it directly in the batter. But I’m not sure about that…

By: Louise

Louise — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:28:51 +0000

I just found your site via CHOW-Tofu-Menuism Blog. I’m delighted to find a Japanese source-cook-Montreal-based! Your blog on tofu was full of good arguments (I liked the one that the Japanese people could not have being eating it for centuries if it was yucky…) I can’t wait to explore your sites.

I have being “experimenting” with okonomiyaki recipes for almost a year now (it has become our thursday night dish almost every week…) I was lucky since my selected first recipe was one of the best choice on the web (according to 2 Japanese friends who tasted it).
On my 7th or 8th try, I used red cabbage. Big mistake: its color seeps unevenly (not attractive) and change to blue upon contact with (acid?) things… But the worst is that red cabbage is more fibrous, so harder pieces are not cooked enough when the cooking time is up. Removing the main stem was not enough…
Since my first tries, I had had Okonomiyaki flour to work with, so I count myself lucky. But I was looking for alternatives: in my parents’ town, there were no japanese ingredients except for nori, gari and wasabi, so back to the cooking board. When I was there, I made replacement for okonomiyaki sauce based on Worcestershire, a recipe I did find on the web: too strong… The taste and texture of Kewpie mayonnaise was also something I failed to reproduce to my satisfaction. But, for the batter, it was suggested to replace the grated japanese root (for stickiness) by grated potatoes (for starch) and it worked well.
Not one of the alternate recipes with regular flour did have baking powder like yours, but I will add it next time I am working with regular flour. Great idea.

I was wondering what would be the result with wheat flour? (taste, texture)
Also, you dissolve dashi before using it in the batter, while one japanese small-resto-cook acquaintance of mine is putting the little granules of Hondashi directly in the batter: do they have time enough to dissolve (give their best) while mixing and cooking? Is it why you dissolve yours in advance?
I was also wondering if I still should continue to work as fast as possible (cooking) after the mixing because the “salt” in the batter makes the cabbage loose its water (it gets lumpier with time, changing the texture of the finished dish), or is it an acceptable texture too when the mixture stands for a while?

I still have to try okonomiyaki in Montreal’s restaurants… just curious…

By: kate

kate — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:26:43 +0000

I had some left over cabbage in the fridge and I thought I would cook some Okonomiyaki. It’s been years since a Japanese friend taught me how to cook it (not a fan of cabbage generally I guess ) and my memory needed refreshing so took up trawling the net. After many awful, awful recipes, I found yours; thank you!

Reminded of me of Osaka and old friends, awesome recipe

By: Delphine

Delphine — Sun, 08 May 2011 02:21:50 +0000

You can also find some at Kazu on Ste-Catherine near Guy.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:18:00 +0000

Found a recipes for this last year now I make this for weekend lunch where before I would of cooked pancakes, feel this is much better and healthy I don’t cook the cabbage before hand and I make my own sauce as I couldn’t find it in the shop where I live. Try bok choy if you find the European cabbage too hard.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:53:14 +0000

I made this a few times before and want to share a tip. I know it’s a little odd but I made a mistake of adding furikake into the mixture once and it turned out excellent. Gives a little extra kick I think.

By: Diana in NYC

Diana in NYC — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 06:04:35 +0000

OMG…i had this in tokyo about 10 years ago with pork and squid. this recipe is perrrrfect. thank you for posting this and all your wonderful recipes. i can not wait to try them. )

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:38:26 +0000

I’ve tried okonomiyaki at l’entoilage. it’s delicious! light and fluffy with plenty of crispy cabbages. Check this website http://okonomiyaki.blog.com/ and you’ll find more information.