Okonomiyaki Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 package cooked nitrate-free clean-fed bacon (cut up in small pieces)
- 6 cups chopped green cabbage
- 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 tsp. unrefined sea salt
- 2 cups flour you can use any whole grain/sprouted flour, I even use brown rice flour sometimes
- 1 cup chopped green onion I don't usually have this, but it is a nice addition
- 1 1/3 cup water if using gluten-free flour, try less water as it won't thicken the same way
- 8 free-range eggs
Optional-
- dried bonito flakes a form of dried, flaked tuna, dried seaweed sprinkles (Aonori). Both are available at most Asian food stores.
For Okonomiyaki sauce:
- 1 cup ketchup organic or homemade- anything without high fructose corn syrup
- 1/3 cup soy sauce we like San-J's fermented, wheat-free Tamari
- 1/3 Worcestershire sauce this adds good flavor, but I don't usually buy it, so I often make it with only the ketchup and soy sauce and it still tastes good
- Whisk together well or stick in a blender for a few seconds.
Instructions
- Cut bacon into about 1 inch pieces (I like to use kitchen scissors to make this a fast job). Start frying these up so that they will be cooked by the time you need them.
- Chop cabbage into fairly small pieces. Use a food processor to make it faster if you like, or just do it by hand.
- Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients, and mix together until you have a nice slightly thick batter (similar to the consistency of pancake batter).
- Heat 1 or 2 frying pans to medium heat, with your choice of oil (leftover bacon grease is nice, but you can also use butter, coconut oil or tallow).
- Sprinkle a small handful of cooked bacon onto the pan. Then, using a large ladle, pour out a plate-sized "pancake" on the pan (like the size of a side plate, not a dinner plate). If needed, use your spatula to push the cabbage so that it lays a bit flatter.
- Once you can see that the bottom is clearly browning and the top looks slightly cooked and less doughy, carefully flip it over. I can almost guarantee you will break a few as you first learn to flip such large and heavy pancakes, but after a while it becomes easy. They still taste good, broken or not.
- Leave for another couple minutes, until lightly browned on the other side, and then remove from the pan.
- Put one pancake in the middle of a plate. Drizzle with mayonnaise, Okonomiyaki sauce, and if you have it (traditional, but totally optional), sprinkle with bonito flakes and dried seaweed. The Japanese buy their mayonnaise and Okonomiyaki sauce in squeeze bottles, so they can make beautiful sauce drizzles on top. I usually use a spoon or knife to spread mayo, then use an old ketchup bottle to squeeze the sauce over top. It's not as pretty, but it tastes the same!
