Okonomiyaki

I've heard about Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake) for quite some time and am really curious to have a taste. Today, I had a chance to make it. 
There are so many versions of Okonomiyaki, so I tried to adapt several recipes and adjusted it with the ingredients I had at home. It is quite yummy, I supposed :)

Here I share my recipe :

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake)
serves : 4

Ingredients :
8 cups cabbage (about a whole large cabbage), finely diced
1 cup squid (optional), chopped into small piece
Oil
100 gr pork minced
1 small onion, chopped

Okonomiyaki Batter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup dashi (Japanese stock)
4 eggs
1/4 cup pickled red ginger, sliced 

Toppings
Okonomi sauce 
Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie mayo)
Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
Green onions, finely chopped
Pickled red ginger (Kizami Beni Shoga) for garnish

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.
2. Whisk dashi stock and flour mixture together in a bowl until smooth and set aside. 
3. Meanwhile, remove the core of the cabbage and finely dice the cabbage (finer the better).
4. In the bowl, add eggs, Tenkasu, and Pickled Ginger, and mix well. Then add squid and mix again.
5. Stir in the cabbage.
6. In a non-stick frying pan heat oil on medium to medium high heat. Scoop one ladle of batter and place on the pan. 
7. Do not flatten the mixture because it will easily break when you turn it over.
8. Place 2 tbs pork minced on top of Okonomiyaki and cook covered for 5 minutes.
9. When the bottom side is nicely browned, turn it over and cook covered for another 5 minutes.
10. Turn over one more time and cook uncovered for 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
11. Apply Okonomi Sauce and Japanese mayonnaise, and sprinkle katsuobushi. 12. You can also put green onions and pickled red ginger on top for garnish.
13. Enjoy!

Duck Pancakes Bento

This cold winter, I feel like eating hot noodle soup with roast duck to keep us warm. Besides that, I prepared pancakes as well for snack. Both taste so good and the kids enjoy them so much :)

Here the recipe :

Duck Pancakes
source : Fine Dining Lovers with little adjustment to my liking

Ingredients :

For the duck
1, oven-ready, approx 2.5 kg Duck
1 thumb size piece Ginger, fresh, peeled and grated
30 ml Salt
15 ml Five-spice powder

For the batter
140 g Flour
2,5 ml salt
1 tsp sugar
125 ml, boiling water
30 ml Sesame oil

To serve
4 each, shredded Scallion
1 pcs cucumber cut lenght-wise like carrot sticks
90 ml Hoisin sauce

Method :

Duck
Heat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan).
Run the grated ginger around the cavity of the duck and rub inside and out with the salt.
Sprinkle the outside of the bird with the five-spice powder.
Put the duck on a rack in a deep roasting pan and roast in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Drain off the fat every half an hour or so, then turn up the oven to 200°C (180°C fan) for about 20 minutes until the skin is brown and crispy.

Pancakes
Put the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the boiling water.
When it's cool enough to handle, knead on a floured board for about 10 minutes until you have a silky dough, then cover with a clean tea towel and rest for 30 minutes.
Knead the dough again for 5 minutes, roll into a sausage shape and cut into about 12 pieces.
Dip each piece in a little sesame oil and roll into circles about 10 cm diameter.
Brush a frying pan with the remaining sesame oil and heat.
Fry the pancakes in batches until just starting to take colour, stack between sheets of kitchen parchment and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm.

To serve
Shred the meat from the duck carcass.
Spread a little hoisin sauce on each pancake, add some duck and sprinkle with the shredded spring onions.

And here is the yummy roast duck noodle soup :

For today's post, I used duck pancakes leftover. Here is the details :

The boys had the similar bento, each with :
1. Duck pancakes (wrapped in cupcakes wrappers)
2. Halves hard boiled egg with dill
3. Carrot and cucumber sticks
4. "yummy" banana