Okonomiyaki is one of those dishes that checks all the boxes. Its healthy, filling, warm, so umami, easy to make, not expensive, etc. It's also a one bowl and one pan clean up situation, as long as you don't count all the glitzy toppings you'll want to lay out in Bitty and Ice Cream Bowls.
I can't exactly trace these specific pancakes to a single origin, but rather they are the amalgam of requisite okonomiyaki information fragments found on the internet, which is actually in the spirit of the okonomiyaki (it literally means in Japanese, "as you like it").
The essential part of the recipe is the batter and the sauce, but even those key elements can stand personalization. Like a thin pancake? Add more water, or the mushroom juice from soaking dried shiitakes. Thicker? Add more eggs and brown rice flour. Stir in any imaginable combination of chopped veggies with cabbage as a base, and fry a few minutes on each side until golden brown.
Batter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup mushroom water
- 1 tbsp. of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. of sesame oil
- 1 cup of brown rice flour
- 3 cups of green and red cabbage (use kimchi for a wild time)
- 1 cup of carrot
- 1 cup of spinach or green
- a few green onions
Okonomiyaki sauce
- 4 tbsp. ketchup
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 3 tbsp. worsteichere sauce
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- squirt of sriracha
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1. Beat the eggs. Mix the next three ingredient in with the eggs. Slowly add the brown rice flour.
2. Shred cabbage and carrot, and chop whatever green you use into small-ish pieces.
3. Combine veggies into batter. In a pan over medium high heat, ladle in pancakes to your desired size. Cook for 4 minutes and the flip and cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Serve topped with a glaze of okonomiyaki sauce and any or all of the following: kewpie mayo, bonito flakes, chopped green onions, grated daikon in rice vinegar, sriracha, cilantro, etc.