Okonomiyaki Party

My favorite get togethers involve food especially when someone else is cooking! Despite never having had "real" Osaka-style okonomiyaki (ie. in Osaka or Japan) I love the stuff. I've also found that it makes for a great "make-it-yourself" party food. Just prepare the batter, fillings and toppings ahead of time, set out hot plates and instructions and just let your friends cook their own damned food!

For an okonomiyaki party, I provide:

• Okonomiyaki batter
• Eggs
• Shredded cabbage and/or chopped kimchee
• Various batter add-ins, meats, toppings

Here's a list of stuff I try to provide for okonomiyaki parties, budget and time willing. In addition to this, I also like to make up a batch of yakisoba so that people can make modern-yaki if they so choose.

Batter add-ins

• Cooked bacon bits (optional)
• Shredded cheese (optional)
• Baby shrimps (optional)
• Tenkasu/tempura bits (optional)

Meat

• Bacon (thin sliced)
• Beef (thin sliced)
• Sausage (thin sliced)
• Spam (thin sliced)

Toppings

• Okonomiyaki sauce
• Kewpie Mayonaise
• Aonori (seaweed flakes)
• Bonito flakes
• Chopped Green Onions (optional)
• Shoga (pickled ginger)
• Corn kernels

I confess: I use a ready made mix for the okonomiyaki batter. Just add water. Since I've always done okonomiyaki for parties, I haven't really had the opportunity to experiment with non-ready made okonomiyaki mix lest it come out icky. The most important ingredient in the okonomiyaki batter is the 山いも (yamaimo) or mountain yam. It is what gives the okonomiyaki its texture and taste.

When looking for okonomiyaki batter mixes in your Japanese grocery store, look for it in the section that has other ready made mixes such as pancake mixes. (Don't substitute pancake mix for okonomiyaki mix. It's the wrong flavor and texture for this.) I've discovered that more general Asian markets tend not to have it in stock but it's always worth a shot if you don't have a Japanese grocery store near by. Always make sure that the mix includes "mountain yam" or "yamaimo" in the ingredients list. Otherwise, you won't have the same texture or flavor that you should.

If you don't have access to a Japanese grocery store to find okonomiyaki mix, Kirk of mmm-yoso has a great looking recipe that includes yamaimo here:
http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2006/05/okonomiyaki.html

I've found that most general Asian markets will have "nagaimo" or "yamaimo" in stock in their fresh produce section. Where I am, they're usually packaged in pre-wrapped, single packages and may have a covering of sawdust on them.

Fillings and toppings are very much up to everyone's taste. At the very least, I provide green onions, okonomiyaki sauce and kewpie mayonaise. I have an indecent love for kewpie, as evidenced by the many times I've asked for extra mayo at Izumiya in San Francisco and consequently have been given a bowl to dip my okonomiyaki in. It sounds gross but I love it!

For parties, I've found it's good to either demonstrate or (if you have the time/energy/want to) you could print out instructions or designate a short-order chef. What follows are the instructions I wrote up for my latest okonomiyaki party (but didn't get to use) ;) Feel free to change it to suit your party.

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OKONOMIYAKI お好み焼き literally means "Grill as you like"
Here it means: Cook your own damned pancake! :)

Often compared to pizza for its customizability, okonomiyaki has several styles, depending on where in Japan you're eating. We're going to do the Kansai style of okonomiyaki which is basically a savory pancake filled with cabbage and other yummy things.

Step 1: Mixing it up!

Scoop a ladle full of batter into the bowl
Add one egg
Add some cabbage or kimchee (or both)

You can also add all/some/none of the optional filling ingredients to the batter.

• Bean sprouts
• Chopped Green Onions
• Cooked bacon bits
• Shredded chees
• Baby shrimp
• Chopped fake crab
• Tenkasu/tempura bits

If you find the mixture too thick and chunky, you can add more batter. It all depends on how much dough to filling you'd like.

Mix up the okonomiyaki batter, eggs and fillings in the bowl until well blended.

Step 2: Cooking It!

Oil up the ho

t plate with a good amount of cooking spray and spread the batter evenly.

While the batter is cooking, lay a few pieces of the meat (bacon, sausage, spam, etc.) onto the cooking pancake.

Let it cook on the first side for about 3 minutes and then flip (carefully) and cook on the other side for about 3 to 4 minutes to make sure that the meat is completely cooked. Feel free to squish the pancake every now and then to make sure it's cooked

Step 3: Topping it!
Once your okonomiyaki is cooked, remove it to a plate (I suggest meat side up) and start topping it.

Your choice of toppings are:

• Okonomiyaki sauce
• Kewpie Mayonaise
• Aonori (seaweed flakes)
• Bonito flakes
• Benishoga (pickled ginger)
• Corn kernels

For traditional Osaka-style okonomiyaki, top it with some okonomiyaki sauce and mayo and a sprinkling of aonori and bonito flakes. Watch as the bonito flakes start to move on their own from the heat. Oooh, spooky.

Otherwise, top to your hearts content and then pig out!

For the advanced folks - モダン焼き(modern yaki)

Fry up an okonomiyaki like you usually would

Next to it, fry up an over medium egg.

Remove the okonomiyaki to a plate. Top with a generous amount of yakisoba. Top the yakisoba with the egg. Top the egg with the various okonomiyaki toppings of your choice.

Pig out and then roll around in the blissful, carb induced coma that you'll find yourself in later.

Omurice

ｵﾑﾗｲｽ aka Japanese omelette rice. It was one of those dishes that I'd see on Japanese menus and go "..." at. Ketchup, fried rice, omelette... and more ketchup? Ooohkay. I love ketchup just as much as the next average American but somehow the idea of ketchup fried rice failed to stir my taste buds.

I confess, the only reason I attempted to make it in the first place was because I saw it on either a dorama or anime that made it look good. It might have been ランチの女王 (Lunch Queen) but this might have been before that. In any case, never watch a food anime or dorama when hungry because you will probably go hunting for whatever food they're having.

The original recipe I followed was by Katsuo Kobayashi. (Since it's part of a cookbook, I won't replicate the original here.) It was a pretty classic recipe: ketchup flavored fried rice wrapped inside a

As an aside, I just love Kobayashi-san. Her translated books are very easy to read and follow and the recipes have a home cooked taste. None of that pretentious stuff. I first saw her on the original Iron Chef when she went up against Iron Chef Kenichi (Chinese) during Battle Potato. It was hilarious to see a little おばあちゃん running around the kitchen, cooking a whopping 11 dishes in an hour, fairly effortlessly with time leftover to see if Iron Chef Kenichi needed help. She won, by the way :)

Once it became part of my routine, I'd gotten kind of frustrated with it. For one, getting a perfectly thin, flexible omelette that wasn't always easy and getting the rice folded neatly around it in a perfect, football shape was next to impossible. Plus I wasn't always happy with the fried rice portion. Some tweaking was definitely in order.

One day, while watching Good Eats, I watched Alton's omelette technique which I realized was the same technique used in Lunch Queen and also Tampopo. In this case, I wouldn't be putting the rice in the omelette but rather I'd be making the rice first and then topping it with the omelette. No more frustrating wrapping!

So here is my latest attempt at making omurice. It's not perfect but my husband and I are quite happy with it. He likes it because there's a better rice to egg ratio. He noted in previous versions, there wasn't always all that much rice to go with the egg because it wasn't easy to wrap the rice neatly. I included bacon in the fried rice recipe because, well, (almost) everything is better with bacon! (Yum.)

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Michelle's Omurice
Serves 2

Fried Rice

• 1 thick slice bacon, diced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 c red pepper, diced
• 1/4 c cooked chicken, diced
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 tbsp ketchup

Omelette (per serving)

• 2 eggs, beaten

To make the fried rice

Sautee the diced bacon over medium to medium high heat until brown and crispy. Turn down the heat to medium and add in the shallot, red pepper and garlic, sauteeing until the shallot is translucent, about one minute. Add in the chicken and toss in the mixture until warmed through. Add more oil if needed and then add in the rice. Stir fry until rice is evenly coated. Add in the ketchup and stirfry again until the rice is evenly coated. Divide evenly between two plates and keep warm.

For the omelette

I can't really explain how to make the omelette except that I wasn't all that great at it. :x To give you an idea what I was going for, watch this video.

It's the omurice scene from Tampopo. :)

Once the omelette is done, top the rice with it, cutting it to spread it evenly over the rice. Top with the desired amount of ketchup and enjoy.

It sure doesn't LOOK perfect but it tasted great. And in the end, that's what counts :)

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ETA: Re: the mise en place with raw bacon on the plate with everything else... eh. It was going to be cooked all together anyway so no need to worry about cross contamination there. :)