Japanese Pancakes (Okonomiyaki)

You know how no matter how small a piece of cabbage you buy, you’ve always got way too much left over?  A little bit of cabbage goes a long way..  This is a great way to use it up and a dead easy Friday night dinner that you can hide heaps of veg in for the kids.  The recipe I followed suggested using shredded up BBQ chicken in the mixture and then topped with prawns for a bit of surf & turf action.  How delicious does that sound!?  But I made this just with leftover veg and bits hiding at the bottom of the vegetable drawer and it was really bloody simple and tasty.  The boy lapped it up and although I’d like to take the credit, it really has more to do with the delicious sauce and toppings which take it to another level.  You could use pretty much any veg you like so it’s a fantastic one for leftover whatever.  I reckon radishes, spring onions, corn, zucchini, fresh chilli would all be great.  A great one for lunch boxes or offices lunches too.  I did just happen to have some Japanese rice seasoning (katsuo fumi furikake) and red pepper mix (shichimi togarashi) in the pantry from a previous Japanese recipe which are well worth picking up at the Asian grocer, but you easily could do without and just use the mayo and soy mix.

Ingredients

3 eggs

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour

1 large carrot, grated

half a white onion, finely sliced

1/4 small (250g) cabbage, thinly shredded

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy / worcestershire or BBQ sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I used Kewpie)

Japanese rice seasoning (katsuo fumi furikake), to garnish

Japanese red pepper mix (schichimi togarashi), to garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.  Whisk eggs and 1½ cups cold water in a jug.  Combine flour and veg in a bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine.

Heat a medium non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Add 1 teaspoon oil and swirl pan to coat.  Spoon one-quarter of the pancake mixture into pan.  Cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until golden.  Remove to a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Repeat with remaining oil and batter.  Place tray in oven for 5 minutes or until pancakes are cooked through.

Place pancakes on plates.  Drizzle generously with soy (or Worcestershire / BBQ) sauce and mayonnaise and sprinkle with the rice seasoning and red pepper mix to your taste.

Serves 4