Hot plate yakisoba with pickled ginger

Yakisoba, Japanese fried noodles. They are often made on the hot plate like their cousin okonomiyaki and actually that was the same day as this. Emi is the chef.
What gives flavor to the dish is often beni shooga, red pickled ginger. Look at this :

Emi’s homemade. You can see the ginger roots in vinegar with leaves of red shiso that bring the color.

The cut ginger.

Ingredients are common with okomiyaki : cabbage (cut in squares), pork breast… and it’s the same okonomiyaki/Worcester sauce. Add to this negi leeks.

And the noodles. They are home-made egg noodles.

Simple and delicious.

Osaka negiyaki, powered up.

ねぎ焼き negiyaki
A fresh blog of the classic popular food of Osaka to replace or complete the old tuto.
Keep it really simple and don’t believe you need many ingredients, as it’s originally poor people cuisine, that was made with what was available that day. It’s easily made plant-based.

Here is a typical list of variations of negiyaki you can order in shops around here :

牛すじねぎ焼き　gyusuji negiyaki (beef tendon)
豚ねぎ焼き buta negiyaki (pork)
イカねぎ焼き ika … (calamari)
えびねぎ焼き ebi … (shrimps)
豚キムチねぎ焼き buta kimchi … (pork kimchi)
牛すじキムチねぎ焼き gyusuji kimchi … (beef tendon kimchi)
牛すじもちねぎ焼き gyusuji mochi … (beef tendon mochi)
牛すじしょうがねぎ焼き gyusuji shoga …(beef tendon ginger)
ミックスねぎ焼き mix negiyaki …(=we’ll open the fridge and push everything there’s in into your dish)

Check list :
–negi leeks and nikomi (or any other)
-batter
-sauces and garnishing powders
-options : egg, tenkasu
-hot plate and oil

Osaka style :
Options and garnishing (negi and nikomi) are added to the batter at the last minute. Each guest chooses additions or not.

Negi, scallions, Spring onions…. that’s the base of the dish. You need lots of negi greens. Cut thinly.

This is konnyaku eringi ginger nikomi (recipe here).
I am probably the only person putting this in negiyaki. The classic version is : konnyaku gyusuji nikomi.
The gyusuji is beef tendon, with the meat that stays around, and that’s a very cheap cut of beef. It is prepared the same way I prepared the eringi. You can make some other meat or mushroom stew as you like.

BATTER, gourmande style :
Grated nagaimo (about 1/2 cup), flour (1 cup), fish flakes. And enough water to get a creamy texture. Whip well.

Grating the yama imo

Veg’ version : skip the fish flakes, replace water by vegan kombu dashi (recipe here).
Gluten free version : replace flour by rice flour.
Imo free version : replace by grated potato or corn starch + a little baking powder.

Options :

They are not necessary for the classic version, but if you feel more hungry or like them, add what you want, that’s the rule of the game (okonomi = what you want). These 2, you read about on many blogs, they are often found in the rest of Japan, not so systematically here in Osaka :

Egg. The reasons to not add to the original batter :
-some people don’t want egg (it’s the biggest allergy in Japan)
– texture, with egg, it would make it a harder pancake. In many shops, they add the egg whole egg onto the rest, already on the hotplate and break it and mix with chopsticks.

Tenkasu. Tempura crumbles.

Others :
beni shoga pickled ginger,
kimchi,
raw meat, raw seafood,
mochi (rice cakes, use the tiny cubes arare, or thin slices),
tofu, cheese,
other veggies, sausage, ham, veggie pickles (tsukemono), salty seafood…

Heat the hot plate (your skillet). Pass oil with a kitchen paper.

MIXING :
In a bowl, put a cup of negi, 1/4 cup of nikomi, other options, a whole egg if you use it, a cup of batter. You can add more fish flakes if you wish. Mix roughly with chopsticks or a fork.

COOKING
Pour everything on the plate, at middle heat. You can cover or not. When it’s all hardened, flip with 2 spatulas. (I cut it in 2 to flip with only one spatula… who cares ?).

TOPPINGS :

All optional, as you like it, if you want some. A bare negiyaki is good too.

Sauce and mayo :

-the sauce is a thickened and sweetened worcester. The original sauce (called Ikari) was a copycat of LeaPerrins, sold to Kobe’s Brit expats.
Here I have a ready sauce, which is plant-based. If you don’t have it, LeaPerrins steak sauce is very similar. Or thicken the liquid classic worcester with corn starch (simmer a little, sweeten to taste) or by mixing with ketchup. Many shops make their sauce that way.Use a brush to paint it on the top.

-the mayonnaise. It is made more liquid by adding either milk, white wine or lemon juice. (to make easy egg mayo /// to make tofunaise).
To make nice drizzles, put the sauce and mayo in some plastic bottles with a tubular top. I don’t have that.

Variations :
-ketchup
–shoyu (soy sauce, thickened)
–ponzu (soy sauce + citrus juice)
-steak sauces

Powders (found in Japanese grocery stores) :
–kezuribushi fish flakes, or fish powder
–aonori seaweed
–shichimi togarashi, 7 spice mix

SERVING
When it’s cooked, put the heat on minimum, decorate.
Let on the plate while eating. Cut small wedges that you push toward guests that can heat directly from the plate, or on a small plate, while the rest stays hot.

Mexiiiiiico…ooosaka !

Today’s lunch is Mexican style and plant based. I tried to make it not spicy for a guest not fan of hot chilis but, but…

Home-made whole wheat tortillas

Azuki beans, simmered with red wine, paprika, onion, garlic, a few shishito peppers, lots of cumin, thyme, a little cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, olive oil.

Mitsuba leaves, grilled shishito and avocado.
The idea is to fill the tortillas with beans and these greens.

Problem : Shishito peppers are usually not spicier than bell peppers. But it’s the end of Summer, and these are relatively hot… That’s great for me, not for those that have a sensitivity to hot peppers.

Side dish : okonomiyaki cabbage. Well it’s simply stir-fried with garlic and ginger, then flavored with sauce (Bulldog) for okonomiyaki.

As a dessert, double chocolate muffins :

Osaka’s famous takoyaki. Part 2 : At home (tutorial)

Let’s make the takoyaki presented in previous post.
(click here)

That’s a street-stall food, but some people have lots of fun making takoyaki parties at home, especially with the kids. If you can find the “iron plate”, try it.

Raw octopus.
Tako =octopus. It’s a compulsory ingredient. If you skip it, you don’t get takoyaki. Find another name…

I’m giving you the classic recipe. Feel free to substitute any ingredient you want. We’ve seen everything in those parties…

The tako has to be beaten and boiled. You can buy it boiled. You don’t need much. 1 to 3 bits per ball.

I bought these. The tenkasu (tempura crumbs) are easy to make if you fry tempura. You pour the leftover of batter in drops in the oil at the end, and you get tenkasu. We can get them in all supermarkets, very cheap, it’s convenient. You could replace with some crumbed shrimp flavored chips. Beni-shoga is vinegar pickled ginger.

Batter recipe :
For 18 big takoyaki

1 egg (M size)
70 g cake flour
1 teaspoon soy sauce
300 ml dashi stock*
1/2 tsp sugar + 1/4 spoon salt (you can skip both)

*you can make dashi (recipe here), use instant, or mix powder dry fish to water (that’s what I do).
Combine everything, beat well, let 2 our 3 hours. If you want to use it without waiting, mix in a blender. That should be like crepe batter.

The piano… The pros have “takoyaki stoves” powered by gas under cast-iron plates. At home, you can use electric specific machines in teflon. Or put a cast-iron plate on any stove. I have a mini 6-hole, on my induction stove.

This mold is not exclusive to Japan. It’s used in different Asian countries. And also in Denmark to make ebelskiver pancakes. So European and American readers have high chances to find it on line or in local Chinatowns.

The picks are an essential tool. It’d better if they are longer (I have some, but they don’t look good).

My DIY oil brush. The pro use cotton thread oils. But they are tricky to clean.
If you have a modern electric non-stick takoyaki machine, it’s easy, just heat it and pass a little oil.
If you have old style, to avoid sticking prepare it this way :
1. Oil the whole plate holes and around. Heat it maximum, till it smokes. Cut. Re-oil.
2. Put again on low heat, pass oil and start…

1. fill the holes with batter,
2. add in the other ingredients. Don’t worry with a little overflow.

Then you need to train.
3. After 1 minute or more, start “cleaning” with the pick by pushing the over-flow into the holes.
4. When, you become able to move the half-balls, turn them vertically.
5. Add a little batter.
6.Then clean and turn again… They start very irregular but as you turn you can get perfect balls.

Courage ! 5 yr old Japanese kids can do it, if that can humiliat… I mean cheer you up. I’m joking, as I said before :

That’s insanely fun to roll them with your pick ! Make a bucket of batter, and you’ll find you can’t stop rolling some… and you’ll continue when even your dog will no longer eat some more.

For serving, sauces and toppings, see here (click).

Osaka’s famous takoyaki. Part 1 : eating…

That’s crazy I could run a blog called “gourmande in Osaka” during so long without mentioning them. And not get arrested…
So, yes, this is the specialty of this huge city of foodies. Ugly small balls.

Try them 3 times. The first, that’s weird, too unexpected. The second, taste is still uneasy. Third time, you’re getting addicted…

We don’t eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Only for other meals. Like… when you walk in the street. It’s the biggest sign of vulgarity and dirty manners to eat in the street in Japan. Except for takoyaki you get from yatai street stands. They are also proposed at all the festivals in Japan, yearlong, but particularly in Summer.

They are invariably containing bits of tako (octopus), hence the name. The ginger and negi leek are classic too. The bits are small, not overwhelming. Don’t let that deter you. So if you roughly like seafood, you’ll like them.

They are cooked in those iron plates with half-sphere holes. See the recipe soon here (from tomorrow).

You buy them by 6, 10, 12… depending on the shop. They put them in a box and make them totally un-dietetic at your taste.

1-they paint them with shoyu (thickened soy sauce) or soosu (thickened Worcester sauce).
2-they add aonori seaweed, katsuobushi fish flakes.
3-then mayonnaise

You can skip all these… if you are able to explain that in Japanese or in sign language. Not too hard.
In Summer, they also propose ponzu sauce (soy sauce with citrus flavor). Some shops have many variations.

These on the photo are mines, the shoyu is not thickened (same for the taste, but you can’t see it), I used thicker fish flakes I had at home. And I replaced the mayo by home-made white salad sauce (soy milk + mustard), you hardly see it.

A toothpick to eat them hot, standing in the street. You can’t go far. They are not good cooled down, not good re-heated.

This one is how I like it. Most Japanese would find it overcooked. That’s how I like them. I always go to buy those that been cooking for a while on the stand and when they propose to make fresh ones, I refuse.