Yakisoba with eringii and abura-age

Today, yakisoba, the Japanese version of Chinese fried noodles. Well, that’s my version of it… well, one of them. See others at the end of this post.

Yakisoba is fast-food normally. It’s often sold cheaply on street stalls, at festivals and the teppanyaki (hot plate) shops propose it too. The basic version is made mostly with :

-chuka soba (fresh Chinese noodles that are sold fresh and cooked, they look like thick spaghetti and if you have none, cooked thick spaghetti can be used)
-oil

That’s why we said it’s fried noodles, no mystery. And low amounts of :

-cabbage (cut in big squares)
-additional veggies (cut in thin slices), few and cheap ones (bean sprouts, onion, carrot, some kind of leeks…)
-a little raw meat (thin slices of pork), or cheap seafood, or ham…
-sauce (specific sauce or thickened Worcester sauce or a mix of Worcester + ketchup…), plus additional ketchup or mayo if you want
-pickled ginger, toppings…

My version uses what I have in my fridge, and it’s usually healthier.

So, I had abura age (fried tofu) as meat.

A few Eringi mushrooms as meat too.

I had a leftover of green papaya.

I first toasted the abura-age (fried tofu pockets), set aside. Then with a little garlic and ginger : onion, eringi mushrooms, green papaya, cabbage and shishito green peppers. To the veggies, I’ve added fresh Chinese noodles (chuka soba), sauce (Bulldog).

I’ve added the abura-age to the rest. I have about half of veggies, less than one third of noodles. That’s how I like it.

On top, a little more sauce, shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix) and cut green negi leeks.

casual

mizuna

healthy

shahan (Chinese)

lettuce

buckwheat soba

Kintsuba, work in progress

You have to try certain recipes yourself in order to appreciate the talent of these people in yatai (street stands).
They do that like you cook your potatoes, that seems so easy. In fact, not so much… Also, among many recipes some seem complicated with useless ingredients. In fact, maybe not so useless.

I’ve eaten them. They were good. That’s why I blog about them in spite of the ugly shape. Hey, I’ll do better next time.

That’s what a pro kintsuba looks like :
photo from Nakataya kintsuba (online shop)

It’s a juicy block of sweet azuki beans inside a transparent case of thin crepe. Kudos to the makers !

That was the model. I wondered why so many people didn’t retain the idea of full beans for their home-made version.
Now I know ! As I made that :

These are my nicest ones. LOL.

I’ve used that plastic package as a mold. That was not the brightest idea.

As they were not very regular.

I’ll look for another recipe of batter.
Then cooking them…ahem.

I’ve produced real monsters. But I’ve also got 2 that just fell into pieces.

Well, come again some time, I’ll try to improve the recipe and technique.

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.

Squirrel udon, Osaka style kitsune

A classic Osaka Winter noodle bowl : kitsune udon
Kitsune means fox (not squirrel, as I wrote before). Udon are the thick and square sticky wheat noodles that marvellously keep the heat in chilly weather.

You can see thousands of standing restaurants in Osaka selling this dish at record low price (or not).

A few local udon restaurants and bars.

Window shopping.

It has the color of a fox (and of a squirrel) due to the beige abura-age (fried tofu). Actually names vary over Japan. Here it’s called kitsune, in other areas, I think it’s tanuki (Japanese forrest dog).

A wax model in a window.

Simple ingredients, very cheap and common here. Spinach, leeks, there could be other greens or seaweed.

Fresh udon. Dry doesn’t even look like it. If you can choose take it fresh or frozen. But you need to reboil it as it’s sticky when cooled.

Reboiled.

They have the perfect texture.

Abura-age, thin type (usu-age) is fried tofu. In a pan mix water, soy sauce and mirin, simmer it 5 minutes, let it 15 minutes.

Kezuri katsuo, flakes of dry bonito fish. Their infusion gives the dashi broth. I put them in small bags for tea. A tea ball (also called dashi ball here) can be used). Or nothing, and then you filter the broth.

When the dashi is done, squeeze the abura-age and add its broth to the dashi. Taste and see if your want a little more soy sauce or salt. Reheat.

Kamaboko (surimi fish cake) can be added. I had none, but I had shirasu baby fish. I added a little ginger (my taste too).

Pour the hot dashi. Top with raw negi leek (small type, not too strong to be eaten raw).
On the table, shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix) can be added.
Schlurp noisily while it’s hot !