Cooking for Beginners recipes, structured

Okonomiyaki

A thick cabbage pancake bound with grated yam batter, griddled slowly and finished with sauce, mayonnaise and a snow of aonori.

Prep
20m
Cook
20m
Total
40m
Serves
2 large pancakes
Effort
Moderate
Scale
2 large pancakes
Units

Method

Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.

1 cup Whisk the batter and let the yam do its work 5m Grated nagaimo is what makes it fluffy rather than dense. It goes stringy and slick — that is correct. Fold the cabbage into the batter with a light hand 5m Fold, do not stir. You want the shreds coated and loosely held, not a paste. Griddle 6 minutes a side, covered, over medium-low 14m Do not press it down. Compacting the cabbage squeezes out the steam that cooks the middle. Sauce, mayonnaise in stripes, then aonori and spring onion 2m Drag a skewer across the mayonnaise stripes if you want the fan pattern.
100 g
2
150 ml
1/2 tsp
400 g
3
2 tbsp
2 tbsp
3 tbsp
2 tbsp
1 tsp
1
Read left to right: ingredients merge into steps, and the rightmost cell is the last thing you do. Steps account for 26m of hands-on and cooking time.

  1. Whisk the batter and let the yam do its work

    5m
    • plain flour 1 cup
    • nagaimo 100 g
    • eggs 2
    • vegetable stock 150 ml
    • salt 1/2 tsp

    Grated nagaimo is what makes it fluffy rather than dense. It goes stringy and slick — that is correct.

  2. Fold the cabbage into the batter with a light hand

    5m
    • from 1 Whisk the batter and let the yam do its work
    • white cabbage 400 g
    • spring onions 3
    • pickled red ginger (optional) 2 tbsp

    Fold, do not stir. You want the shreds coated and loosely held, not a paste.

  3. Griddle 6 minutes a side, covered, over medium-low

    14m
    • from 2 Fold the cabbage into the batter with a light hand
    • neutral oil 2 tbsp

    Do not press it down. Compacting the cabbage squeezes out the steam that cooks the middle.

  4. Sauce, mayonnaise in stripes, then aonori and spring onion

    2m
    • from 3 Griddle 6 minutes a side, covered, over medium-low
    • okonomiyaki sauce 3 tbsp
    • Japanese mayonnaise 2 tbsp
    • aonori 1 tsp
    • spring onion greens 1

    Drag a skewer across the mayonnaise stripes if you want the fan pattern.

Why the yam matters

Nagaimo is loaded with soluble mucilage that traps air and holds water, and whisked into flour batter it behaves rather like a gel-based aerator: the pancake steams from the inside and sets light instead of dense. Combined with medium-low heat and a lid, the cabbage sweats, collapses and sweetens while the batter around it cooks through. Turn the heat up to hurry it along and you get a browned shell over raw batter and squeaky, undercooked cabbage.

Notes

  • Shred the cabbage by hand, not in a processor. Processor blades bruise it and release water into the batter.
  • Two fish slices for the flip, one on each side, and commit. Hesitation is what breaks it.
  • Bonito flakes on top are traditional and would make this non-vegetarian; the aonori alone gives plenty of sea flavour.

Try butter, 30 minutes, braise, or an ingredient you need to use up.