Hiroshima-yaki

After coming up with my Osaka-style okonomiyaki I thought it would be nice to go further west of Osaka and try the Hiroshima-style. In my opinion, Hiroshima-yaki is much more creative and interesting; theres more to do and more to experiment with. However, this means it takes longer to prepare and cook, so it’s definitely something you should do as a meal rather than for lunch or a snack.

This doesn’t mean you must get everything prepared beforehand: – okonomiyaki is one of those foods like an omelette, where you can stick leftovers and all sorts on it. Part of the fun is finding combinations of food to go on as toppings. So long as you have the basics (flour, water, egg, cabbage) it’s do-able!

So here’s my take on it. If you want to try it out, you don’t have to follow my example to a ‘T’. Simply substitute what you have left over (that isn’t to say stick something like chocolate on it! Unless, well, you want to…), find things in your fridge or cupboards that go well together. Meats, fish, vegetables all fit in, even some fruit is OK. Look around the net, or experiment!

Hiroshima-yaki uses cabbage and batter, as well as yaki-soba and a fried egg. I used this as a base to make mine. [As you may notice, unlike the Hiroshima-style, I mix the batter in with the cabbage. You can do this, or you can mix everything with the batter and put the cabbage in as a layer of toppings separately (maybe add some batter over the top to keep it together).]　And yes, the spiced rum was an odd choice, but hey, it worked [and I like rum, so what you gonna do? ( ^ _ ^ )b]

Ok, so my ingredients were:

- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup water
- 3 eggs
- Two handfuls of chopped cabbage and leek
- 1 level tablespoon of sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon or mirin
- 1 screwcap of Captain Mogan’s Spiced rum “Yarrgh!”
- Half a bundle of soba noodles
- 1 small tin of crab meat
- Tomato Ketchup
- Worcester sauce
- Mayonaise
- Salt & pepper to taste

1. In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, water, one egg, sesame seeds, mirin, spiced rum and salt & pepper. Mix until you have a batter. Drain the crab meat and add half to the batter.

2. Cook the soba for a few minutes in boiling water. Drain them, and then put them in a frying pan with some olive oil. When they start to brown, take them out and put them in a bowl.

3. Fry the other two eggs in the frying pan. Make sure they are broken up and mixed together. This will make the base of your okonomiyaki, so spread the egg out to the desired size. Add another egg if necessary. Cook one side, then flip it and cook the other side for literally a few seconds. Take it off and put it on a small plate.

4. Pour the batter onto the frying pan. Make sure you’ve oiled the pan up with some olive oil so it’s lubricated well. Cook on one side, then either flip it, or stick it under a grill. Add the rest of the crab meat to the pan next to the batter to cook it for a while.

5. Take out the batter and put it on a plate. Put the egg back in (with the side cooked least facing down). Add the yaki-soba and the cooked crab meat on top. Then stick the batter on top of that. Wedge a spatula underneath it and put the whole lot on a plate (hard without a wide spatula!).

6. Mix even amounts of Tomato Ketchup and Worcester sauce to make the sauce, then spoon it on the batter and spread it out over the top. I also added a little spiced rum and mirin to the sauce. (You could also cook the sauce in a small pan first if you like). Add some mayo on top and then serve!

いただきます！