Seafood Mix Okonomiyaki with Homemade Sauce

Method

1. Make the sauce: put the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, oyster sauce and honey in a 14 cm saucepan and simmer over low heat for 2 min, stirring, until glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Take off the heat and let it cool; it thickens further as it cools.

   Add in this stepWorcestershire sauce 2 tbspKetchup 1 tbspOyster sauce 1 tspHoney 1 tsp

   low heat

2. Make the batter: peel the nagaimo (wear gloves, as it can make bare skin itch) and grate it finely. Whisk the flour and salt with the cold dashi until smooth, then whisk in the grated nagaimo. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes; the flour fully hydrates, so the pancake cooks up lighter and smoother.

   Add in this stepNagaimo (Japanese mountain yam) 80 gPlain (all-purpose) flour 90 gSalt 1 pinchCold dashi stock 100 ml

3. Meanwhile, chop the cabbage into 5 mm pieces and pat dry with paper towel. Devein the shrimp and cut into 1.5 cm pieces, cut the squid into 1 cm pieces and pat both very dry. Right before cooking, add the eggs, cabbage, tempura bits, spring onions, pickled ginger and seafood to the chilled batter and fold from the bottom in big strokes about 15 times.

   Add in this stepWhite cabbage 300 gRaw peeled shrimp 80 gSquid tubes 80 gEggs 2Tempura bits (tenkasu) 20 gSpring onions 20 gRed pickled ginger (beni shoga) 10 g

4. Heat a 26 cm frying pan (or griddle) over medium-high heat for 2 min, then turn down to medium heat and add 2 tsp of oil. Add one portion of batter (2 pancakes in total), gather it into a loose round 18 cm wide and 2.5 cm thick without packing the edges, and drape the pork slices over the top.

   Add in this stepCooking oil 4 tspThinly sliced pork belly 100 g

   medium-high heat→medium heat

5. Cook over medium heat for 4 min without touching, until the underside is deep golden and the edges look dry.

   medium heat

6. Flip in one quick motion, cover and cook over medium-low heat for 6 min. Never press: the pork fat renders until crisp while the inside steams and puffs up.

   medium-low heat

7. Uncover and flip back, pork side up. Brush the homemade sauce over the top and cook over medium heat for 2 min, letting the sauce that drips onto the pan sizzle and caramelise for that smoky teppan aroma. A skewer pushed into the centre should come out clean and feel hot against your lip. Cook the remaining pancakes the same way.

   medium heat

8. Pipe thin parallel lines of mayonnaise and drag a skewer across them to make a pattern, then scatter green laver and bonito flakes. Cut into squares with the spatula, the way Osaka shops do.

   Add in this stepMayonnaise 2 tbspGreen laver flakes (aonori) 1 tspBonito flakes (katsuobushi) 4 g