075 - PANCAKES

Me, and my love for Pancakes. Phew. We go wayyyyy back.

Pancakes are by far, one of the best things to have for breakfast in the morning. I mean, picture this; a hot, steamy, fresh off the griddle 5 stacks of Pancakes, topped with Butter and Maple Syrup.

You grab your fork and knife, and proceed to make a cut from the center towards the edges, and a big mouthful of those goes right into your mouth. BAM. That’s heaven right there.

Anyway, this recipe is perfection. I found it by accident, give it a tweak to adjust with our Eastern taste palate, and I’m going to show you how to make it.

Here’s my version of PANCAKES.

For 8 Serving, you will need;

Yea, not all Ingredients are pictured here.

Dry Ingredients;

-        1 ½ Cups  All Purpose Flour

-        3 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder

-        ¼ Teaspoon Salt

-        1 ½ Tablespoon Sugar

Wet Ingredients;

-        1 ¼ Cups Milk

-        1 Egg

-        3 Tablespoons Butter, Melted

-        1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Mix all of the Dry Ingredients (Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar), and use a fine sieve/strainer to sift everything, so there will be NO lumps. Lumps in the finished batter? Yes yes yes. Lumps in the beginning? NO NO NO. Anyway, Set aside after.

The Sifter, straight out of American Pie movie. Wait. That's Stifler.

Flour

The O.G.

Baking Powder

Salt

Sugar

Sift away!!

Step 2 – Melt the Butter using anything you have. I’m just so lazy that I resorted to the microwave. Let cool for a moment. Get your Milk, and combine it with the already-cold-to-handle melted Butter. You’re probably wondered when we will put the eggs in. Guess what? AIN’T NOW. Oh yeah, don’t forget to add your Vanilla Extract in at this point!

Milk

Butter

The 2nd O.G.

Whoops, too much!

Step 3 – Get a large bowl and mix the Dry Ingredients with the Wet. Add the wet ingredient gradually to avoid creating too many lumps. Once all ingredients are combined, crack your Eggs and mix to combine. Don’t mix too much, just enough that there is no more visible flour left.

Step 4 – Get a non-stick pan, set the heat to MEDIUM. You don’t want to go too high and risk burning the pancakes!. Once the pan is hot, add the batter slowly, and set the timer to cook the first side for 1 to 1.5 minutes depending on the size of your pancakes. I cook mine for 1 minute exactly on each side. Once you see bubbles popping, take a peek underneath, and if it’s nicely brown, you’re ready to flip.

Lovely

Bubbles? That's your cue!

Step 5 – Give it a flip and cook the other side for another 1 minute.

HEY MY BABIES!

Step 6 – Repeat

Step 7 – Serve

Serve this baby with anything you want. Impress your loved ones.

Cheers

xx

054 - OKONOMIYAKI

Cooking your own food and eat it straight away is pure bliss. Don’t believe me? Try one of my recipes, preferably the easier ones, like the Aglio e Olio spaghetti or Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Grab a bite, and tell me if you don’t love it.

See what I’m talking about? That’s the great thing about comfort food. Done right and it will always hit the spot. Guaranteed.

This time around, it’s still Japanese, it’s still comfort food, and it’s still amazing.

It’s OKONOMIYAKI

To those with lazy fingers, let me help you with the googling. Okonomiyaki is basically a Japanese pancake. Well, not authentically theirs, but it’s their own take on the recipe. Instead of Butter and Maple, Okonomiyaki is served with Okonomi sauce and mayonnaise. 

Yes, it is Savory.

Okonomiyaki basically means ‘grill it as you like’. So each region throughout Japan has their version of it. Osaka people loved to add Squid or Shrimp to the mix, because their region specializes in Seafood. Hiroshima people loved to keep it heavy by adding yakisoba noodles and fried eggs into their already humongous Okonomiyaki.

Me? This is my take based on the Osaka version of the recipe. The recipe was adopted from several recipes I stumbled upon, and I tried to adjust it to Indonesian ingredients availability.

======================

For 2 Servings, you will need:

The star of the show!

100 grams of Cake Flour. Cake flour is basically a low-protein flour.

140 ml of Dashi stock. You can substitute this with Chicken Stock

¼ tsp of Baking Powder

(optional) 1 tbsp of Nagaimo. Nagaimo is Japanese mountain Yam. It can be bought at Japanese supermarket. The sticky texture doesn’t come cheap, it costs IDR 350.000 per kilogram.

Salt to taste

200 grams of Cabbage

75 grams of Green Onion

2 Eggs

100 grams of Squid/Shrimp. You can substitute this with Chicken. Keep in mind, Chicken cook longer, so it need to be par-cooked before being added to the batter.

For Toppings

Okonomiyaki/Japanese Worcestershire sauce. Mostly known as the ‘Bulldog’ brand.

Dried Seaweed

Katsuobushi (Dried, Smoked, Skipjack Tuna). Readily available at most major supermarkets today.

Japanese Mayonnaise. Kewpie should be your choice. Japs added MSG in their Mayo and it makes a whole world of difference.

Chives

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Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Get a bowl and put the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt in. Slowly add the Dashi while stirring constantly to avoid lumps. If you’re using Nagaimo, peel the skin, and grate it. Add the gooey stuff to the mix. This will make the final product chewy in a very good way.

Flour

Baking powder

Salt

Dashi stock

Nagaimo

It's sticky, YEW!

Step 2 – Add the Cabbage, Green Onion, Squid, and Eggs. Give it a nice stir. Not too much, just until combined. We don’t want gluten to form don’t we?

Cabbage and Green Onion

Squid

Eggs

Stir to combine

Step 3 – Get a large non-stick pan, add some oil to it. Heat it up on medium. Once the pan is hot, put the mixture in. Quickly cover the pan, and let cook for about 5 minutes on medium. After that, give it a flip, and cook on Medium-Low heat for another 6-7 minutes to crisp up.

Oil

Cooking on medium

The cover will help the insides cook

Ready to flip?

BAM!

Cover, yet again

Step 4 – Once crispy, take it off the heat and decorate! I usually go with Okonomiyaki Sauce, Katsuobushi, Chives, Seaweed, and Mayonnaise.

Okonomi sauce

Spread that sh*t, yeah

Katsuobushi

Chives

Seaweed

Kewpie Mayonnaise

Step 5 – SERVE!

You know, this might not be as authentic as it is in Japan, but it tasted pretty damn good!

You can literally put anything you want in here. For example, if you're not a fan of squid, you can add fish or shrimp. Or maybe shredded chicken? Yes, that can work too!

The thing is, Okonomiyaki is best enjoyed with family and friends. Cause it's just so damn good!

Give this thing a go!

Cheers

xx